Today’s Morning Dump is going to be a little different, because rather than simply answering your questions about the state of the automotive industry I’m going to be asking you all for a little help. This is because the $30k Ford EV being designed by Ford’s Skunkworks lab is going to be out-and-about testing this summer and I’ve got it on good authority that most you have little rectangles with cameras connected to the web in your pockets.
Would you like to be able to repair your own vehicle? The automotive industry met with President Trump last week and asked the President, along with Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, and were allegedly against it. While legislators in the United States weigh whether or not to make it easier to repair your own car, the Chinese government is trying to get automakers to slim down their big batteries.
Hagerty is once again hosting the Festival of the Unexceptional and, while we won’t have a SsangYong there, I have to credit the organizers for highlighting a car I never knew existed. I love getting stumped.
I Am Very Curious What This Looks Like
The Ford Maverick was a bit of a revelation when it first went on sale. An extremely affordable, handsome and supremely efficient unibody truck was apparently the vehicle a huge chunk of the market wanted. It’s one of my favorite vehicles of the last ten years and one that I kinda still wish I’d bought. I had a friend who put a deposit down on the no-options $19,990 XL Hybrid and ended up not doing it. If I’d have taken it I probably could have sold my Forester for about as much money (this was the height of pandemic used car inflation). Oh well.
Will I feel the same way about the $30,000 Ford?
Here’s the best photo I’ve seen of it, which comes from DT’s visit. David also noted something interesting from his trip to the lab where this is being developed:
Off to the side I noticed a late 1960s Ford Escort rally car. What was that doing in the design studio? I have no idea, but I’m going to dream that it is somehow being used as inspiration for the new truck’s design.
Now, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press, we have this little bit of information:
About the EV pickup, House said the first vehicle off Ford’s newly developed Universal Electric Vehicle platform, an all-electric midsize pickup aimed to start at about $30,000, is ready for launch and prototypes of it are being made in Michigan and tested on roads.
Ford spokesman Dave Tovar clarified that while the prototype are “out in the wild” right now, they are not yet on Michigan roads, but they will be in the next few weeks.
Remember, the Ford Maverick took some design cues from the original Ford Maverick, so it’s not impossible for the ’60s Escort to maybe play some small role in the design here. So here’s may ask: If you see this thing testing in Michigan, or Colorado, or California, or any of the places Ford normally tests vehicles, please send us a photo to tips@theautopian.com and maybe we’ll send you something as thanks.
As always, with prototype cars, there are a few guidelines:
- If the cars are moving, or you are moving, please exercise extreme care. Getting photos of a heavily camo’d car is never worth putting anyone in danger. It’s also not worth following someone around, because test drivers are people, too, and that’s creepy. Don’t creep anyone out.
- If the car is parked and on a public street, you have the right to take photos, but if any of the test drivers or engineers ask you to leave please give them space. This is a fun, friendly thing, and not corporate espionage. If the employees in the car are in a good mood, please feel free to ask them questions and transmit those answers back to us, but always be polite.
- Don’t open any doors or touch anything. Not only is that illegal, it’s also not fun. This should be fun!
I know our readers are sharp-eyed, so I’m looking forward to seeing what you find.
President Trump: ‘They have a thing; Nobody’s Allowed To Fix Their Car’
I probably assumed that it would be fun, in a Chauncey Gardiner sort of way, if the President just said whatever came to his mind. In practice, it turns out this isn’t always a great time. Still, there are moments when it is amusing and edifying, and that happened last week when a bunch of representatives from the automotive industry met with President Trump.
After a string of victories for advocates of right-to-repair laws that allow end users/owners to access the necessary software and information to fix their own vehicles, it seems as though the automotive industry is a little nervous about those laws. Specifically, the House has the REPAIR Act, which exists to:
[E]nsure consumers have access to data relating to motor vehicles of the consumers and critical repair information and tools for such motor vehicles, to provide such consumers with choices for the maintenance, service, and repair of such vehicles, and for other purposes.
According to Reuters, GM’s Mary Barra, Andrew Frick from Ford, some folks from the NADA and Alliance for Automotive Innovation, plus very industry-aligned Senator Bernie Moreno met with President Trump to explain why it’s important for manufacturers to do vehicle repairs. Here’s how President Trump described the meeting:
“We had the auto industry in yesterday. They don’t want people to fix their car. I said, ‘That’s strange!’” Trump said. “They have a thing; nobody’s allowed to fix their car.”
Sadly, Ford, GM, and others refused to comment on this. That’s a little funny, though? The industry contends that it has made the necessary tools available to dealers and independent repairers. The dealers seem to be concerned that giving repair shops data will allow them to produce knockoffs and give too much power to insurance companies to influence repair decisions.
Who is telling the truth here?
China Continues To Speed-Run Modernity
Chinese consumers maybe aren’t that different from everyone else. While there are many, many more small urban electric cars than there are here, car companies keep making larger and larger vehicles and people keep buying them. The difference is that Chinese regulators seem to be doing something about this.
China wants slimmer electric vehicles after years of bigger batteries and rising demand for space and features helped make passenger cars significantly larger and heavier, state broadcaster China Central Television reported on Sunday.
The average passenger car in the country weighed 1,704 kilograms (3,757 pounds) in 2024, weighing about a third more than in 2012, the report said. Family EVs have also grown wider over the years, with many popular sport utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles now approaching or exceeding 2 meters (6.5 feet) in width.
More power, more range, more luxury equipment. It’s great to see our friends on the other side of the world embracing our norms.
What Is A Kia Clarus Wagon?
The Brits do the “Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional” as a sort of send up of Goodwood and similar Concours-type events, and it’s always a good time. You can get tickets for the next one here, which is happening at Grimsthorpe Castle on Saturday, July 25th. There’s some great crap coming, including a vehicle they honestly could have just made up to fool me:
In the text submitted in the Concours entry form for this Kia Clarus Wagon, the owner states that they’re almost completely forgotten, with just three estates and twelve saloons left in the Netherlands, where it’ll be making the journey from this year. Never mind “forgotten”, we didn’t realise they did an estate version of the Clarus in the first place. The other cars on the Concours lawn will have to try hard to match the Kia’s level of anonymity.
Ok, so it’s not just me.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I’ve been enjoying the music of Elizabeth Nichols and “Paul Revere” is full of the kind of twangy humor I expect from her.
The Big Question
Have you ever seen a camo’d car? Do you see them where you live?
Top photo: Ford/Marvel Comics
I don’t remember seeing any mules out and about when I was in Detroit, but I did a few projects at the GM Tech Center in Warren. One day, we went walking through the center to see the dyno labs. We stepped out of a door and a Corvette was sitting there. I looked at it for a second and realized that this wasn’t the current model. I think it was the C-6 that I saw. This was about 18 months before it was released.
Used to live in Tampa, worked in Bradenton. No fun at all.
But one of Ford’s partners (Roush? I think?) has an office down that way. I would see camo’d cars semi-regularly down there. When I could stop to ask they would usually brush me off or say that they were doing hot weather testing
I saw a couple Metris’s testing in Death Valley before they went on sale. I clocked them instantly as preproduction. My family was unimpressed
there is an altitude and cold weather test center TRP Labs at the base of Berthoud Pass in Colorado. I’ve seen several cars and trucks driving around there over the years.
Also, the main street in Fraser Colorado is named Zerex St for the cold testing they did for the antifreeze years ago (before climate change).
I got to see a set of camo’d Ford Super Duty trucks back in the early aughts. They were testing a new diesel engine and I guess also had some body changes going on that they wanted under wraps. We were in Breckenridge, CO and they had weighted sleds they were doing tow tests with at altitude. I thought it was cool they tested in those conditions. However, it turns out they were testing the 6.0 Powerstroke, so… maybe test harder next time.
How am I supposed to see it if it’s camo’d?
I live in the South so I see camo vehicles every day…..OH, you mean MFG protypes. Last time I saw one was a preproduction 80s Thunderbird with mfr plates passing through.