If you’re not excited about Ford’s upcoming Universal EV platform — which Ford developed secretly at its west coast Skunkworks with the goal of offering a competitive sub-$30,000 compact pickup truck among other frugal EV options — you should be. I just got an exclusive up-close look at the little electric pickup dressed in camo at a Long Beach park — it is way smaller than you think. And that’s awesome!
Rejoice, world! For far too long, we have had to deal with the scourge of ever-growing pickup trucks. Every time a new generation of a truck comes out, we learn that it’s longer, wider, and taller.
The old Ford Ranger, for example, looks like it had a few too many cheeseburgers between the early 2000s and now:
I’m pumped. Not only is Ford finally bringing back a tiny pickup truck — one seemingly even smaller than the Maverick, which itself is larger than the old Ranger — but the brand is going to offer it in EV form at a relatively reasonable price point. I’m amped, and ever since touring The Blue Oval’s skunkworks facility, I have been excited to learn more about what the thing will look like.
Well, The Autopian now has the best idea of any publication on the internet thanks to these spy shots that Autopian video manager Griffin and I took. Let’s first start with this horrible photo I took of the an old Ford Ranger tailing Ford’s prototype (OK, technically it’s the Mazda version of the Ranger, but you get the idea). It’s not that easy to tell the scale, but look at the Mazda and look at the F-150 ahead, and it’ll be clear that the new Ford EV is tiny:
Now let’s get to the nice shots; let’s first check out the side profile without getting too distracted with camouflage that looks like wrapping paper for a baby gift (seriously, I see soccer balls, teddy bears, sailboats, hearts, painters trays, bicycles, hearts… my 14-month baby would love this); Ford has some fabric covers obscuring the shape of the vehicle’s nose and its cab, but the rear does look nice and squared off. I’m standing on a 6″ curb there, to give you a sense of scale:
The windshield looks quite raked, the ground clearance looks modest, and the wheels look fairly small for a modern EV. The second row looks fairly large (at the expense of bed length — if I had to guess, that’s a 4-ft bed), and the wheels appear to have aero-caps. This is definitely a street-focused truck meant to optimize range. I just hope it doesn’t look too soft at the nose; it’s a truck after all.
Look at the size of the two adults in the front of the truck in the image above; that should give you an idea of just how small this thing is.
It’s really hard to distinguish the shapes on the truck’s body due to that camo; turns out, my son’s wrapping paper is absolute gas as car-camo. There appears to be some kind of something jutting out from the bedsides.
Speaking of the bed, that’s how it looks inside. It’s modestly-sized, but can probably easily fit a Ford 289 V8 longblock.
While the taillights are just little rectangular cutouts in the “wrapping paper,” I can see a bit of the headlight lenses through the camo, though in truth, I can’t really learn anything of value through that netting. I can tell you that appears to be a small grille opening built into the bumper, and is that a radar sensor in the center of the grille? There appears to be a piece of tape over the center of it, so maybe not. Above that center…thing… is what appears to be a front camera. Man Ford did a great job on this camo; I’m grasping at straws here.
The big thing is scale. America appears to be about to get its first-ever small, affordable, practical electric pickup truck, and I’m far, far, far too excited.
I just like small pickups, is all. I drive a Jeep Comanche around LA, and I regularly think to myself: This is perfect. An electric small pickup truck, especially a four-door? It could be the ultimate daily driver.
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Check out the video I shot above to see a bit more of Ford’s Universal EV Platform EV pickup truck.
Hot take: Pickup truck people are weird. They look like they are cosplaying as practical working people. Real contractors use vans because they are enclosed. Or a service body. The edge case is that you’re towing a gooseneck trailer, but that’s like 5% of truck owners.
Most truck people could get away with a small SUV or car and a utility trailer. Or this little trucklet thing.
If it were a case of “just buy what you want”, that would be one thing. But people driving huge trucks who don’t need them are making roads less safe and the environment worse for their vanity.
I agree if you’re talking about Bro’s with those with monster trucks that never use them, but 4-door small/mid and even 1/2 tons have become the one-size-fits-all vehicle for families/homeowners. Put a fold up or roll up cover on the bed and you’ve got what is effectively a large sedan with a monster trunk that’s good for vacations and can also handle a lawn mower, a large ice chest or two, some lawn chairs, fishing rods, stuff.
If you can only have one vehicle, and don’t want to hassle with towing a utility trailer (buying or renting), then smaller pickups, especially like the hybrid Maverick with AWD and 4K towing, are practical and relatively economical.
This new $30K EV pickup may be perfect for anyone wanting an EV and has a place to charge it off a 220v outlet every night.I’d never recommend an EV as an only-car unless you have access to level-2 charging at home and can top it off every night with those sweet, sweet residential kWs.
Also towing sucks in the snow/ice, so you don’t really do it. So being unable to use the ‘utility’ function of your vehicle half or more of the year isn’t practical, hence the existence of the driven utility trailer, aka the pickup!
I’m considering this depending on price point and range. I feel one can get by on level 1 charging for daily commutes. If one only drive 20-50mi a day that should be covered by overnight charging, especially on more efficient vehicles with smaller batteries. Though one would need a public charger for longer distances.
I wonder how long until we see a range extended ev with similar pricing. I feel that’s more of the sweet spot especially if will be one’s sole vehicle.
Agree 120 level one 20 amp should easily get you 1.5kW or better.
If the new ford gets.a very good 4 miles /kWh, a 10 hour overnight charge of 15kWh should add about 60 miles of range. Assuming the truck battery size gets you 250 miles or so, most people could get by with a 120v/20 amp circuit and keep the battery full.
Still it’s great if you have a 230 outlet available. Even a shared dryer outlet will do.
Somewhat hot take.
In a low trust society you’re right, you need a van to keep people from seeing your tools so they don’t attempt to steal them. In a higher trust society (think mostly employed rural folk) you can keep stuff in the bed within reason without it being stolen.
The reason I went with a full size truck is I needed at least 6K lbs towing AND 4WD or AWD, and to play it safe the way tow ratings work you should have basically double the rated towing capacity of your heaviest load to reliably tow. If I didn’t need that towing capacity I would have gotten a Maverick Hybrid AWD 4K Towing.
Closest van I can find sold in the US that would technically meet my specs is the Ford Transit, and that’s by a scant 700lbs over my towing needs. and that’s if I don’t get the passenger version (which I’d need for the 2 Year old), because it would drop it down to 3900-4500lbs of towing.
And yes I was trying to get my wife to let me get the Transit, but she loves horses and came with 3 and a pony, so I couldn’t convince her to not get the horses she already has. So instead I got a Ram 1500 3.0L I6 4WD Crew Cab (6 seat) 6’4″ Bed with the height adjustable air suspension.
Tbh when it comes to hauling shit that smells I’d much rather have a bed, even something as small as the Suzuki Mighty Boy’s bed (23.6″ long) has a use case.
As someone who did haul trash in the cab of their leaf for months before they got their Truck, I really appreciate having open air storage.
All valid and it makes sense but you are in the tiny minority of truck owners. Rural is not necessarily higher trust just lower population density. I get more threats and harassment in rural areas than I ever do in the city.
Hence why I said “mostly employed rural folk”, poverty is the main driver of theft.
Where I live just on the outskirts of a college town in a deep red state people don’t bother you, and in my experience all the rural areas I’ve ever been have been the same unless they’re impoverished.
But will it have buttons inside?
Assuming it will depend on the trim level the Lightnings the higher trims went bigger screens and less buttons and what I think is a worse layout.
That statement sounds like it’s sponsored by 95% of the truck market who still thinks they need to daily drive a pick-up truck “for the once in a while (every couple decades) I need to tow something”, or “I need to haul 5 bags of mulch every spring”, or whatever excuse is needed to justify buying a pickup truck that’ll have difficulty outrunning an Odyssey or Pacifica.
It’s not quite 95%, but you aren’t wrong in general.
Vehicle purchases are unfortunately more irrational than you or I would like. Also the world in general is more irrational than we’d like. Not much we can do about that unless we pass laws and don’t allow the freedom to choose what you like.
Yeah, your right. People have those freedoms, and at least I have the freedom to call out irrational remarks too.
Generally agree, but as someone that has owned a minivan and used it like a truck, and owns a truck and uses it like a minivan, I much prefer the latter. Ever try to carry a mountain bike in a minivan? Gas cans? Load 20 bags of gravel after removing your kids’ car seats? It ruins your back and makes a huge mess that you have to shop vac it out. Agree that utility trailers solve this, but that’s an eyesore in your driveway / yard or 3 hours of your time in a U-Haul lot.
I like minivans in concept better than trucks, but if you do any yard / house/ car maintenance and have a family that does not want to inhale whatever dripped on your carpet and crevices in your shared interior, a truck kind of rules.
For a small EV pickup I still like the Slate. I really wish they would offer an AWD version with at least 2500 lbs towing thou. I have a company car for commuting and a vehicle like the Slate would be great weekend runaround and hauling my small (12′) sailboat and kayaks/canoes around.
The problem with the Slate, as opposed to this truck, is that with a Slate, you’re literally paying off the cost of the factory, whereas the Ford’s manufacturing facility costs are far more amortized. Hence why you’ll be able to get more from Ford for the same cost
Man I’m not going to argue with what you’re saying. But I’ll buy them a damn factory if I can get a car without a giant screen and software as a subscription or whatever the koolaid the legacy manufacturers drank.
I want to like these things, but I despise touchscreens and also how heavy and throwaway EVs are. It’s the plastic and battery enshitifcation of vehicles. We have solar and a vehicle charger and yet I wouldn’t buy any of the current EV on the market.
Insurance also claims “totalloss” whenever they get bumped. Hard pass on something that costs so much and depreciates so fast.
Perhaps you should have read the original article about the R&D tour. This truck is being designed for that subsections of the frame can be replaced if damaged, using input from collision repair and insurance companies. So this *won’t* be a totaled-by-a-fender-bender vehicle
I worked in total loss for a major insurance company. They had me total every car that came across my desk. If it was an EV my supervisor would have me select the battery pack as having “possible damage” and that would usually tip the damage total high enough to kill off the car. They don’t dare risk a battery fire or battery replacement post accident. Too much liability for the corporation to stomach.
If that cover on the back of the cab is hiding a mid-gate, I may have to go back on my vow to never own another Ford.
Yeah same here been waiting on a midgate small truck for so long.
Based on the way the fabric on the back of the cab is billowing in the video I think the bed might be closer to the Maverick’s 4.5 foot size. If the gate can be held open at an angle where the top edge is level with the wheel wells that should take care of the can it haul 4×8 sheet goods question.
That’s the way the maverick is setup. You can also drop the tailgate to a halfway point (by moving the 2 end cables) so the plywood lays even across the wheel humps and the top of the gate.
Exactly. I haven’t had to haul any plywood or drywall yet but the 45 degree stop made it much easier to move a workbench without having to strap it down to an open tailgate
People want to hate on SUVs and CUVS, but the gentrified pick-up that killed the traditional sedan. It didn’t help that car designers kept making sedans unsuitable for four adults.
Unsuitable for four adults? How so?
Unsuitable for adults who have to rock back and forth to build momentum before standing. Crossovers are hip height and trucks let gravity do the hard part.
No head room, no leg room. A sleek coupe-like profile that compromises rear seat comfort.
I will refrain from excitement until the actual pricing comes out. If a decently equipped version is closer to $30K than $40K, that might be worth a little excitement. However, I fully expect to be disappointed when it either doesn’t offer the features I want, or solely restricts them to a $40K+ trim level.
I maintain my conviction that all trim levels of an EV should be able to be optioned with heated and ventilated seats to reduce demand on the climate control systems, if not have those standard.
My extra crappy 2013 Nissan Leaf had heated seats (even in the rear) and also had a heated steering wheel. Providing blown heated air is a range killer in a way that cooling isn’t.
Yes, I agree, but having experienced the joy of not having swamp-ass after driving for a half an hour, I find myself reluctant to return. If they won’t give me ventilated seats, at least give me the option of heated cloth seats like my old Golf had. I really dislike the pleather options for comfort.
Shorts my man, I forgot how damn good shorts were then I wore them during a long-ish journey via commercial aviation, swamp ass free.
That’s even wearing a kilt. Swamp ass and swamp small-of-back really ruin quality of life. Summer is coming, and the vented seats in the Panamera are going to make road trips so much more pleasant.
Sorry to hear that.
As I’ve proposed long ago to much support on this site, we need mesh car seats, aka passive ventilated seats.
Let’s see a return to GM’s crotch vents.
COTD for the use of the term “swamp ass”. Been tooooo long since I heard or used that one.
My mom’s old Volvo 740 had heated cloth seats that would roast your tushy in about 45 seconds and were also supremely comfortable. Seat “innovation” should have ended right there in my curmudgeonly opinion.
You’re not wrong. Volvo seats should be everyone’s benchmark. The seats in my XC60 and V60 were amazingly comfortable and supportive, and the seat heaters were *just right*.
Heated seats and heated steering wheels are the way
$40k is the new $30k.
I hate that you are right.
I do, too. Crossing that $30k barrier with our last new car was a hard enough pill to swallow, and I hope we’ll still be able to stay in that range with the next one.
Yeah I see this being priced the same as the maverick where the 30k will be the base model and if you want any decent options you are getting closer to 40k. I was looking into awd hybrid Mavericks for my dad before he got his blazer EV and really the only one brand new that seemed like a decent deal was for lariat and that was pushing around 40k (without bs dealer markups) as they locked things like ACC and such behind over priced tech packages and by the time you added those packages on the XLT you were at lariat prices.
Ford will set the MSRP at $29K, but you won’t see one for less than $40k on the lots.
All that camo, no interior shots, no eng… (I almost said engine lol), just a vague truck-shaped rectangle. Ok.
You of all stormtroopers should know that you shouldnt go poking around inside a vehicle that isn’t yours TK-421.
Huh? Seem to have a bad communicator here.
These aren’t the photographs you’re looking for.
Maybe the people responsible for the camo are fans of the movie Johnny Dangerously?
Johnny Dangerously (1984) Calling All Cars
Hopefully they UTE-ify one of the universal variants but wouldn’t be surprised if that is an Aussie only version.
I’d already call it a ute. It looks closer to sedan height than even crossover height.
Will they call it the Ranchero?
Personally, I want Pinto.
Perfect!
Call it Goose to go with Maverick (not actually).
I’m hoping for Courier. Matches the more urban-centric use case of EVs nicely.
It is a Ford, it will jump in price and size within a year or two.
Those proportions make the Ssangyong Rodius look good. Ugh
Looks like a Subaru BRAT and a station wagon got into an accident and were re-assembled with the body parts that went damaged
Ford has repeatedly referred to this vehicle as midsize, and I’m wondering if they said that to reassure people it wasn’t going to be too small. I’m not confident that it will be smaller than the Maverick; I had assumed it would be around the size of the current Maverick.
Kudos for the detective work!
I get the disappointment with the crew cab format but guys, Ford isn’t putting insane amounts of investment into this to sell 3 dozen to crusty Autopians. Seriously, they’d be better off with a crew cab that’s manual only than a single cab. And I like single cabs. If we’re lucky and on our best behavior maybeeeeee Ford will have a single cab fleet version. Though I’m going to bet that’s extremely unlikely.
Otherwise, I’m just happy this thing is properly small, and still seems relatively useful. And I’m actually pretty hopeful that it’ll be pretty good.
What I’m not hopeful about? If it is any good, we’ll probably see the same thing happen that happened to the Maverick, dealers run amok, way too little production to keep up with demand, and nothing but high trim versions available that bloat the price to 40k like every other EV. Forget sub 30k, that’s not happening. But even if they could hit about 30k with modest equipment and dealers don’t fuck the whole thing up, that would be a huge success. I’m just not holding my breath.
Edit: Just watched DT’s video. It comes off as squarely Maverick sized to me, which is fine and probably smart. DT of course, comes up to it with the enthusiasm of the double rainbow guy. Which I appreciate.
It’s far easier to make a single cab out of a double cab than the other way around. Economics/fleet demand and regulations will be the great decider. The reality is that even fleet users like extended and double cabs (sans rear seats) for their secure storage, and a panel version could be even more attractive, as a replacement for the Transit Connect (in the American market).
One of the biggest questions about this vehicle to me is the frunk. Will it offer secure storage? If Ford can figure that out, maybe a single cab really isn’t that impractical.
Of course there’s also the chance that there’s a midgate in play, but there’s no freaking way that’s happening for 30k. If that happens, they’ll never be able to build enough of these at that price point.
Fleet prefer double cabs even if they don’t “need” it. A more desirable truck depreciates less, resulting in higher resale value, higher lease residuals, lowering the cost of ownership.
As for the Autopians who claim to want a single cab- They wouldn’t buy a new truck anyways. There will always be some excuse- Too Big, too small, too fancy, too barebones, not AWD, not efficient enough… Just like they will find 101 excuses not to buy the Slate.
For 97% of the market, a single cab truck is 50% of a useful vehicle. They only make sense when you can buy a used one for a fraction of their MSRp.
Very much this.
The first single cab trucks I actually considered was the 2004+ F-150 where they were all 4-doors. Very clever in execution, as the regular cab used the same front doors as the Super Crew, which were smaller than the SuperCab (extended cab) front doors, and then had very small (6″ I think?) rear doors to access the area behind the front seats, which had room to recline IIRC. I say this having spent a lot of time in regular cab work (construction) trucks my dad had in my youth (gmc C/K “square bodies”) and even as a kid I’d hit my head on the back glass.
This is what Toyota has done on the base Tundra, right?
Definitely a good solution, but I assume this Ford EV needs much tighter value engineering. Like the Maverick, they need to pick ONE configuration, and 4 doors is the only choice.
Having worked out of a regular cab F550 for many years, (sometimes with three people) it would have been really nice to have a place for spare clothing, lunch boxes, etc. We ended up cramming most of that stuff in the service body cabinets, but it always got messed up by the saws and gear those cabinets were intended for, never mind having to pull it all out to access said gear.
4 door trucks are where it’s at. Anyone who claims otherwise is stuck in the 70s and probably thinks you aren’t “really working” unless you’re LARPing the Marlboro Man.
I’m not sure about the Tundra. AFAIK the current model only comes in extended and crew cab versions.
The Ford version two decades ago didn’t last long, I suspect both from a low take rate (the front doors were a bit small for larger adults, though were somewhat helpful in a parking lot), and the subsequent generation Ford started using the longer extended-cab doors as standard on all the F-150 models including the regular cab, and further lengthened the SuperCrew’s rear doors, making for quite a cavernous space, relatively speaking.
I had a look at the website, and unless I’m blind- It looks like Toyota only offers the Tacoma in a crew cab for 2026. You can still get it with a manual transmission though, so I guess that shows how undesired the shorter cab was. At least here in Canada.
You can get an extended cab on the full-size Tundra, with a full selection of bed lengths.
I guess this tracks with Toyota moving the Tacoma upmarket, and turning it into a full-size lifestyle truck. I have heard they are planning to introduce a true small EV or hybrid unibody truck to replace the bottom of the lineup.
It’s like how a Slate would be if Slate was actually going to be successful.
Four feet is awfully short for a bed – did Ford accidentally build a Subaru Baja EV?
It’s not really all that short for how a lot of folks use their beds. I’ve seen plenty of Mavericks with their beds being used, and with a good ol’ ladder rack for longer items.
It’s hard to know anything with the camo in place, but the steeply raked windshield makes me think of the old rally car DT saw floating around the design studio. If this manages to combine mini truck and rally vibes, could be awesome. Sure hope there’s a mid-gate.
It looks like it has some sort of false extensions as part of the camo raising the hood, beltline, and bedsides? Well, hopefully at least.
Yep, and almost definitely that’s what it is. The only thing throwing me off is the placement of the tailgate release/backup camera.
But when it comes to camo, the only way to obscure things is funny patterns or adding material, so any camo car you see has something stuck on there adding bulk.
Is Ford just going to become the pickup truck company now?
Truly the F-it strategy.
I think the universal part means they’ll use the same bones for other body styles too. The ute is just the first. I expect a small suv and maybe hatch or sedan is coming next.
When announced they did say it would support up to 7 body styles and they have said that an compact CUV is the next vehicle they intend to build on this platform.
Hasn’t the F150 been the best selling vehicle in the US for years now? If that’s what people want, it’s more surprising Ford bother making anything else.
This just in: Ford makes vehicles people actually buy. More on this breaking and shocking story at the top of the hour.
I don’t hate this, but it really shows how much more innovative the Telo is. Though, this will actually exist and I’m not sure Telo will be around in a couple years.
Major disappointment. Way too high of a cab-to-box ratio. The trunk of my Oldsmobile 98 was wider and about as long as the box on this new ‘truck-type-thing’. Maybe The Bishop could do a render of a regular-cab version once this comes out.
Looks like I’ll most likely end up with a Slate.
That’s okay. I probably would have been embarrassed driving a F*rd, anyway.
Nobody drives a Ford. They just have it towed to the dealership for recall work
I’ve only ever driven mine to the dealer for recall work. Never had it towed.
Yet.
LOL, you may be right.