Ford is making waves as it unveils its blueprint for the future of automotive production and that future is most definitely focused on EVs.
Ford is making a $5 billion bet on a new EV platform and manufacturing process that it says will greatly simplify the automotive manufacturing process, making its next-generation of EVs among the most affordable built anywhere in the world.
Called the Ford Universal EV Platform, it’s all going to start with a new mid-size pickup built in Louisville, Kentucky that will reach customers in 2027. Ford CEO Jim Farley says his skunkworks team has thrown out the old rule book.
“We saw this coming for years. We know that the Chinese would be the major player for us globally. Companies like BYD, new startups from around the world. Big technology has their ambition in the auto space,” Farley said Monday, August 11 at Ford’s Louisville plant.
Farley stresses this is a bet that comes with risk. “We’re doing so many new things that I can’t tell you with 100% certainty that this will all go just right. It is a bet. There is risk. The automotive industry has a graveyard littered with affordable vehicles that were launched in our country with all good intentions and they fizzled out with idle plants, laid off workers and red ink and at Ford we set out three years ago to break that cycle.”
The engineering and manufacturing of Ford’s next generation EVs is going to be radically different than how it currently builds EVs with a 20% parts reduction and 40% fewer workstations in the plant, coupled with a 15% increase in production line speed.
“I wanted to figure out how we could combine the innovation of the startups like Tesla and Rivian with the industrial might and storied 122-year history of Ford,“ said Ford’s Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer Doug Field, adding, “One of our mantras was simple. The best part is no part.”
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Field says if you compare the upcoming 2027 pickup to a traditional pickup, the new one will have just one quarter of the parts. “In the electrical system, compared to typical gen-1 electric SUVs, the team removed 4,000 feet of wiring. Over three-quarters of a mile of wiring is gone.”
Field says Ford is confident this is the first time any automaker has done this to such a large extent.
“Now you might be wondering why we decided that our universal vehicle should be an EV. It enabled a lot of the revolution that you’re going to see in the assembly, but we also believe EVs are the best product by far,” said Fields.
Ford didn’t unveil any upcoming models but confirmed the first one will be a mid-size 4-door EV pickup with a starting price of $30,000.
For more on this story, be sure to watch the video at the top of this post, which includes soundbites from Farley and Field along with Akshaya Srinivasan, with Ford’s Electric Vehicle Range and Performance.
You can also see these two videos from Ford for additional information: