- Rumors suggest that a small electric pick-up truck is in progress
- ‘SkunkWorks’ project was created to bring more affordable EVs to the masses
- Ford reveals more on August 11
Ford CEO Jim Farley, announced on a recent earnings call that the company should reveal plans for a family of affordable EVs referring to the planned event as a “model T moment for us at Ford”.
Farley, who has gone on a record to explain how good the competition from China is (he was famously impressed with a Xiaomi Su7), explained that the company needed to double double its EV plans if it is to remain competitive in the future.
As a result, Farley monitored the basis of a ‘skunk works’ team last year, which was brought in to develop a cheap electric vehicle platform that could support a number of new electrified models in speed and scale.
At that time, Ford lost as much as $ 5.5 billion a year at EVS, which includes the Ford F-150 Lightning Pick-Up, Mustang Mach-E, Explorer and the slow-selling Capri and Puma Gen-E in European markets.
Alan Clarke, an ex-Tesla employee who was previously responsible for overseeing the development of Model Y, was allegedly part of the 100-strong team that was tasked with introducing Lithium Iron Phosphate-Batterid-driven EVs that could compete for the award with rivals coming out of China.
Now Farley has said that the company is planning to reveal the culmination of this work at an event in Kentucky on August 11 and compare the moment to Ford’s earliest mass -produced motor vehicle, which opened to car to the public in the early 1900s.
What we can expect from Ford’s message
Industriesfiders have suggested online that the new platform is likely to support a smaller, more compact pick-up truck that would offer a respectable interval and impressive transport skills, but costs less than today’s $ 54,780 F-150 Lightning.
Farley has previously suggested that pricing will be below $ 30,000 (about £ 23,000 / AU $ 46,000) for the cheapest products on the upcoming platform, according to Inside EVS, but did not go so far to say exactly what these products would be.
We can also expect to see an SUV make this list as Ford is not currently selling Explorer or Capri outside Europe, as both of these cars were a platform sharing exercise with Volkswagen.
Dig under the skin, you see that they share most of their parts with ID.4 with disappointing results, but all this new skunkworks platform would allow the company to have greater control over an SUV that would appeal more to the US market and could compete with a number of excellent models from KIA, Hyundai, Chevrolet and Tesla.
Finally, this new allelectric platform could also support another attempt at a full-size electric pickup that could not only undermine the current F-150 Lightning, but also cost much less than a rivetical R1T, Chevy Silverado EV and Tesla’s failed cyber truck.
