Ford Pivots From Electrifying Big Trucks to Budget EVs
[Stay on top of transportation news: .]
Ford Motor Co. unveiled plans for a new line of budget electric vehicles in a $5 billion bid to achieve the mass appeal that has so far eluded its money-losing EV business.
The automaker’s new “universal EV platform” represents its first battery-powered models fully designed from the ground up, after early efforts such as the F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup failed to meet lofty sales expectations.
The new platform will spawn a family of EVs starting with a $30,000 mid-sized pickup truck in 2027, the company said in a statement Aug. 11. That will be followed by battery-powered models expected to include a crossover SUV and a vehicle for ride-hailing, Bloomberg has reported, which will be priced below $40,000, about $10,000 less than the average price of a new car in the U.S.
CEO Jim Farley has billed the new EV line as Ford’s big bid to take on the growing global dominance of Chinese EV makers such as BYD Co. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. It’s part of what Farley called a “tremendous pivot” away from its earlier strategy of electrifying its largest models, which it largely abandoned a year ago when it canceled plans for an electric three-row SUV.
“This is a Model T moment for the company,” Farley told analysts last month, invoking the car that put Ford on the map a century ago. “We believe the only way to really compete effectively with the Chinese over the globe on EVs is to go and really push ourselves to radically re-engineer and transform our engineering supply chain and manufacturing process.”
The push includes a new, $2 billion investment to convert Ford’s factory in Louisville, Ky., from producing gasoline-fueled Escape SUVs, a model it is discontinuing, to manufacture the new EV line.
The battery-powered models will take 40% less time to build and require 600 fewer workers than the Escape thanks to an efficient design that was led by former Tesla Inc. executive in what Ford called a skunk-works project in California. The Louisville plant will employ 2,200 hourly workers to build the EV line, down from 2,800, the company said.
The new models will have more interior room and advanced features, such as hands-free driving. They will be powered by lower-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries Ford is to begin building next year at a new $3 billion battery plant in Marshall, Mich., the company said.
Despite Ford’s embrace of smaller, more affordable EVs, the automaker is still moving forward with plans for a successor to the F-150 Lightning full-size pickup. The automaker has repeatedly delayed its next generation electric F-Series truck and has now pushed its launch to mid-2028, from late 2027, according to a person familiar with the change.
Ford said in a statement that it has communicated the timing adjustment to its suppliers and employees in June.
Ford plans to build it at a new $5.6 billion manufacturing compound in Stanton, Tenn., in 2028. The factory, Ford’s first new assembly plant in a half century, is capable of building more than 300,000 trucks a year, far more than the market is now demanding. It was part of Farley’s now-jettisoned $50 billion plan to churn out 2 million EVs a year by 2026 and overtake Tesla as the market leader in battery powered models.
Want more news? Listen to today's daily briefing above or go here for more info
It remains unclear how Ford will fully utilize its new Tennessee factory, though Farley has suggested the plant could also produce extended-range electric vehicles, a new type of plug-in hybrid.
Ford last year lost $5.1 billion in its EV unit and has said the deficit could widen this year as it brings its new line of battery powered models to life. But Farley has said any new EV at Ford must be both affordable and profitable within its first year on the market. Mainstream consumers have been turned off by the high price of electric vehicles.
“We have all lived through far too many ‘good college tries’ by Detroit automakers to make affordable vehicles that ends up with idled plants, layoffs and uncertainty,” Farley said in a statement.
Ford’s big bet on battery-powered models runs up against President Donald Trump’s crusade against what he calls an “EV mandate.” Trump’s $3.4 trillion fiscal package is eliminating a $7,500 consumer tax credit on EV purchases and nearly derailed manufacturing subsidies that were critical to Ford’s business case for its Michigan battery plant.
The automaker lobbied furiously to protect those manufacturing credits, including an appeal by Executive Chair Bill Ford, great-grandson of founder Henry Ford.
Ford also said Trump’s tariffs cost the company $800 million in the second quarter and represent a $2 billion headwind for the year. That’s despite the fact that the Dearborn, Mich.-based company produces more cars in America than any other automaker.
