The first vehicle that will be built on the low-cost EV platform Ford’s been developing in secret will be a mid-size pickup due out in 2027, the automaker announced Wednesday morning.
The news comes as part of a much larger rewriting of Ford’s electrification plans. The company is abandoning a plan to make an all-electric three-row SUV, opting instead to power those forthcoming vehicles with hybrid powertrains. A next-generation full-size electric pickup — the followup to the F-150 Lightning codenamed “T3” — is now expected to launch in 2027, not 2025. These changes may cost Ford as much as $1.9 billion, the company said Wednesday.
Ford is not the only company attempting to drive down the entry-level cost of its EVs. But the decision to build a pickup truck on the low-cost EV platform sets Ford up to differentiate itself from market-leader Tesla, which is focusing more on developing Elon Musk’s long-promised “robotaxi” as well as stripped-down versions of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan.
CEO Jim Farley first revealed the existence of the “skunkworks” team building the low-cost platform in February. It’s headed up by by former Tesla exec Alan Clarke, with a main office in Irvine, California. The project got a boost of talent in late 2023 when Ford acquired EV charging startup Auto Motive Power. But the automaker has since filled out the team of around 300 with dozens of workers from Rivian, Tesla, and even around 10 from the recently-disbanded electric/autonomous vehicle team inside Apple, as TechCrunch first reported in June.
This story is developing…
Source : Techcrunch
