To Retro Or Not To Retro? Ford Teases Affordable EV, But What Will It Look Like?
The dream of an affordable EV for the masses has been realized in China, where inexpensive batteries and a pint-sized approach to automotive style have an appeal beyond the kind of supersized road machines valued by many US auto buyers. So, can the US compete with China in the mighty mite market? That remains to be seen, but Ford is once again hinting that the wheels are still in motion on its secretive “skunkworks” EV project.
Ford, China, & The Affordable EV Of The Future
Ford has been dropping one hint after another about producing an affordable EV for the US market for going on five years. CleanTechnica marked one recent last step last year, reporting that “Ford set the stage back in 2021, when it described the newly minted Ford+ plan as ‘the company’s biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford scaled production of the Model T.'”
In 2022, CleanTechnica’s Jennifer Sensiba took note of the Ford+ plan in a rundown of the company’s transition to EVs. The basic idea was to fund a new “Model e” division with profits from the company’s gasmobile sales.
There was nothing secretive about the new Model e division. In a press release in 2022, Ford described it as an independent “skunkworks” division modeled after the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works team. The company also referenced its own “mission-driven” teams, which produced the Ford GT, Mustang Mach-E SUV and F-150 Lightning pickup.
In the same press release, Ford also noted that it deployed one of those mission-driven teams to develop its EV division in China. As with other US automakers, Ford’s China division is facing new competition from BYD among others EV makers in China, but it has been fairly successful, which helps explain why Ford CEO Jim Farley has been driving around the US in a Chinese EV and talking up the idea of bringing an affordable EV to the US market in direct competition with Chinese automakers.
Ford’s efforts in the affordable car EV area have also been informed by its 22 years of experience manufacturing automobiles in China, along with its footprint in product development and innovation in China and elsewhere. The company opened the new Nanjing Test Center and a new “MakerSpace” incubator in China in 2017, with an eye on other Asia Pacific markets as well.
Range Anxiety & The LFP Battery Factor
The big question was what sort of car would come rolling out of the Ford Model e skunkworks workshop. In September last year, CleanTechnica editor Zachary Shahan recapped Ford’s EV journey. Taking note of Farley’s learnings from the Chinese market, that report included a huge hint about Ford’s expectations for the affordable EV of the future.
“Under Farley’s leadership, the skunkworks team in California was set up two and half years ago in response to the Chinese OEMs,” Shahan reported, based on a convo with a Ford representative. Shahan added that Ford is the first US automaker to license LFP technology from the leading Chinese battery maker CATL.
That’s LFP as in lithium-iron-phosphate, a relatively new and less expensive variant of the familiar lithium-ion EV batteries. Earlier iterations of LFP technology did not match Li-on on performance, but CATL is among the battery stakeholders pushing the LFP envelope in recent years. Notably, Hyundai has also jumped on the LFP bandwagon.
As for why battery stakeholders didn’t press the LFP button years ago, range anxiety is one explanation. Range anxiety was constantly nipping at the heels of EV makers, motivating them — including industry leader Tesla — to invest time and effort in the highest-performing batteries available to the mass market, pushing range as high as possible. Batteries being the single most expensive feature of an EV, that strategy kept the affordable EV of the future way off in the future.
Ford Is Determined To Offer The Affordable EV Of The Future Today-ish
In the latest news about Ford’s affordable EV journey, Axios touched off a mini-firestorm across the Intertubes on Wednesday, when it reported that Ford’s North America Chief Operating Officer, Lisa Drake (who is also a member of the Engineer Girl ambassador project of the National Academy of Engineering), affirmed during a private dinner with investors that the skunkworks project is moving full steam ahead.
Among the hints: Ford’s new affordable EV platform will support up to eight body styles, the first product may resemble a pickup inspired by the Ranger, and it will used CATL’s prismatic LFP batteries, manufactured in the US.
Axios also cited the host of the dinner, automotive analyst Daniel Roeska, who wrote:
“Lisa Drake was explicit: Ford intends to match the cost structure of leading Chinese players. That means not just battery pricing, but full system cost from chassis and thermal systems to inverters and electronics.”
So…What’s It Going To Look Like?
If you are among those yearning for the sometimes bold, sometimes quirky automotive styling of years gone by, drop a note in the comment thread. It may be too much to expect an EV version of the 1989 Ford Escort, but here’s hoping that Ford launches a very cool looking but still affordable EV into the US market.
That’s going to be a tricky path to negotiate. Earlier this year, Jamie L. LaReau of the Detroit Free Press took a very deep, detailed dive into Ford’s new EV strategy, noting the emphasis on smaller vehicles with LFP batteries. “The company remains on target to launch a new, smaller EV, likely a midsize pickup, in 2027. It is expected to be priced below $30,000,” LaReau reported.
Of particular interest, LaReau noted that the skunkworks strategy has been a winner, so far. “Farley said creating Skunkworks proved to be effective from a cost standpoint. The automaker has developed a new platform at about a third of the cost than had Ford done it in-house,” she reported.
They better act fast. As noted, Ford and other US automakers are facing a new burst of competition in China, and European sales have been a bit wobbly, too.
It’s not all because of China. Ford and other US automakers are operating in a global EV sales environment that has been rocked by the double whammy of an out-of-control, malevolently incompetent President combined with the reputational cratering of EV industry leader Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk. That could dampen the enthusiasm for well known US brands overseas. On the bright side, it could lead automakers like Ford to concentrate more vigorously on all sectors of the domestic EV market, to include smaller, more affordable vehicles.
Photo (cropped): Ford is pushing forward with plans to bring an affordable EV to the US market, competing with Chinese automakers on cost. As for style, that’s still a secret (courtesy of Ford Motor Company Heritage Vault).
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