Ford Claims It Will Have A “Model T Moment” On August 11, 2025

During a second quarter earnings call on July 30, Ford CEO Jim Farley named August 11, 2025 as the date when the company would take the wraps off its latest plan to become a leader of the EV revolution. CleanTechnica readers will recall that last year, Farley announced he had been driving a Xiaomi SU7 for 6 months and the car was so good, he didn’t want to give it up.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Farley and an executive leadership team from Ford went to China earlier this year to study how Chinese auto companies operate. The lessons learned from that experience are now being applied throughout the company as it adjusts its marketing plans for the US and other countries.

“On August 11, that will be a big day for all of us at Ford,” Farley said on the July 30 call. “We will be in Kentucky to share more about our plans to design and build a breakthrough electric vehicle and a platform in the US. This is a Model-T moment for us at Ford. A chance to bring a new family of vehicles to the world that offer incredible technology, efficiency, space, and features.”

The key to the new marketing plan is to make manufacturing and selling electric vehicles profitable. Until now, Ford has been losing money every quarter in its EV division, known officially as Model e. In the second quarter of this year, the company posted a loss for the Model e division of $1.3 billion, which was slightly more than it lost in the same quarter last year.

Ford was fast out of the gate with its F-150 Lightning battery-electric pickup truck, electric Mustang Mach-E, and the E-Transit cargo van in the US, but has not brought any new EVs to market in North America lately. Crosstown rival, General Motors, has brought the Cadillac Lyric, Otiq, Vistique, and Escalade IQ to market since then and Chevrolet is now selling the Blazer EV, Equinox EV, and Silverado EV. GMC also has the over the top Hummer EV as well.

Small, Affordable Electric Vehicle From Ford

Farley said during the July 30 earnings call that Ford now believes the EV market is most suited for small electric vehicles designed for urban commuting. During the past three years, while sales of its existing EVs have floundered, a team of engineers at the company’s so-called Skunkworks in California has been busy developing a new architecture that will allow Ford to produce affordable small EVs that will actually be profitable.

According to TechCrunch, that team is lead by former Tesla executive Alan Clark and includes other talented individuals recruited from Tesla, Rivian, Apple, and Lucid Motors. Until now, Ford has been vague about what sort of vehicles the team is designing, but TechCrunch reports the first vehicle to use the new platform will be a midsize electric pickup truck, which is scheduled to be in showrooms in 2027.

In an echo of the marketing strategy at the now defunct Canoo, Farley suggests the new platform may support a number of “top hats” — vehicle bodies that could included sedans, SUVs, or crossovers that all share the same underpinnings. We have been hearing about this strategy since the early days of Faraday Future. Perhaps the idea will soon be ready for prime time? The company has suggested the new vehicles, whatever they are, will feature “personalized digital experiences.”

“We really see, not the global (automakers) as our competitive set for our next generation of EVs, we see the Chinese. Companies like Geely, BYD,” Farley said. “That’s how we built our vehicle. How we’ve engineered what kind of supply chain we’ve used and the kind of low content in our manufacturing.”

The big announcement on August 11 will take place at the Ford assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky. During contract negotiations with the UAW in 2023, both sides said they had struck a deal that would put that factory “truly at the center of the universe for EV production and EV innovation,” the Courier Journal reported at the time. Ford agreed to invest $1.2 billion in that factory so it would be able to produce an “all-new EV product.”

Ford Bets On LFP Batteries

Farley told investors last week that its new battery factory in Marshall, Michigan, is key to its EV plans. “It’s a big advantage for the company. We’re the first one to build LFP batteries at scale. It also has a production tax credit and we’re thankful that Congress upheld that. That’s a key part of our profitability road map to transition to these lower-cost batteries. Can’t wait to show you the product and the platform, so stay tuned,” he said.

What he didn’t say is that the Marshall, Michigan, battery factory will use technology provided by CATL, the largest battery manufacturer in the world. That’s the good news. The bad news is that CATL is a Chinese company and Chinese companies are personae non grata in the US of A at the moment.

Just this week, Tesla announced it was transitioning away from using LFP batteries supplied by CATL to batteries manufactured by LG Energy Solution, partly to avoid the wrath of the MAGAlomaniacs currently running the show in Washington, DC. Ford has every reason to downplay its association with CATL as dangerous political crosscurrents roil more industries in the US today.

Managing Market Turmoil

Farley said that market turmoil caused by shifting consumer demands and government regulations over the past three years — the Inflation Reduction Act only came into existence three years ago this month — have led the company to rethink its overall marketing plans during that time period. As part of its new EV strategy, Ford will offer only a few “top hats” and adjust its timing to be in market segments “where we can actually make money on EVs.”

But the company is taking an “all of the above” approach, which means it will offer a number of powertrain choices, including extended range electric vehicles, partial zero emissions vehicles, and a full range of hybrids across its entire lineup. “We think that’s a much better move than a $60,000 to $70,000 all-electric crossover,” Farley said. “We think it is really what customers are going to want long term and we’re investing a lot in more durable internal combustion engine powertrains.”

“We’ve definitely moved out launches, we’ve canceled some products, we’ve made the right choices in terms of battery chemistry change, like our LFP in Michigan. I think we’re very well positioned for the reality of the EV market with the customers today,” Farley said. The new strategy is expected to give Ford flexibility to adapt to the market forces without having to commit to multi-year product cycles on a full line of EVs.

Radical Re-Engineering

“Ours EVs are coming out in the next year or two,” Farley said. “So you’re going to see a lot of news out from Ford on our EVs. Our strategy’s very simple: 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.”

That’s interesting. US and European automakers taught the Chinese how to manufacture automobiles, then the Chinese figured out how to beat them at their own game. Now the Chinese are returning the favor by teaching the US and Europeans how to build cars in the 21st century, which means electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The traditional companies thought they were the shizznit but they got caught napping when the Chinese changed the game from internal combustion to battery electric powertrains.

“You should expect from Ford in these other regions, where electrification is very important, to partner where we need to,” Farley said. “We have a good strategy. I’m very thankful that we moved fast because we learned about the market changing maybe before our competitors and we can reload our capital and have the right planning for this new reality of EVs.”

Prayers & Promises

Those are very encouraging words, but will Ford get its sums right going forward? A “Model T moment” is a bold prediction. Now to see if Farley and Ford can deliver on that claim. Will we be amazed on August 11? Among the cognoscenti at CleanTechnica global headquarters, the mood is hopeful, but tinged with a dollop of doubt as to whether Ford can actually beat the Chinese at their own game.

It’s one thing to succeed when the opposition is excluded by tariffs and trade barriers; it’s quite another to do so on a level playing field. Farley is pretty good at being the public face of a major US automaker, but now he is promising a big step forward for the company. Until August 11, the jury is still out on whether he can deliver on the promises he is making.