Ford recently announced its third-quarter financial results in a call for investors and media, and there weren’t too many surprises. The company’s revenue is generally up, though it does have some hurdles such as tariffs, the aluminum plant fire a few weeks ago, and the ongoing costs of EV development. However, Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, did have something interesting to say during the question and answer session at the end of the call. He alluded to the need for affordability in the EV space, saying:
“The UEV was designed for two priorities: the lowest possible cost platform with multiple top hats [built] in one facility, and designed to really compete in the heart of what we believe is the new EV market in North America, which is affordable commuter vehicles. We expect adoption will increase over time, and the market continue to evolve, and maybe even regulations evolve. We think this product is literally at the center of the future of the EV market in the U.S.” — Ford CEO Jim Farley
It doesn’t take a CEO, or even a car journalist, to tell you that cars are expensive. EVs have been especially pricey, though, in their modern incarnations, they’re using relatively new and developing technology, which is always expensive. Plus, when something is expensive, only so many people are going to be able to buy it. Volume products aren’t expensive, because they need to be cheap enough for large numbers of people to buy. This isn’t even exclusive to EVs. Obviously, Ford can sell more Escapes than it can Lincoln Corsairs because more people can afford them. So you’re not going to reach huge EV numbers with really expensive models.
Still, it’s good to see Farley make some more clear commitments toward cheaper EVs, since the market does need more effort in that area. Only two EVs either on sale or about to launch in the U.S. have MSRPs under $30,000: the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Bolt. It’s not exactly a crowded segment. This also isn’t the first time that Farley has highlighted that the company needs cheaper EVs. Not quite a month ago, he talked about how the market for expensive EVs, at least from Ford, just hasn’t turned up. He also spoke about his expectations that the EV market in general isn’t going to be as big as expected, at least for now, and that the company will also be pursuing hybrids of various kinds.
Ford has already said a little bit about how it plans to answer the call for affordable EVs. It has something it’s referring to as a universal electric vehicle platform, the “UEV” that Farley refers to in the quote above. The first product to use it will be some sort of pickup truck that will have a target price of $30,000. Farley has said that it won’t look quite like a traditional truck, though, and rumors have suggested it might borrow another classic Ford name: Ranchero. Farley even revealed that it will be rear-wheel-drive and that it should be fun to drive. So even if he has commuters in mind, he still doesn’t want them to be boring.
Clearly, other vehicles will also be built on this platform, which will help spread out costs and make it easier to develop additional models. This should be a major help to Ford’s electric program, since the Mustang Mach-E platform hasn’t been adapted for anything else. The same goes for the F-150 Lightning, which was designed more to fit the existing pickup truck’s design, rather than as an architecture for multiple vehicles.
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