Ford CEO Jim Farley is revealing more secrets about the automaker’s low-cost EV ‘skunkworks‘ operation
The project is run by former Tesla executive Alan Clarke and based in a facility in Southern California that Farley has said his I.D. badge won’t swipe into.
Farley told the Aspen Ideas Festival in June that “we’re going to be the company on them, that’s a very American thing.”
Farley followed up on Ford’s second-quarter earnings call that the “super efficient platform” in the works will accommodate a number of vehicle types, but that it will be focused on “work” and “adventure” oriented models.
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This echoes Ford’s move to discontinue the Fusion sedan and replace it with the Maverick compact pickup and Bronco Sport SUV.
Farley said the models will be very differentiated and that there will be “many tophats” offered, which is industry-speak for the body styles attached to the chassis.
He said the vehicles will be small to improve their efficiency and keep the costs down to under $40,000 or even $30,000, which will make the $7,500 federal tax credit a larger percent of the purchase price that “supercharges” the lower cost of ownership.
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The first of the vehicles are expected to arrive in showrooms sometime in 2027, according to Farley, but he hasn’t confirmed timing or said where they will be manufactured. The Maverick, Bronco Sport and Mustang Mach-E electric SUV are all built in Mexico.
Farley said on the call that while Ford will work with partners in China on components, like the batteries it currently gets from CATL, the platform is being designed in-house by Ford and isn’t being licensed from another automaker.
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