Ford was working on a sleek, efficient electric SUV a few years ago that CEO Jim Farley referred to as a “personal bullet train,” but it was canceled before any passengers could get on board.
Ford discontinued the project in late 2024 and never even got around to releasing any images of it, but one slipped onto the internet anyway.
Well, it didn’t exactly slip. Doug Field, Ford’s recently departed Chief Officer of EVs, Digital and Design has been using it as the header on his LinkedIn page and no one made the connection until The Drive discovered it while reporting on his departure.
Ford confirmed that it is the vehicle in question and said “It is now a research vehicle that is informing our next generation of electric vehicles. You will see its significant influence on our next gen electric vehicles.”
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The three-row SUV looks a lot like Farley’s description, with a low nose and a tapered greenhouse. Ford was aiming for it to achieve driving ranges of 350 miles combined range and 300 miles at highway speeds using a 100-kilowatt-hour battery pack. It also hoped it could equip it with semi-autonomous driving technology good enough to allow the driver to sleep on highway trips, but that has not yet come to fruition.
The similarly sized Hyundai Ioniq 9 that’s on sale today features the same basic shape and is available in a model with a 110-kilowatt-hour battery pack and 335 miles of range, so it would seem that Ford was on the right track.
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And it’s staying on it as it develops its next EV, which is the Universal Electric Vehicle that’s scheduled to go on sale in 2027. Ford recently detailed the steps it is taking to reduce the Maverick-sized pickup’s aerodynamic drag, in order to equip it with the smallest and least expensive battery pack possible so it can hit its $30,000 target price.
