Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant is one of its most important factories. The facility cranks out nearly a half-million Lincoln Navigators, Ford Expeditions and Ford F-Series Super Duty trucks every year.
That’s more than $25 billion worth of product, much of it in premium segments, and Ford just spent $1 billion for a new paint shop to support it. The painting process is one of the most costly steps in automobile assembly. It requires a clean room environment with highly filtered air to ensure flawless application.
The right paint can be make-or-break for a customer, however, so it’s worth the investment, with many willing to pay extra for the color they want. Ford and Lincoln offer more than a dozen across the models built at the plant, with most requiring an extra charge.
But what if the automaker is the customer? That’s what Tesla apparently asked itself when it was developing the Cybercab, which is initially being used for the company’s own Robotaxi service.
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The two-seat vehicle is manufactured through a process it calls “Unboxed” that does away with the traditional assembly line with an eye on reducing costs through efficiency. It breaks the vehicle into separate sections that are each fully assembled and then brought together at the end. Ford is adopting a similar system at the Louisville Assembly Plant where it will begin building the new Fathom electric pickup next year.
One thing missing from Tesla’s version is the paint shop. The Cybercab’s composite body panels have their gold color built-in, which saves time and money and reduces the footprint of the assembly plant. This works because Tesla is looking to create an iconic style for the ride-hailing vehicles and doesn’t have to worry about consumer preferences. At least not yet. It hasn’t said what the plan is if it begins selling the vehicle to retail customers someday.
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While it could just produce panels in different colors, another possibility is offering wraps. That’s what Slate is doing with its electric pickup. The Slate uses composite bodywork that only comes in gray to help keep the truck’s starting price at $26,400, while dozens of wrap kits are available for several hundred dollars each.
The larger $29,945 Fathom was also designed with cutting costs in mind, but Ford has not yet confirmed what materials are used for the body. Its current products feature a mix of metals and composites, but are all painted.
While Fathom production won’t use the traditional method of assembling the entire body and painting it before other parts are installed, the Louisville Assembly Plant previously built the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair and had a paint shop on site. One thing is for certain: the similarly sized and wildly popular Maverick is available in a wide array of colors, and you can be sure the Fathom will come in more than one. However it’s done.
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