Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle Platform was announced less than a year ago as the company’s next “Model T Moment,” but development was clearly already long underway. The first test vehicles of Ford’s new moonshot are about to start hitting the road. That means Ford prototypes will be out and about on public roads in Michigan starting very soon. The CarBuzz spy shooters are already cleaning their lenses to get photos of these very important vehicles.
CFO Says Launch Is On Schedule
Ford Universal EV platformFord
Sherry House, the automaker’s chief financial officer, spoke about the project at the UBS Auto and Tech conference late last week (via Detroit Free Press). House said that the new truck is ready for launch, and that prototypes are currently being assembled and tested.
“The project is going really well. We’re on plan for our 2027 launch,” House said at the conference. “We are making prototype vehicles in Michigan. We’re testing those already on the road. We’re testing our megacastings, which is a new product. We’re doing a supplier readiness assessment. So all those things that you’d expect us to be doing … preparing for launch is in full force today.”
A Ford spokesperson confirmed to the Free Press that the prototypes are “out in the wild” right now, but that doesn’t mean on Michigan roads quite yet. However, they will be soon.
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Ford’s Skunk Works team at the Electric Vehicle Development Center (EVDC) in Long Beach, California, is responsible for designing this new EV. Ford CEO Jim Farley announced the new electric truck last August, saying that it would have an entirely new manufacturing process to go with the new platform.
Farley Wants To Recapture Henry’s Magic
Ford Universal Vehicle logoFord
The goal is to recapture the magic that made the original Model T work for Ford. That model took existing ideas and a few new ones and was able to transform the world.
Farley said that a midsize electric pickup would be the first of the new vehicles marking the “Model T Moment.” It’s set to go on sale next year with a $30,000 starting price. After that, SUVs and even sedans are possible.
“It’s going to be very feature-rich. It’s going to be very tech-forward,” House said. “It’s going to be affordable, and we think that it’s affordable to the point that, it’s not just competing against EVs, it’s also competing against gas-powered vehicles as well.”
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“What’s really important about the way we did this product is it started with the design,” House said. “We decided to design the most complex items in-house, and we took a very physics-based approach to the cost, because we looked at what should it cost, and we know because we designed it. So that puts you to a very competitive advantage as you’re going out to then source it.”
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Automakers have made massive investments into EVs, and very few have seen that pay off. Ford walked away from its previous plans, but instead of giving up completely, it has gone all-in on a better idea.
If Ford can sell a $30,000 electric pickup, it could change the face of the US vehicle market. That would undercut every midsize gas truck on the market, and it would even be the second-cheapest electric vehicle in the US (before incentives).
The Model T put a car in nearly every driveway, and this pickup and its variants could make that reach possible for EVs. More importantly for Ford, it could keep the Chinese automakers at bay.
Source: Detroit Free Press
