Ford CEO Jim Farley on Monday teased the automaker’s upcoming all-electric seven-seat SUV as “like your own personal bullet train.”
While that might not be quite a picture as the Millennium Falcon with its rear awning, he compared Ford’s upcoming car. Project T3 . electric pickup By March, the two descriptions together signal that the automaker is trying to create something very different, if not groundbreaking, with next-generation Model E electric cars. follow this.
Both will launch in 2025, as precursors to Ford’s Generation 2 Electric Vehicle architecture. And at Ford’s Capital Markets Day on Monday, Farley, along with chief product development officer and CTO Doug Field, guided shareholders on what makes these EVs special.
Ford Mustang Mach-E 2021, LA Auto Show 2019
Ford EVs: From sketchy to groundbreaking?
“Ford’s first generation was a sketchy endeavor: Low capital, really small teams, and up against a big organization that hasn’t really supported or embraced electric vehicles yet,” sums up Field, who still calls they are “great products” and part of why he came to Ford.
With the F-150 Lightning, Ford has gone beyond the F-150 and turned it into electric, Field explained, but also made it accelerate faster than most sports cars, providing a larger trunk than most. run out of sedans and place a bet First place in the market for home backup power.
“Now with our Gen 2 products, we’re going even further. “We will only invest in Generation 2 where we know we can win… starting with full-size pickups will grow to new heights,” he explains. and a three-row SUV.” “Our Gen 2 products will be unlike anything customers have ever seen; it starts with not trying to be all things to everyone and creating every possible taste for each individual.”
“Our three rows of Gen 2 seats, also due out in 2025, will be equally groundbreaking,” Field said, comparing it to the T3.
Ford 2025 3-row SUV – won’t be an Expedition EV
No Expedition EV—maybe not even Explorer EV
With that, Field described what was to come — and he essentially destroyed the possibility of seeing Ford’s mainstay products like the Expedition or Adventurer as EV.
“So think of a family that wants an affordable EV with a great experience for road trips,” says Field. “We can now convert an Expedition into an electric vehicle but it won’t make a very good electric car and it won’t make a very good Expedition.”
He explained that to get 300 miles on the highway in an Expedition would require about 150 kWh of battery—a large, expensive, and heavy battery, which suggests that the product simply doesn’t work. stand out enough from ICE products.
EV efficiency is more important than range
“There’s an arms race in the industry to put ever bigger batteries in large electric vehicles to try to make them look like ICE vehicles,” says Field. “But the real battleground in electrification is about efficiency.”
“We optimize it rather than compromise it,” summarized Field. “When we started building the second generation three-row seats, we started by changing the way we think about tires with lower rolling resistance, taking advantage of every efficient drop of propulsion. And in the computer simulations, we removed a lot of the mass, we lowered the pitch accordingly, changed the aerodynamics. And the result is a different product.”
The result, Field said, is a three-row family car with a 350-mile range from a 100 kWh battery pack that can still go 300 miles when cruising at 70 mph. “It’s a battery that’s a third smaller, lighter, thousands of dollars cheaper, and with the same amount of scarce battery raw material, we can bring our product to three customers instead of two. .”
Ford Gen 2 electric SUV starting point
Ford Gen 2 electric SUV after efficiency improvements
“We built the battery and charger so you can not only travel those distances on the highway, but you can stop in under 10 minutes and continue the 150-mile range,” says Field.
It won’t be like an expedition. In addition to Farley’s speedboat comment and aero hints, Field says the product is “beautiful and unlike anything in its class,” and that it will be longer, sleeker, quieter and quieter with extremely spacious interior.
Fields also said that it next generation software and hardware platform will debut on Gen 2 Model E products in 2025, enabling Level 3 autopilot functionality.
These will be high-volume models. In response to a question from Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, Farley confirmed the expected annual production volume for their Model E EV of 1.2 to 1.3 million units per year by the end of 2026.
Ford F-150 Lightning 2022
Besides the streamlined Ford electric pickup truck
Expectations are high for the electric pickup in 2025, which will no longer be closely associated with the F-150. Farley again teased Ford’s upcoming electric truck as “a technological journey that will change the workplace.”
Field spoke of finding inspiration for these cars not only in competition but also “from the limits of physics” and from other disciplines — and he, like Farley did earlier this year, has shown Thoroughly simplified construction and combined construction.
“The complexity of this new project goes so far that you should be able to count on two hands the buildable combinations,” says Field, noting that including the customer. retail and Ford Pro. “So when we commit to this kind of focus, the complexity disappears in a way that completely changes the company.”
That frees up all sorts of costs, but the most significant benefit is that Ford can do more with that focused product, Field explained.
It remains to be seen exactly what that is, but ensuring its EV goes further with less is a very good start.
