Ford: We will match China's EVs on costs
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
A few details are emerging about Ford's affordable EV project, due in 2027.
Why it matters: Ford, like other global automakers, is scrambling to make electric vehicles profitably and still compete with lower-cost Chinese brands.
Catch up quick: In early 2024, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed a small California-based "skunk works" team, led by a former Tesla engineer, to develop a low-cost EV platform.
- Since then, the project, now known as the Advanced Electric Vehicle Program, has grown to 500 team members with offices in three locations.
Driving the news: Ford is keeping most details under wraps, but Lisa Drake, who leads Ford's EV industrial plan, shared a few nuggets during a "candid dinner discussion" with investors last week hosted by Bernstein's lead automotive analyst, Daniel Roeska.
Zoom in: Ford's new EV platform will support up to eight body styles, she told the group, including trucks, crossovers, and possibly sedans.
- Ford has already said the first product will be a mid-sized pickup truck, but Roeska said he inferred from Drake's comments that it may resemble an electric Ranger.
- It will use prismatic LFP batteries, developed with China's CATL and produced in the U.S., to keep costs low.
- "With eight body styles and potential global applicability, it's intended to underpin Ford's EV strategy for much of the next decade," Roeska wrote.
Behind the scenes: "Lisa Drake was explicit: Ford intends to match the cost structure of leading Chinese players. That means not just battery pricing, but full system cost from chassis and thermal systems to inverters and electronics," he wrote.
Yes, but: Ford's EV math hinges on an estimated $700 million in federal tax credits the automaker is counting on to help offset the $3 billion cost of a new battery cell plant under construction in Michigan.
- Republicans in Congress want to kill those Biden-era credits, in part by prohibiting subsidies for batteries made in the U.S. under a Chinese licensing agreement, as Ford intends to do.
What to watch: Ford is crying foul, but it's not clear whether the production tax credits will survive in the final budget law, due later this summer.
