Ford gave journalists a small 3D-printed model of the shell of its next EV. It doesn't have much detail and is missing the front end – but it's definitely a truck.Jason Tchir/The Globe and Mail
When the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning rolled into dealerships in 2022, there was a lot of buzz. The award-winning truck was supposed to be the first in a series of electric trucks and SUVs based on Ford’s gas-powered platforms.
But after slower-than-expected sales and billions of dollars in losses, Ford pulled the plug on the Lightning late last year. And Ford isn’t the only company with electric truck troubles.
“These sorts of premium-priced full-size pickup electric trucks really haven’t sold very well,” said Colin McKerracher, head of clean transport at BloombergNEF. “And that’s across the board. That’s GM, that’s Tesla.”
Part of the problem is price. Electric trucks can cost at least 20-per-cent more than comparable gas trucks – largely because they need massive batteries for the range and towing capability that truck buyers expect.
The Lightning came with either a 98-kilowatt-hour standard battery or a 131-kilowatt-hour extended-range battery – roughly twice the size of the battery in a typical electric car. Depending on the version, it had an estimated range of up to 515 kilometres and could tow up to 4,536 kilograms.
Priced from around $68,000 to more than $110,000 in Canada when it launched, it cost $10,000 to $20,000 more than a comparable gas F-150, depending on trim.
Too small to fail?
Around the same time that Ford launched the Lightning, it started a side project in California – bringing in engineers from Tesla and other electric vehicle companies – to figure out how to build a cheaper electric truck.
That truck – a mid-size pickup that Ford has said should start around US$30,000 ($40,900) – is expected to launch sometime next year.
It will be the first in a series of EVs – which will possibly include a three-row SUV – that will be built on the same platform, said project head Alan Clarke, Ford’s vice-president of advanced development projects, who spent 12 years at Tesla working on vehicles including the Model S, Model 3 and Cybertruck.
So how can Ford sell a truck for thousands less than the Lightning – and hope to make a profit this time?
Mainly by getting it to do everything consumers expect, with a much smaller battery.
To do that, Clarke’s team – including nearly 350 people working out of Ford’s Electric Vehicle Development Centre (EVDC) in Long Beach – has spent more than three years designing the truck from scratch.
‘The best part is no part’
For the battery, Ford chose lithium iron phosphate – a cheaper chemistry with no nickel or cobalt, which can drive up battery costs.
But instead of waiting for a bigger breakthrough in battery technology to bring down size and cost, the team has been working, through trial and error, to make the truck lighter, more aerodynamic and more fuel-efficient.
That means designing parts from scratch instead of digging through Ford’s parts bin – and making sure they’re as light as they can be, including everything from body panels to the seats.
“We want to make sure the battery is not wasting energy because we put in more foam [in the seats] than we needed to,” said Simona Merker, a senior colour and material designer on the project.
It also means simplifying the truck so it needs fewer parts, which should make it cheaper to build and for buyers to repair.
“The best part is no part,” said Mitch Shinn, thermal systems engineering manager for Ford. “The second best part is a part that serves multiple purposes.”
Startup culture?
To speed up the process, the EVDC puts designers, engineers, manufacturing specialists and testing experts – including veterans from Tesla, Rivian and Apple – under the same roof. The goal is to keep the team free from the bureaucracy of a massive global automaker.
For instance, instead of sending design specs for a prototype part to an outside company and waiting months for it to be made – only to find problems and start over – the team can do it on-site in days or weeks.
“The sooner we fail, the sooner we learn,” said Ajay Panekkad, senior manager of embedded controls.
Although Ford borrowed this skunkworks approach partly from Tesla and Chinese automakers, company founder Henry Ford used a similar philosophy in 1907 to develop the Model T.
Will the price be right?
Ford didn’t share any details about the truck, including battery size, range, how much it can tow or what it will be called – although it has trademarked the name Ranchero.
But it did provide a drive-by glimpse of a camouflaged prototype during an event in Long Beach earlier in May. The prototype appeared to be similar in size to a Ford Maverick and it looked like a conventional four-door truck without the exaggerated, angular design of the Cybertruck.
Ford plans to launch the truck in Canada, where the average new vehicle sold for around $50,000 last year, but has not yet released pricing details. It will be built in Louisville, so U.S. tariffs could affect the price.
If Ford can deliver a cheap electric truck, will Canadians want it? It might appeal to buyers who want the practicality of a truck and the lower ownership costs of an EV – as long as the price is right, said Robert Karwel, director of OEM solutions at J.D. Power Canada.
“There could be demand for it,” Karwel said, “if they can price it like a mid-sized gas truck – $45,000 to $50,000 – or better yet, just under it.”