Ford: Why Simplicity is The Blueprint for Our Future Electrical Automobile Platform

---

Assist CleanTechnica’s work by a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

---

Final Up to date on: twenty eighth August 2025, 03:53 am

By Doug Area, chief EV, digital and design officer at Ford.

A century in the past, Henry Ford mentioned he would construct a automotive for the nice multitude, one “constructed of one of the best supplies…after the best designs that fashionable engineering can devise.” That automotive, the Mannequin T, didn’t simply change Ford; it reworked society. To this present day, I stay fascinated by Its elegant and easy engineering.

That very same imaginative and prescient has been a continuing inspiration for a brand new, formidable mission a small group of us has undertaken within the final three years. A mission like that is the rationale I got here again to Ford. I couldn’t go up the possibility to assist merge the stressed innovation of a startup with the commercial would possibly of a 122-year-old icon.

The Mannequin T was inexpensive not as a result of it was a thrifted model of different automobiles, however as a result of sensible minds took basically new approaches to previous issues. That’s precisely what we got down to do in creating the Ford Common Electrical Automobile Platform.

A New Method of Working

We started with a single particular person, Alan Clarke, beforehand from Tesla, and hand-picked a small staff, of outdoor expertise and Ford veterans. We weren’t simply on the lookout for one of the best of their subject, however for folks with a deep need to problem conference. Shielded from “well-intended company disruption,” we locked the doorways and saved the mission secret in a small constructing in California. The staff was a fraction of the standard dimension, with mild oversight.

Each member was anticipated to grasp how their work affected all the automobile and to prioritize complete value and effectivity.

The best way the trade develops automobiles, a chassis engineer may be penalized for including $5 to the price of the brakes, even when that change saved $20 on the battery. We threw that considering out.

“Physics shouldn’t be proprietary.” —Doug Area, Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer at Ford.

Much more important was our capacity to bridge cultures and several types of groups, uniting them to work as one.

The built-in staff had entry to every thing Ford gives. It additionally had permission to query every thing, utilizing new instruments like a computer-aided design system that gave them a real-time view of their elements put in within the automotive.

Choices had been made rapidly: within the constructing, throughout my bi-weekly full-day evaluations, or by having our CEO Jim Farley make the ultimate name.

Physics is Not Proprietary

This philosophy of deep methods integration drove us to search out methods for particular person elements to carry out a number of capabilities, relentlessly stripping out complexity. This led to funding in “unicasting,” the place we kind huge, single aluminum elements that act as structural components of the physique and because the base elements for standalone sub assemblies.

In comparison with a standard pickup physique, the staff eradicated three-quarters of the elements, two-thirds of the welds, and half of the fasteners. Within the electrical system, we eliminated over 4,000 ft of wiring—almost a mile—in comparison with our first-generation electrical SUV.

It’s simple to repeat an element. It’s almost inconceivable to repeat a deeply built-in system design. This obsession with effectivity means we count on our automobiles to realize an analogous vary as rivals with a battery that’s as much as one-third smaller. The disruption to how we construct the automobile is each bit as necessary because the product itself. We tore up the century-old idea of the transferring meeting line. As an alternative, we’ve created an “meeting tree.”

We’ll construct the automobile in three separate items — the entrance, the rear, and the structural battery core — after which put them collectively.

We’re assured that is the primary time a automobile shall be constructed like this anyplace on the earth.

The Motive Our Common Automobile is Electrical

You would possibly surprise why this platform and automobile needed to be electrical. The selection enabled how it’s constructed, and we additionally consider electrical automobiles are by far one of the best product for the purchasers we’re going after.

You’ll be able to cost at residence, waking up on daily basis with a “full tank.”

The automobile is a cellular energy plant with high-power shops and the power to supply backup energy in your residence.

And will probably be unbelievably enjoyable to drive, with the low middle of gravity from the battery, instantaneous torque from the electrical motors, and our obsessive chassis engineering.

Our goal is a five-year value of possession that shall be decrease than shopping for a three-year-old Tesla Mannequin Y — and they’re fairly low cost proper now.

The primary automobile constructed on this platform shall be a midsize, four-door electrical pickup truck. It should supply extra passenger area than the most recent Toyota RAV4, plus a frunk and a truck mattress for all of the gear that’s a part of your life.

“The disruption to how we construct the automobile is each bit as necessary because the product itself. ” —Doug Area

And this is not going to be a stripped-down, old-school automobile.

Its ground-up, zonal electrical structure not solely cuts that mile of wiring however will allow options digital experiences the trade has by no means seen earlier than. We consider the first battleground with rivals, particularly from China, shall be fought and received within the digital realm.

It should additionally help Ford BlueCruise, the hands-free freeway driving system that our prospects are already discovering transformative.

Article from Ford’s From the Street weblog.