Ford to follow Tesla Cybertruck with electrical tech in new EV pickup

DETROIT — Ford Motor$5 billion ‘bet’ on next-generation all-electric vehicles will feature emerging technology Tesla’s It is commercializing the Cybertruck in the United States, the Detroit automaker said Tuesday.

The system, known as 48 volt electrical architecture, has been discussed in the automotive industry for decades, but Tesla’s It became the first company to introduce it to consumers in 2023.

The auto industry has historically used a 12-volt system with lead-acid batteries in all vehicles to power the car’s accessories; however, this was problematic and resulted in many electric vehicle recalls. The new architecture instead uses the EV’s high-voltage battery to power everything.

The 48-volt system increases efficiency, allows for additional electrical bandwidth and saves weight through reduced wiring, officials said. Power can be “stepped down” to 12 volts as needed using new electronic control units, or ECUs, that handle the different groups of an EV architecture.

The new electrical system is one of many innovations that Ford believes will allow its next generation of electric vehicles, starting with a $30,000 small electric pickup truck in 2027, to compete against both Tesla and Chinese brands that are rapidly expanding in global markets.

“At Ford, we have taken up the challenge that many others have stopped doing. We are taking the challenge to our competitors, including the Chinese,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at an August event at a factory in Kentucky that will produce unnamed electric pickups. “Legacy automakers have been risk-averse for a very long time.”

Farley called this a “Model T moment” for the company, referring to the company’s flagship vehicle that appeared more than a century ago and led to mass adoption of the vehicles in the early 1900s. He also called it a “bet” on Ford given the amount of changes it would make to electric vehicles, the company and its processes.

Ford expects the new EVs, which will be based on a common “Universal Electric Vehicle” or UEV, to have costs comparable to gas-powered vehicles thanks to new technologies and efficiencies. Currently, the massive batteries powering EVs have made them much more expensive and unprofitable to produce.

The Detroit automaker said the new EVs will reduce parts by 20% compared to a typical vehicle, with 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer port-to-port workstations in the facility and 15% faster assembly time.

“This represents the most radical change in how we design and build vehicles at Ford since the Model T,” Farley said at the site. “Now it’s time to change the game once again.”

Ford said these improvements, along with price points more similar to gas-powered models, will lead to greater adoption of electric vehicles. This is despite a significant slowdown in U.S. electric vehicle sales due to changes in federal support from the Trump administration and lower-than-expected consumer adoption.

U.S. EV sales peaked in September with 10.3% of the new vehicle market before federal incentives expired, according to Cox Automotive. This demand fell to the preliminary estimate of 5.8% in the fourth quarter.

These market conditions recently led Ford to announce a $19.5 billion write-down largely related to a pullback on its EV plans, but the company said it would continue to invest $5 billion in its new UEV platform through 2027.

Alan Clarke, Ford’s executive director of advanced EV development, said at a media briefing: “Our focus has been to give them everything they can get in a nice vehicle and more, and we think this will ultimately allow us to make not just an affordable vehicle, but one that is highly desirable.”

According to Clarke, a former Tesla executive, the 48-volt system provides significant benefits to other parts of the vehicle beyond just the battery, and is expected to continue that way as the bandwidth of 12-volt batteries is maximized.

“It’s cheaper, it has smaller cables, and it’s the future of automotive,” he said. “So if you want to ensure that this platform survives for more than a decade, 48 obviously makes the most sense.”

Ford said the wiring harness on the new midsize truck will be more than 4,000 feet shorter and 22 pounds lighter than the wiring harness used in Ford’s first-generation electric SUV.

CEO of Tesla Elon Musk dispatched rivals like Ford and General Engines A how-to guide on developing a 48-volt system in 2023.

In addition to the 48-volt system, the company released additional details on Tuesday about how it achieved its goals through aerodynamics with the new EV. team “awards” improving vehicle efficiency and turning to “gigacastings” pioneered by Tesla.

Gigacasting is a manufacturing process that can replace dozens of traditionally small, stamped parts with larger parts. The process requires massive machines to pressurize large sheets of metal into parts such as the front end of a vehicle or its underlying structure.

Ford said the new pickup will have just two structural front and rear parts, compared to 146 such components in its current gas-powered Maverick small pickup.

Ford also said its aluminum castings for the upcoming EV are 27% lighter than those featured in the Tesla Model Y.

“We’re still experiencing a very rapid decline in EV costs, and you can only achieve that by innovating, and you can only achieve that by optimizing at the system level so that it eventually becomes a product that the customer wants,” said Clarke.