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Ford bets on a $30,000 electric pickup
Ford will reveal a smaller $30,000 electric pickup in 2027 as it rebuilds its EV strategy around profitability.
Image: The Verge
Ford is betting its electric-vehicle recovery on a $30,000 midsize pickup that will debut in 2027. The truck is the first model planned for the automaker’s Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) Platform, a new architecture designed around efficiency, lower costs, and—crucially—profitability.
The program follows Ford’s decision to discontinue the F-150 Lightning and abandon plans for its next-generation electric truck, codenamed T3, as well as an electric commercial van. Ford will instead build a family of lower-cost EVs at its Kentucky assembly plant, while expanding its hybrid lineup and continuing to sell gas-powered trucks and SUVs.
Ford’s smaller electric truck
The prototype has been spotted under heavy camouflage, including in Long Beach, California. The Autopian estimated that it measures about 64 inches tall and roughly 195 inches long, making it slightly smaller than Ford’s Maverick compact pickup.
New images published by The Drive offer a closer look at the prototype’s physical door handles and large central touchscreen. The camouflage itself is unusually playful, featuring soccer balls, sailboats, hearts, and other emoji-like symbols.
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Ford’s compact approach is a sharp contrast with the large battery-electric trucks it previously pursued. Executives have argued that oversized EVs such as the Lightning had “no path to profitability.”
“No path to profitability.”
A reset after billions in EV losses
Ford has struggled to make its EV business profitable. The company expects to take a $19.5 billion hit on EV investments in 2025, while its Ford Model e division has lost more than $12 billion over the past two years. EV sales fell by more than 60 percent in November alone, according to the source.
The company once aimed to surpass Tesla in battery-electric vehicle sales, but higher material costs and weaker demand undermined that strategy. Ford now says affordable EVs with smaller batteries, purpose-built designs, and engaging driving dynamics offer a better route to sustainable sales.
After touring Ford’s less-than-two-year-old Electric Vehicle Development Center (EVDC) in Long Beach, the source reports that the company remains committed to EVs despite a difficult policy and market environment shaped by looser emissions rules, tariffs, and the elimination of the federal EV tax credit.
Leadership and product changes
Ford’s EV and software chief Doug Field, who left Apple five years ago to lead the company’s multibillion-dollar EV effort, is stepping down next month. Alan Clarke, a former Tesla engineer who leads Ford’s California skunkworks operation, will become vice president of advanced development projects and continue overseeing the UEV program.
Ford has also announced plans to increase hybrid production and develop an extended-range EV version of its F-Series truck. It is entering battery storage systems as demand grows from AI data-center construction, while the UEV platform is intended to support a broader family of inexpensive EVs.
The $30,000 pickup is central to that strategy. Ford has described the UEV rollout as its “Model T moment,” with a streamlined manufacturing process intended to bring EV costs down even as the company expects to lose more than $5 billion on EVs and software this year alone.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via The Verge
