What occurs whenever you put Tesla veterans, Apple engineers and Ford misfits in a manufacturing facility collectively at 3 a.m.? A $30,000 electrical truck that would both save Ford or be its subsequent Edsel.
Ford has been working a secret “skunk works” undertaking since 2022 to construct an electrical truck that may compete with Chinese language automakers, says The Wall Road Journal. The group—led by Tesla Mannequin S engineer Alan Clarke and staffed with Apple and Tesla veterans plus what Clarke calls Ford’s “misfits and malcontents”—is tearing up a century of producing practices to hit that $30,000 worth level. They’ve eradicated hundreds of ft of copper wiring, ditched Ford’s “people who smoke window” design and scrapped the standard meeting line for a modular “meeting tree” system. CEO Jim Farley is asking it Ford’s “Mannequin T second.” One hitch: Ford’s earlier electrical F-150 value as much as $77,000 and the corporate killed it final yr after racking up billions in losses.
The truck is about to launch in 2027 with 300 miles of vary and Mustang-level pace. Hyundai’s CEO says competing with China on EVs “is unattainable” with out authorities subsidies, however Ford is betting a radical tradition conflict between Silicon Valley and Detroit can show him improper.
What occurs whenever you put Tesla veterans, Apple engineers and Ford misfits in a manufacturing facility collectively at 3 a.m.? A $30,000 electrical truck that would both save Ford or be its subsequent Edsel.
Ford has been working a secret “skunk works” undertaking since 2022 to construct an electrical truck that may compete with Chinese language automakers, says The Wall Road Journal. The group—led by Tesla Mannequin S engineer Alan Clarke and staffed with Apple and Tesla veterans plus what Clarke calls Ford’s “misfits and malcontents”—is tearing up a century of producing practices to hit that $30,000 worth level. They’ve eradicated hundreds of ft of copper wiring, ditched Ford’s “people who smoke window” design and scrapped the standard meeting line for a modular “meeting tree” system. CEO Jim Farley is asking it Ford’s “Mannequin T second.” One hitch: Ford’s earlier electrical F-150 value as much as $77,000 and the corporate killed it final yr after racking up billions in losses.
The truck is about to launch in 2027 with 300 miles of vary and Mustang-level pace. Hyundai’s CEO says competing with China on EVs “is unattainable” with out authorities subsidies, however Ford is betting a radical tradition conflict between Silicon Valley and Detroit can show him improper.
