Ford’s $30K Electric Game-Changer: How Cheap EVs Could Finally Turn a Profit
Ford's betting big on budget-friendly EVs—and their CEO isn't shy about why.
The $30K Disruptor
No fancy gimmicks, no six-figure price tags. Just stripped-down, mass-market electric wheels that might actually sell. 'This is how we make money,' admits the chief exec—because apparently, losing $58K per Mach-E wasn’t cutting it.
Wall Street’s Cynical Sniff Test
Will cheaper batteries offset the R&D hemorrhage? Or is this just another auto exec praying for subsidy scraps? Either way, Ford’s playing the long game—or desperately avoiding Chapter 11.
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Learn More Powered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above.The first product coming from that platform — dubbed the Ford Universal Platform — will be a $30,000 four-door electric pickup that Ford said will have more passenger space than a Toyota RAV4 crossover SUV, not including the frunk or truck bed. Ford said the vehicle will arrive in 2027, with more details to come at a future date.
The platform will allow the company to make all kinds of FORM factors, such as sedans, SUVs, and vans, built at scale and with simplicity. Ford said the number of parts will be far fewer and the vehicles will be lighter.
Ford CEO Jim Farley at the company's EV event in Kentucky. · Ford livestreamFord CEO Jim Farley called it a "Model T" moment for the automaker, boldly claiming that this platform, as well as its production process, will revolutionize how the company makes its future EVs.
"We want to start with the most universal car; this is what we think Henry Ford WOULD have loved," Farley said to Yahoo Finance about the pickup body style, adding that "this midsize truck will really not be a truck anymore. It's more like the ultimate next generation crossover."
Last year, Ford's Model e EV unit lost $5.1 billion, and the company expects losses to stay the same in 2025. The company sold 105,000 EVs, meaning the company lost around $48.5K per EV sold.
Those numbers need to change, and Farley and Ford believe both the new platform and production strategy will flip the EV business into the green starting in 2027.
Ford said its Universal Assembly Process will make efficiency key to building these new EVs. The process transforms the traditional single-row assembly line into an "assembly tree," where three subassemblies run in parallel before merging at a later point.
Ford said the use of larger cast parts, allowing the front and rear to be assembled separately and then brought together, and the use of the structural battery in the middle of the car will make assembly faster and cheaper.
"This [process] radically reduces our cost, including a 30% cheaper battery chemistry, and the battery usage is much lower than a BYD, like 20% more efficient, and we think this is the way we can make money on EVs. We've learned a lot. We've been number two to Tesla for a couple of years; we've been doing our homework for this next investment cycle, and this is the way for us to be competitive," Farley said.
Story Continues Ford said the Universal Assembly Process transforms the traditional single-aisle assembly line into an "assembly tree," where three subassemblies run in parallel before merging. · FordFord will institute this process at its Louisville Assembly Plant. The company predicts the new truck will be built 40% faster than the vehicles currently assembled there.
To that end, Ford will invest nearly $2 billion at the Louisville plant and create 2,200 jobs. Ford had previously committed $3 billion for its BlueOval Battery Park in Michigan, where the company will build cheaper prismatic LFP batteries using licensed technology from China's CATL.
Ford's bet on cheaper EVs comes as the industry faces a make-or-break moment with fully electric vehicles. Thus far, Tesla (TSLA) has been the only company able to build EVs at scale and with decent profit margins. Now, the industry faces more competition and the loss of the federal EV tax credit in Q3 of this year.
"It's a huge change for us. We're going to change the way we build vehicles, maybe the way the industry builds vehicles," Farley said.
StockStory aims to help individual investors beat the market.Pras Subramanian is the lead auto reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
