Ford's $5 Billion Model T Moment Aims To Turn EV Operation Profitable

Forbes

4 days ago

Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley announces a new electric vehicle platform and assembly system at the Louisville Assembly Plant on August 11. Ford Motor Co.
Less than two weeks after announcing its electric vehicle unit lost $1.3 billion during the second quarter and expected to lose billions more this year, Ford Motor Co. now plans to invest around $5 billion to reset its EV program with more affordable vehicles produced more efficiently, at lower cost, the automaker announced Monday.
The key to the strategy is reinventing the process Ford first invented 122 years ago that changed the way vehicles have been built ever since—the assembly line. It's what CEO Jim Farley is calling the company's 'Model T moment,' referring to the vehicle that rolled off that first assembly line.
In essence, it's a major do-over for the company's EV operation.
'Nobody wants to see another good college try by a Detroit automaker to make an affordable vehicle that ends up with idled plants, layoffs and uncertainty,' said Farley in a statement. 'So, this has to be a good business. From Day One, we knew there was no incremental path to success. We empowered a tiny skunkworks team three time zones away from Detroit. We reinvented the moving assembly line. And we are on a path to be the first automaker to make prismatic LFP batteries in the U.S. We will not rely on imports.'
A new line of what Ford describes as affordable, electric, software-defined vehicles will be based on the Ford Universal EV Platform, will be built on the company's reinvention of the assembly line it calls the Ford Universal Production System.
The initial location to be converted to the new system is Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant where the first vehicle will be a midsize, five-seat, four-door electric pickup truck.
It's due reaching customers in 2027 with a starting price Ford estimates at about $30,000. Final pricing and other specs will be announced closer to its launch.
However, the company offered a few tidbits including expected zero-to-60 mph 'as fast as a Mustang EcoBoost, with more downforce,' and more passenger room than the latest model Toyota RAV4.
It will also include a frunk, bed, exportable power and will be capable of Ford's Blue Cruise automated driving technology, chief operating officer Kumar Galhotra revealed in an online media briefing before the formal announcement.
The new platform and production system work hand-in-hand.
The Ford Universal EV Platform reduces parts by 20% versus a typical vehicle, with 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer workstations dock-to-dock in the plant and 15% faster assembly time, according to Galhotra.
A cobalt-free and nickel-free lithium-iron phosphate, or LFP, battery pack is a structural sub-assembly that also serves as the vehicle's floor.
Where the traditional assembly line is basically a glorified conveyer belt where workers attach parts as the vehicle rolls by, or stops briefly, Ford is calling the Universal Production System an 'assembly tree.'
'Instead of a linear assembly line, it will have three independent branches, front, the rear and the structural battery,' explained Galhotra. 'So the battery itself is structure is critical to the structure of the vehicle and then the all of these branches come together at the end, when we integrate the interior, seats, carpet, consoles, etc, all of these branches run in parallel. So imagine, instead of one line, these three lines running in parallel and coming together at the end.
Large single-piece aluminum unicastings replace dozens of smaller parts, enabling the front and rear of the vehicle to be assembled separately.
To improve ergonomics for line workers parts travel down the assembly tree to operators in a kit that includes all fasteners, scanners and power tools required for the job.
The company expects the new process to enable the new electric truck to be assembled 40% faster than current vehicles being produced at the Louisville plant.
To make this all happen, Ford says it's investing nearly $2 billion to produce the new electric pickup truck. The project is also being supported by incentives from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.
The $2 billion to build the new production system is in addition to the previously announced $3 billion investment in Ford's BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, Michigan which will start producing prismatic LFP batteries for the midsize electric pickup truck next year.
Between the two investments, Ford says it's helping to secure nearly 4,000 direct jobs.
It's all a multi-billion dollar gamble by Ford that by more efficiently producing EVs that are more affordable in body styles customers desire, it can start making money on electric vehicles for the first time.
The automaker currently offers three EV models: the F-150 Lightning pickup truck, Mustang Mach-E and E-Transit.
Ford's announcement comes a little more than six weeks before the $7,500 federal tax incentive on qualified EVs ends, further challenging the affordability of those vehicles for some.
'The elimination of government-backed incentives and the emergence of new tariff headwinds signal a more volatile phase for the industry. The training wheels are coming off, and the transition to electrification will no longer be buoyed by incentives alone,' wrote director of industry insights for Cox Automotive, Stephanie Valdez Streaty, in a recent report. 'Automakers and retailers alike will need to navigate this next chapter with agility, as the EV landscape becomes more complex and demanding of true market resilience.'
It all adds up to compelling reasons for Ford to invoke its Model T moment.
When Henry Ford began selling the first mass-produced car he told customers they could have any color they wanted, as long as it was black.
More than a century later, the company that invented the assembly line is hoping the re-invented version of it, combined with a simpler platform, will provide enough choices at affordable prices to turn the bottom line for its EV unit from red…to the Model T's only color.
This story will be updated with content from the official announcement event at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant.