Ford is developing a low-cost EV platform to fuel competition with Tesla and others

Ford is working on a low-cost electric vehicle (EV) platform to launch new price-effective EVs for customers and compete against top EV makers.

The latest information is coming from the Ford CEO, Jim Farley during his investor briefing for the fourth quarter and full-year earning call.

“We made a bet in silence two years ago,” said Farley while describing the “skunkworks” team who’s working on the low-cost EV platform but outside of the “Ford mothership”.

The skunkworks project is developing a third-generation EV that focuses on cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and size factors as well as the battery.

“It was a small group, a small team – some of the best engineers in the world. They’ve developed a flexible platform that will not only deploy to several types of vehicles but will be a large install base for software and services,” comments Farley.

Findings from TechCrunch reveal that Ex-Tesla and Ford Advanced EV development chief Alan Clake is leading the skunkworks project. He’s been working on the project for the past two years in Irvine, California.

The project has members from the Auto Motive Power (AMP), a startup that was acquired by Ford in November last year. AMP founder Anil Paryani is also a core part of this project.

“We’re also adjusting our capital, switching and more focused onto smaller EV products,” Farley explained Ford’s stand on EV future.

However, his company was the first to scale back investments in the EV including the delay of $12 billion in investments. Ford cites that the change in strategy is due to the shifting market trends and slowing consumer demand.

Still, Ford is keen on making new EVs that could bring more sales.

“All of our EV teams are ruthlessly focused on cost and efficiency in our EV products because the ultimate competition is going to be the affordable Tesla and the Chinese OEMs,” Farley said.

Tesla is also working on low-cost vehicles and its CEO, Elon Musk said that a price-effective Tesla platform could be mass-produced in 2025.