Ford pitches first $30,000 electric truck built on new Universal EV platform to cut costs

Ford is putting a $5 billion bet on its next generation of electric vehicles, with a $30,000 electric truck built on a new Universal EV platform.

The company said Tuesday that this platform will use a growing technology that Tesla already commercialized in the U.S. with the Cybertruck.

This plan comes as electric vehicle costs remain high, mostly because of the battery. Ford says the battery makes up about 40% of total vehicle cost and more than 25% of total weight.

Instead of adding more battery to calm range anxiety, Ford is targeting efficiency across the whole vehicle.

Ford revisits turbo strategy, turning its focus to smaller batteries

Up until the early 1970s, carmakers followed one rule for gas vehicles. More power meant a bigger engine. Bigger engines meant more weight, more cost, and worse fuel economy. Then the fuel crisis in the mid-1970s changed the game. Automakers needed both power and fuel savings. The turbocharger stepped in.

The first racing use appeared in 1962. The real mainstream shift came in 1973 with the BMW 2002 Turbo.

That car showed that a smaller engine could deliver strong output. The turbo used wasted energy to create more compression. A small engine could act like a larger one.

In 2011, Ford introduced EcoBoost on the F-150 pickup in the U.S. Many doubted buyers would accept smaller turbo engines in trucks. Sales later surged. Today, nearly 75% of F-150 trucks are sold with turbocharged engines, and almost all Ford gas vehicles offer a turbo option.

Ford now draws a parallel with EVs. Adding more battery increases cost and weight. It also creates what the company calls a major physics challenge. The new bet is system integration.

Ford is moving power electronics in-house and building full charging stack

Ford defines electrical architecture as the blueprint for how power and signals move through a vehicle, saying, ” Power conversion within an electric vehicle platform can account for a surprising amount of wasted energy in a vehicle while charging or even taking energy from the 400V battery and converting it to 48V for the low-voltage devices.”

Many of these functions are usually sourced to outside suppliers. Each supplier adds its own housing, fasteners, and connectors. That increases cost and weight.

In 2023, Ford brought its high-voltage power electronics architecture and design in-house. The company acquired Auto Motive Power, or AMP. Engineers from AMP joined the team. They had prior experience in power conversion and energy management for global EVs already on sale.

For the first time, customers will use a fully electric charging ecosystem designed internally by Ford with its own software. Hardware, including bi-directional charging, comes from the same integrated team working on the platform and vehicle, which Ford says reduces charging time, extends battery life, and lowers total ownership cost.

The work goes beyond introducing Ford’s first 48-volt low-voltage system. The new hardware and software helped cut the mid-size electric truck’s wire harness by 4,000 feet. It also made it 22 pounds lighter than one of Ford’s first-generation EVs.

Ford said, “We know there will be skeptics, just like there were when Ford introduced the turbo on the F-150. Other companies will claim that they’ve tried much of this before. But physics isn’t proprietary. We’re creating a truly integrated electric vehicle platform, not a single part that can be easily copied.”

If the strategy works, Ford says it will offer a family of EVs priced to compete with top global vehicles, including gas models. The company acquired Auto Motive Power, or AMP. It also says progress is underway and more details will follow.