Last year, Ford Motor suspended production of an electric pickup truck, closed a battery plant in Kentucky and posted a $20 billion loss to explain its scaled back plans.
Then, last month, the executive who oversaw the development of this new technology left the company.
But Ford management insists that these setbacks do not mean the company has given up on electric cars. They point to a former warehouse here in Long Beach, California as proof.
There, a team led by Tesla veteran Alan Clark is building a new electric pickup that will go on sale next year, the first of many models designed to compete on price and technology with the best cars sold by Chinese automakers.
Ford has begun to lift the mystery that has shrouded the project, giving reporters a tour of its Electric Vehicle Development Center in Long Beach last week.
Mr. Clarke admitted in an interview with The New York Times that the past year has been tough on morale for his young team, which includes former employees of Tesla, Apple and other technology companies.
Sales collapsed after Congress eliminated a $7,500 tax credit for electric car purchases. The federal government has also gutted regulations that pressure automakers to sell zero-emission cars.
But William Clay Ford Jr., Ford’s chairman, and Jim Farley, CEO, kept the electric truck project alive while others cut back.
“It really tested the leadership skills,” Mr Clarke said. “The fact that it’s still around,” he said of the pickup truck, “is a testament to Ford management that they really believe it’s the future.”
Mr. Clarke is aiming for the vehicle to sell for $30,000, about the same price as the Ford Maverick, a small pickup truck. This would be a milestone that would bring the purchase price of an electric car on par with a comparable gasoline-powered truck. An electric truck that will be able to travel 300 miles on a charge will be much cheaper to fuel than similar gasoline models.
The vehicle may arrive just in time. Sales of electric vehicles are booming in much of the world and show signs of bottoming out in the United States as gasoline prices rise because of the war with Iran.
Sales of new electric vehicles in the United States rose 20 percent in March from February, according to Cox Automotive, and are growing much more in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
It usually takes months of high fuel prices to change consumer preferences, suggesting electric vehicle sales could continue to grow this year.
If so, Ford won’t have much to offer American car buyers for many months. The company only makes one electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E. Last year, it suspended production of the F-150 Lightning, a full-electric pickup truck. Ford also closed a factory in Kentucky that made batteries for the Lightning and laid off 1,600 workers. Ford is rebuilding a plant to make batteries for energy storage.
Doug Field, a former Tesla and Apple executive who oversaw the development of electric vehicles, unexpectedly announced his departure from Ford last month. Mr Clarke, who was recruited by Mr Field from Tesla in 2022, said the work Mr Field championed would continue.
“He laid the foundation for us all to walk here,” Mr Clarke said. “Now we have to make our own way the rest of the way.
Ford has already produced prototypes of an electric pickup truck that the company is testing. And the company has begun equipping a factory in Louisville, Ky., to produce the truck that will arrive in showrooms next year.
Until recently, the Long Beach center was also off limits to other Ford employees. Some areas still exist to protect Mr. Clarke and his colleagues from interference by others.
His team is already developing other vehicles that will use the same components and technologies. Ford isn’t talking much about those products, but it would be logical to expect SUVs including a successor to the Mach-E.
Last week, several prototypes were wrapped in black fabric in the center. The building is crammed with equipment used to design and test new vehicles and their parts.
In one room, a large lathe-like machine carved life-size models out of foam and clay. Elsewhere, Ford is installing what Mr. Clarke called a “very expensive, very nice thermal chamber” to test whether vehicles and batteries can withstand extreme temperatures.
Ford has not yet shown a complete prototype of its pickup truck. The company claims that it will have a streamlined design for energy efficiency while having more interior space than the Toyota RAV4. It will be the first Ford model designed from the ground up to be electric.
The front and rear, which Ford showed to reporters, will be molded from liquid aluminum. Most vehicles today consist of hundreds of parts that must be welded together. The new approach will greatly simplify production and is critical to achieving the $30,000 target price.
“It’s completely different,” Mr Clarke said.
