Small EVs are a big market abroad—a stark contrast to the gigantic offerings like the Ford F-150 Lightning and the plethora of electric SUVs that are prevalent in the U.S. But the small EV market here is growing, and Ford is getting in on the action. The automaker is pivoting to smaller—and cheaper—electric vehicles.
Ford CEO Jim Farley first revealed the pivot on an earnings call in early February. “We made a bet in silence two years ago,” he said, according to MotorTrend, revealing that a skunk works team acting as a startup began working on a low-cost EV back then, in order to better compete with electric vehicles from Chinese automakers.
Now, there are more details on just how affordable those new Ford EVs will be: Bloomberg Businessweek reported this week that the first model will arrive in late 2026, starting around $25,000. (The F-150 Lightning starts at $54,995, while Ford’s electric SUV, the Mustang Mach-E, starts around $43,000.)
Ford is working on its small EVs through a “specialized team” that is based in Irvine, California, Bloomberg reports. That team—made up of fewer than 100 people—is led by Alan Clarke, who was previously at Tesla for 12 years. There, he led the engineering of the Model Y, the company’s top seller; Clarke moved to Ford in 2022.
The compact EVs for Ford will be powered by a “lithium iron phosphate battery, which is about 30% cheaper than traditional lithium-ion batteries,” according to Bloomberg, noting that the company is continuing to explore even cheaper battery tech.
“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 [original equipment manufacturers],” Farley said on the February analyst call. Tesla is also working on a cheaper EV, which is also expected to go for $25,000. Tesla CEO Elon Musk first mentioned that goal in 2020; now, he’s said that the cheaper model will launch in 2025.
Great response and thank you for that
I think most broadly, taking away from comments, it’s that selection and competition in the market pace are good for as consumers. Both of these use cases are completely valid and totally reasonable and finding decently priced products to meet both of those use cases should be possible.
Just another point of anectdata, we keep a 4 door truck that we drive maybe 4 x a month and when guest come out for doing tourist stuff. Without it there is no way we could make it work.
This is the vehicle we’re talking about getting as a replacement to our leaf: https://www.canoo.com/canoo/
I don’t think I’ve seen that one before. I love it. It looks like the same spartan golf cart shape as the Mitsubishi i, but properly sized for a family vehicle rather than a campus cart. I shopped briefly for an i but it has a used price comparable to the original Leaf with less range and lower top speed. Given my disdain for Tesla (even before Elon showed his true Elon, I didn’t like the bad qc and seemingly rushed scifi features), I’m really looking forward to a more diverse EV market. One where I can shop 10 completely distinct vehicles that all suit my variety of needs the way I shop across a swath of gas vehicles now.