EVwire newsletter #157: Ford's new EV direction — Shell shuts down Volta — Lyft and Baidu bring robotaxis to Europe

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Yesterday, Ford unveiled the Ford Universal EV Platform, a new fundamental approach to how Ford makes its electric vehicles, starting with a four-door midsize $30,000 electric pickup truck built in the Louisville Assembly Plant in 2027.

This is the result of the so-called ”skunkworks” EV design center in Long Beach, California, that was assembled to solve the next-gen EV equation for Ford.

We did not get specifications about the vehicles themselves, although there seems to be at least one prototype out there that they showed selected employees. This is the only picture we got of the vehicle, really:

Here’s Ford’s skunkworks team explaining the new platform and the changes in this video:

And here are some additional details on the vehicles and what the new platform brings system:

Now, something caught my ear on the Ford livestream from Doug Fields that I thought I should share, and it made it all the way to Elon Musk as well (link):

Speaking of which, we’re seeing quite a bit of Ford’s current approach as something that is rooted in the EV industry already, mostly brought to life by Tesla (gigacasting, unboxed manufacturing process, LFP structural battery). Here’s an approach that Tesla has only partially applied to its manufacturing lines so far:

…and the most likely reason Ford dubbed this “the Model T moment” when teasing the event:

Ford transformed the traditional assembly line into an “assembly tree”.

Instead of one long conveyor, three sub-assemblies run down their own lines simultaneously and then join together:

Large single-piece aluminum unicastings (which would be called gigacasting elsewhere, we presume) replace dozens of smaller parts, enabling the front and rear of the vehicle to be assembled separately.

The front and rear are then combined with the third sub-assembly, the structural battery, which is independently assembled with seats, consoles, and carpeting, to form the vehicle;

Parts travel down the assembly tree to operators in a kit. Within that kit, all fasteners, scanners, and power tools required for the job are included – and in the correct orientation for use.

Ford says that the Ford Universal EV Production System “dramatically improves ergonomics for employees by reducing twisting, reaching, and bending, allowing them to focus on the job at hand.” The livestream added that there will be 63% less sitting for the employees in the vehicle to install parts and 60% + improvement in overhead reaching.

Louisville Assembly Plant will expand by 52,000 square feet in order to move material more efficiently. Ford said in the livestream that the Louisville plant will have the highest level of automation of all of Ford’s plants now.

The real features and specs of the trucks will be announced later.

Oh, and they actually had a Ford Model T next to the stage, too:

If you wish to share this deeper dive of mine, here it all is as an article on EVwire.

Welcome back to the game, Ford.
It seems you now stand a chance — make it happen.

This is the absolute best Bloomberg headline I’ve seen in a long while (article link, via Juraj):

And it’s true.

On another somewhat related topic, if you’ve been with us for a while, you’ve noticed that one of the things I have absolutely avoided over these past 4.5 years is making or sharing EV adoption forecasts with you.

I understand the need for it for decisions by many stakeholders, but in reality, it would just be plain misleading for me to share them with you.

It's just the nature of such models; there are just too many parameters to consider. Now, here’s a great and clean picture from BloombergNEF’s Colin McKerracher on why this seems to have been a good call (link):

This was a fun find in the article: “Our early outlooks projected that China’s EV demand would remain policy-led until 2025. Instead, organic consumer demand took over around 2022."

How’s that for the EV drivers taking over?

Keep in mind that while forecasts can be too optimistic, it doesn’t mean we should not. The EV adoption is fascinating to watch unfold across the world, and it is so different per region, as you’ll soon see in my first half of 2025 sales report. Kind of validates the “The Whole World Is Switching To EVs Faster Than You” one, unless you’re in one of those top countries yourself. Our 13,447 readers are from all over the globe.

'I do have to admit I was quite naive myself won the EV transition timelines when I started reporting on the industry almost five years ago, but luckily, I hope I managed to not force that too much on you with the forecast types. 😅

So here, we’ll keep reporting what is happening in the industry today and in the near past, and we’ll detail the plans of all players in our industry. We’ll just skip the forecasting part.

Remember the Lordstown, Ohio plant that Foxconn once acquired from GM?

We talked about this plant extensively a few years ago, as it was in the middle of the rise and fall of Lordstown Motors and its EV Endurance, which is now bankrupt.

By the way, Lordstown Motors emerged from bankruptcy under the Nu Ride name last year with a nearly singular focus: continuing its lawsuit against iPhone-maker Foxconn for allegedly “destroying the business of an American startup.”

But let’s look further.

Foxconn took in other niche EV players as well, like:
IndiEV (bankrupt, sued Foxconn);
Fisker, for Pear production (bankrupt, but outside Foxconn).
Foxconn was also supposed to be the savior of Byton in 2021 (bankrupt, sued Foxconn).

The Monarch Tractors that made (makes?) autonomous e-tractors seemed to be the last one standing, and although it had some troubles too, raised a $133M Series C in 2024.

Now, the Lordstown, Ohio plant is reportedly being purchased by Softbank for the Stargate AI project.

*Jaan shakes his fists at AI data centers*

It seems the amazing Canva job I did back in 2023, adding the “Can’t” to this factory sign, became even more true than I thought:

I promise I won’t do such things again.
Also, does this end Foxconn’s plans of building EVs in the US entirely?
We haven’t heard much of its Asian side EV ventures either.

The US Air Force is planning to buy two Tesla Cybertrucks for… target practice. Of precision-guided weapons. (link) The reason for asking for the Cybertrucks specifically (other 31 car procurements did not need a specific brand) was also interesting:
“In the operating theatre, it is likely the type of vehicles used by the enemy may transition to Tesla Cyber trucks as they have been found not to receive the normal extent of damage expected upon major impact. Testing needs to mirror real-world situations.”

Tesla will open up its robotaxi service in Austin for everyone next month.
It’s been invite-only so far.

Regulators in Texas also officially listed Tesla Robotaxi LLC as a licensed entity on their website, a license that is necessary under a new state law that takes effect on September 1, which regulates rideshare operations using autonomous vehicles the same as services using human drivers.

What I’ve found rather interesting to watch is the pricing that the different ride-hailing and robotaxi players go with.

Now, I realize why short trips are disincentivized by any network by a higher asking price (for operator, it’s about getting to the customer vs reward basically). It is interesting to see that Tesla has seemingly not put the logic into its calculation and is asking so much less for the 2.9-mile ride (link):

Is it about Tesla assuming better unit economics than it already has (aka coverage later on with thousands of vehicles it will deploy), or can they actually make it profitable today with these prices without Tesla-side subsidization, and Waymo is just grossly overasking (which, to be fair, people are still willing to pay).

Watch tip: “Breaking Tesla’s Robotaxi (Stress Test)” (32-min video, of 69 rides and 30 hrs of footage)
I haven’t shared the robotaxi reviews with you other than a few edge cases early on. But this, I believe, is so far the best actual review of the robotaxi so far, focusing on the car’s driving and not just the company and user experience. AI DRIVR tried to find the toughest routes possible, find all edge cases, and see how it behaves.

Lyft and Baidu partner to launch Baidu’s Apollo Go RT6 electric fully autonomous robotaxis in Germany and the UK in 2026. (link)

Baidu is currently the largest robotaxi provider in the world (slightly ahead of Waymo in paid rides done), with 11M paid rides done as of May, with a fleet of more than a thousand robotaxis in 11 cities in China. It has also recently partnered with Uber for thousands of Baidu robotaxis on the Uber platform “Outside US & Mainland China”, with likely focus on Middle-East and the rest of Asia-Pacific first.

Lyft’s European entry is quite strategically played here, as it bought the FREENOW e-mobility app from BMW and Mercedes-Benz in April for €175M (~$200M). This gave it access to millions of users over nine European markets. Perfect ground to launch the Baidu robotaxis.

Waymo partners with Avis Budget Group, and Avis will be responsible for fleet management, including vehicle maintenance, cleaning, charging, and infrastructure support for Waymo's robotaxis in Dallas, launching in 2026.

Interesting factoid from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: The average Waymo robotaxi completes more trips per day than 99% of Uber drivers.

It’s also somewhat of a nothingburger statistic given that Uber drivers choose whenever they work, a robotaxi does not. It does bring attention to one thing though: imagine how much less headcount managing problems a robotaxi network has - so much less “units”, be it human or robotaxi, needed to cover and keep on the platform for one shift on average.

NHTSA has certified Zoox (Amazon’s self-driving unit) vehicles for demonstration use and closed a probe into whether they complied with federal requirements. Aka, green light.

Here’s a video of what it feels like getting picked up and dropped off in a Zoox in San Francisco: (video).

Zoox just opened its serial production facility in the SF Bay Area, where it plans to make 10,000 of these per year. Here’s a 36-second video from the factory.

On January 21st, 2023, I wrote to you how Shell acquired Volta Charging, taking it private for $169M in cash. Volta had 3,000 chargers up in the US, and their flagship product is the chargers with these large ad displays on 'em, located in high-traffic commercial locations. For example, stores like Kroger and Walgreens. Through this model, the charging was mostly free for the drivers.

Fast forward 2.5 years, and Shell shut down Volta Charging. Shell said the decision was part of its strategy to “focus on high-speed public charging at Shell-branded sites like service stations and standalone EV hubs.” (link)

Shell allegedly also explored the sale of Volta earlier in 2025 but did not secure a buyer. As a result, the company will dismantle all Volta chargers by the end of the year. We’ll see ~190 of the employees laid off, some of whom Shell says have opportunities to apply for other roles.

What I am a bit surprised about is that Shell didn't rip-and-replace the same spots with their own chargers, but it seems it falls out of their focus on convenience stores & EV hubs. Pity. And perhaps it all has something to do with Shell discontinuing its Shell Sky software in third-party commercial EV chargers in the US and Canada at the end of 2024.

I hope some local networks start picking these up, even if just for the location, partnership grid access, and perhaps it’d be a great way to get into a partnership in with the bigger retailers like Whole Foods?

Here’s something that also came from my keyboard: I put together a research article on the topic of EV Route Planning and what tools to use for planning your multi-country EV road trips: (link).

I believe this might have turned out to be the most thorough overview of the available route planning tools out there.

It is focused on Europe, as I did in our partnership with the CPO Eleport, but several of the tools also apply to North America, too. In case you missed it, here’s the research on the world’s largest charging hubs I put together recently: (link).
It was also fun to see that Google popped us right up into the first source and AI overview when searching for the world’s largest EV charging hubs.

Federal Highway Administration revealed updated guidance to relaunch the NEVI program this Monday (link; 7-page guidance pdf).

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy says, “If Congress is requiring the federal government to support charging stations, let’s cut the waste and do it right.”

Bill Ferro from Paren, whose take on the US charging industry I’ve always found one of the best out there, calls it exactly like it is: “We waited 7 months for this! It's a nothingburger.” See his full take here: (link).

And here’s a TL;DR from Isabella Craddock at Electric Era (link):
“The update focuses solely on statutory requirements, ending Justice40 mandates, dropping the 50-mile station spacing rule, and streamlining state plans to core legal elements. States now have far greater discretion over EV charging deployment, likely leading to faster but less uniform buildouts nationwide.“

You know how signs for EV charging spots say “EV PARKING ONLY” to avoid ICEing?

Well, if you develop large standalone charging sites with amenities like IONNA does in the US, that applies for the charger side as well, but it seems they needed something else for the rest of the site (link):

Or perhaps this is just because the local law or regulations demand the site to be accessible for all vehicles, and this is a gentle nudge towards EVs?