EVWire brief: 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 on video:
BREAKING: Here is the new Ford Universal EV Platform, explained by the skunkworks team.
Essentially they are going for an unboxed manufacturing process, gigacasting (they call it unicasting), LFP batteries which will be integrated as the vehicle floor.
— #Jaan of the EVwire.com ⚡ (#@TheEVuniverse)
2:38 PM • Aug 11, 2025
And here are some additional details on the vehicles and what the new platform brings system:
The first will be a midsize four-door electric pickup with a targeted starting price of about $30,000, assembled at Louisville Assembly Plant and reaching customers in 2027. The midsize truck will have a targeted 0-60 time as fast as a Mustang EcoBoost, with more downforce.
The new platform reduces parts by 20% compared to a typical vehicle, with 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer workstations dock-to-dock in the plant, and 15% faster assembly time.
The wiring harness will be >4,000 feet (1.3 kilometers) shorter and 10 kilograms lighter (22 pounds) than the one used in their first-gen electric SUV.
New zonal electric architecture. is used, which should “unlock” all types of new possibilities. But no mention of 48V, and the platform will reportedly stay at 400V.
They will use prismatic LFP batteries, as a structural sub-assembly that also serves as the vehicle’s floor. Batteries made in the US. Howeer,
InsideEVs said they heard on media briefing, that Ford aims to make the battery 15% smaller than that of the BYD Atto 3. This would put it at ~51kWh usable energy, and per our calculations, might mean it falls into a 150-200 mile usable range. However, there will reportedly be NMC longer range versions, too.
The new midsize truck is forecasted to have more passenger room than the latest Toyota RAV4, even before you include the frunk and the truck bed. You can lock your surfboards or other gear in that bed – no roof rack or trailer hitch racks required.
They say the truck has a lower cost of ownership over five years than a three-year-old used Tesla Model Y. Yet as Doug Field put it, perhaps hinting at the Slate truck, he said: “This is not going to be a stripped-down, old-school vehicle as a path to low cost.”
New Assembly Line logic
…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.
Now, something that I heard on the Ford livestream from Doug Fields made it all the way to Elon Musk as well, as these were his words in the first place:
Ford says that 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 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. Digital infrastructure upgrades will give Louisville Assembly Plant the fastest network with the most access points out of any Ford plant globally, enabling more quality scans. Ford said in the livestream that the Louisville plant will have the highest level of automation of all of Ford’s plants now.
Assembly of the midsize electric truck could be up to 40% faster than the Louisville Assembly Plant’s current vehicles.
Ford plans to invest nearly $2 billion in the Louisville Assembly Plant to assemble the midsize electric truck, securing 2,200 hourly jobs, and it is supported by an incentive offer from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.
Additional specifications for the midsize electric truck – including reveal date, starting price, EPA-estimated battery range, battery sizes, and charge times – “will be communicated later.”
Quotes:
“We took a radical approach to a very hard challenge: Create affordable vehicles that delight customers in every way that matters – design, innovation, flexibility, space, driving pleasure, and cost of ownership – and do it with American workers,” said
“We took inspiration from the Model T – the universal car that changed the world. We assembled a really brilliant collection of minds across Ford and unleashed them to find new solutions to old problems. We applied first‑principles engineering, pushing to the limits of physics to make it fun to drive and compete on affordability. Our new zonal electric architecture unlocks capabilities the industry has never seen. This isn’t a stripped‑down, old‑school vehicle.”
Oh, and they actually had a Ford Model T next to the stage, too:
Source: Ford press release, and the livestream of the event.
