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.
I think that’s the key. I think EVs work great for a large swath of the densely populated East Coast and some fairly urban places in the rest of the country. But all of the midsize towns and small cities in the South, Midwest, and West are going to be very tough to manage in an EV.
Would it cover your needs 80% of the time? Absolutely. But in reality you need a second vehicle that burns fuel to cover that 20%. The places where this is most true are also the poorest places in the county. The places where buying one vehicle that can do everything is critical. They also have the harshest weather and are much closer to situations where survival is vehicle dependent. The vehicles have to be so inexpensive you almost can’t afford to not have one or they have to do everything better than their ICE counterparts for similar money to get widespread adoption.
I’ve been saying for a while now that HOAs need to have a small pool of pickups to time share. People need pickups occasionally, but definitely not daily for the vast majority. Their fuel consumption, emissions, road wear and safety make a huge impact. Needlessly, most of the time. A small HOA fleet would allow for people in suburbs to focus on people transporters for their daily drivers.
Uhaul and Home Depot (among others) rent trucks. When I moved, I had no furniture and no car. I biked past a yard sale with a bunch of things I wanted, told them what I wanted, rode to Uhaul, rented a truck, and brought a couch, a desk, a table, and 4 chairs home with me, for a rental fee of $30 as I recall, and not much more to buy all that furniture.