Ford said Monday it will invest “approximately $5 billion” to develop a new EV platform and launch a midsize four-door electric pickup in 2027 with a target starting price of $30,000.
The investment will create or secure nearly 4,000 jobs at the Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky and BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, including 2,200 hourly positions tied to a $2 billion upgrade at the Louisville facility to build the electric truck.
“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 Ford’s chief Jim Farley.
The Detroit automaker stated that its new EV platfrom uses 20% fewer parts, 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer workstations, and enables assembly 15% faster than a typical vehicle.
Ford stated that the integration between the Ford Universal EV Production System and Platform, assembly of the 2027 electric truck “could be up to 40% faster than Louisville Assembly Plant’s current vehicles.”
“We have all lived through far too many ‘good college tries’ by Detroit automakers to make affordable vehicles that ends up with idled plants, layoffs and uncertainty. So, this had to be a strong, sustainable and profitable business,” Farley added.
“From Day 1, we knew there was no incremental path to success. We empowered a tiny skunkworks team three time zones away from Detroit. We tore up the moving assembly line concept and designed a better one. And we found a path to be the first automaker to make prismatic LFP batteries in the US,” the company’s CEO continued.
According to Jim Farley, the model will have a “lower cost of ownership over five years than a three-year-old used Tesla Model Y.”
As reported earlier today, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois raised the firm’s price target on Ford shares to $9 from $8 while reiterating an ‘Underperform’ rating.
According to the new research note obtained by PriceTarget, Houchois said Ford’s full-year net tariff guidance of $2 billion is “not very different” from Stellantis at $1.7 billion and General Motors at $2–3 billion excluding Korea, after adjusting for size.
