Ford Planning a $25,000 Compact EV, Delaying 3-Row EV SUV: Report
Ford is turning its attention to a new platform for affordable, compact EVs, according to a Bloomberg news report today.
The platform will underpin a compact crossover in late 2026 with a starting price around $25,000, with a small truck and dedicated ride-hailing vehicle expected to follow.
As a result, Ford is delaying its plans for an electric three-row SUV that was expected to utilize the Explorer nameplate.
Ford appears to be shifting its priorities. As a wave of low-priced Chinese electric vehicles begin to flood the European market—with the assumption that they will eventually come to the U.S. as well—Ford is delaying its larger EVs to focus on a series of small, affordable electric models, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The first will be a compact SUV due in late 2026, with a starting price of roughly $25,000 that will target the upcoming entry-level Tesla.
This crossover will ride on a new electric platform, and Bloomberg Businessweek says Ford has a team of fewer than 100 people in Irvine, California, working on its development. Along with the SUV, this platform will reportedly spawn a small pickup truck, which could be an electric counterpart to the popular Maverick. The architecture could also lead to a dedicated ride-hailing vehicle, which General Motors had been experimenting with under its autonomous Cruise division and Kia is planning to launch with its PV5 van.
The compact EV is expected to use a lithium-iron-phosphate battery to keep the price down—this chemistry is usually 30 percent cheaper than today's standard lithium-ion batteries. Bloomberg's anonymous sources said that other battery technology is also being considered to reduce costs as much as possible. The affordable-EV project is being led by Alan Clarke, who was in charge of engineering the Tesla Model Y before moving to Ford.
Although Ford had been working on a three-row electric SUV, rumored to bring the long-running Explorer nameplate into the electric era, those plans have now been sidelined, according to Bloomberg. Ford is releasing a small electric crossover in Europe this year that wears the Explorer name and rides on the same Volkswagen MEB platform that underpins the VW ID.4 and Audi Q4 e-tron, but this is set to remain an Old World exclusive.
You Might Also Like
