Ford Won’t Give Its Electric ‘Bullet Train’ SUV a Shot

Ford’s electric vehicle plans have been derailed.This week, the automaker announced a major shift in its battery-powered vehicle strategy. A new electric pickup that was originally scheduled to launch in 2025 has been pushed off until 2027 and another intriguing project canceled altogether.Last year during its Capital Markets Day event, Ford said it was working on a revolutionary electric SUV. The model would have three rows of seating like the popular Explorer, but was designed to be lightweight and low drag so that it could provide more than 300 miles of driving range on the highway between charges without the need for a large, heavy and expensive battery pack.Ford didn’t reveal what it looked like, but did show a rendering of an interior and chassis wrapped in the ghostly outline of a sleek train.“It’s beautiful and unlike anything in the segment so far,” Doug Field, Ford’s chief EV, digital and design officer said at the presentation. “It’ll be a longer, sleeker, quieter vehicle with amazing size and features.”The lost EV would have been wonderfully aerodynamic. Courtesy FordMr. Field and Ford CEO Jim Farley both referred to it as a “personal bullet train” in their remarks. It was set to go on sale in 2025 with the pickup, but this April was pushed to 2026 and has now been abandoned altogether. Persistently high battery costs and predicted low market demand for this type of vehicle just didn’t support a business case at the moment and Ford may end up taking a $1.9 billion hit to shut the project down. Instead, it will focus on profitable, hybrid three-row SUVs, although it hasn’t indicated if they will retain the “bullet train” philosophy.The move is part of a broader change to Ford’s overall strategy, which also includes the addition of new hybrid F-Series Super Duty commercial trucks that will be built at the Canadian factory that had been slated for the electric SUV.It’s still working on a new electric truck codenamed T3 that will follow the F-150 Lightning in 2027 at the earliest and it sounds like it could be as futuristic-looking as the canceled SUV.Mr. Farley has called it a “Millennium Falcon with a back porch” while Mr. Owens said it is a “badass” and “groundbreaking” product. Considering the high bar that the Tesla Cybertruck has set for visual impact, it may have to be all those things to live up to the hype.Ford is working on a lower cost, EV pickup. Courtesy FordFord did confirm the existence of another electric vehicle that may help fill the hole in its lineup left by the abandoned SUV. It recently set up an under-the-radar operation in California to develop a low-cost electric vehicle platform that is led by a Tesla alumnus, Alan Clarke. Its mission is to design a range of vehicles that can sell for as little as $40,000 or even $30,000. Ford refers to it as a “skunkworks,” using a term that dates back to Lockheed’s operations during World War 2. Mr. Farley claims it is so independent and hush-hush that his I.D. card can’t open the doors in its southern California office.Mr. Farley had previously said that “super-efficient” EVs for “work” and “adventure” were on the way and Ford has now confirmed that the first fruits of this labor will be a midsize pickup that should be on sale around the same time as the larger T3 truck. No details were shared, but Ford said it is “expected to cater to customers who want more for their money – more range, more utility, more usability.”If it can deliver all of that affordably in a package the size of the current midsize Ranger pickup and stick to the schedule this time, it definitely would not … stink.

Ford Won’t Give Its Electric ‘Bullet Train’ SUV a Shot

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