Inside the lab where Ford is trying to crack the code on cheap EVs

[littlemissmartypants]

Unibodies, zonal architecture, shorter wiring harnesses. Ford is resorting to proven manufacturing techniques to get its EV costs down.

by
Peter Nelson
May 5, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Ford isn’t sending the clearest signals regarding its EV future. We got a glimpse of its Universal EV (UEV) Project last February, but then it pulled the plug on the F-150 Lightning, which is regarded as one of the more successful electric pickup trucks to date. The climate surrounding electric vehicles hasn’t helped, either, between loosening emissions rules, tariffs, and the elimination of the federal EV tax credit.

But recently, after touring Ford’s less-than-two-year-old Electric Vehicle Development Center (EVDC) located in Long Beach, California, I have a better sense of the company’s current position. Ford says it will continue to build EVs, doing everything possible to make its next model hit a $30,000 price point.

Sitting in a nondescript facility just north of the city’s airport, employees working in this skunkworks facility are harnessing the brand’s tremendously deep experience in vehicle manufacturing by putting almost all of its UEV platform development under one roof. From every square millimeter of interior material to the way the vehicle is assembled, efficiency is the first priority, eventually — hopefully — leading to a lower cost to consumers.

The basic theme of this project is that everything counts, but especially time. In the past, Ford’s development has been split across multiple facilities around the US, but here, having several teams of engineers, designers, and more within a short distance of each other means the most minute changes can be made with little impedance.
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[Ferrets are Cool]

1. By cheap, do they mean less than $50K?

Cheap ain't what it used to be.

[Auggie]

3. Goal is a $30,000 price point -- second paragraph in the OP

[dweller]

2. skunkworks

A skunkworks project is a small, autonomous, and often secretive team within a larger organization, designed to innovate rapidly by bypassing standard bureaucracy.

🤔




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