Ford’s future electric lineup is coming more into focus. (No, not that Focus.)
After scoring a big win with the F-150 Lightning, Ford is developing a new electric truck that will likely go on sale in 2025, according to Automotive News. Details are scarce, but the new EV truck will sit alongside an electric Ford Explorer, as well as the automaker’s Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning, as Ford’s family of electric vehicles begins to fill out by the mid-point of the decade.
Ford CEO Jim Farley first teased the new truck back in April, noting that it will be built at the company’s upcoming Blue Oval City campus in Tennessee. The truck will be an “all-new” nameplate, not a redesigned F-150 Lightning, and will help bolster Ford as a leader in electric trucks, Farley said.
Automotive News has some more speculation about the truck:
While details are scarce, it could be a distinctly styled full-size pickup under the F-Series umbrella that would be marketed more toward retail buyers while the traditional Lightning made in Michigan would be focused on commercial sales.
The idea that Ford would introduce a new nameplate rather than electrify one of its existing products, such as the popular Maverick and Bronco marques, indicates that the automaker is feeling bullish about its electrification plans. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on “future product speculation.”
The report reiterates Ford’s plans to launch production of an all-electric Explorer SUV by the end of 2024. The Explorer EV will be built at the company’s factory in Oakville, Ontario, after a previous plan to produce it alongside the Mustang Mach-E in Cuautitlan, Mexico, was scrapped. The Oakville facility, where the gas-powered Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus are built, is in the process of being converted to an EV-only plant, Automotive News reports.
Sales of the new Explorer EV are expected to begin in 2025, though supply chain disruptions and battery material shortages have delayed the automaker’s EV plans in the past.
Farley has hinted at all-electric versions of the new Bronco SUV and Maverick compact pickup, but Automotive News indicates that for the time being, we’re only likely to get a hybrid version of the Bronco to compete with the Jeep Wrangler 4xe by 2024. Hybrid versions of the Bronco Sport and Ranger pickup are also in the works.
Ford has said it wants to be “the clear No. 2 electric vehicle maker in North America within the next couple years and then challenge for No. 1” — though increasing competition from other legacy automakers may complicate that goal. Ford was recently surpassed in EV sales by Hyundai and Kia, which sold 21,467 electric vehicles between January and May of this year. Ford, by comparison, sold 15,718 EVs during the same period.
