Ford’s $30,000 Midsize Electric Pickup Truck Will Offer Level 3 Autonomy

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A few weeks ago in an article about the issues Ford has been having with its EV program — including a $19.5 billion write-off and a switch from manufacturing batteries for electric cars to batteries for energy storage — we mentioned the work going on at its self-described “skunk works” in Southern California. That location is separate and distinct from all other Ford operations and that is intentional.

The US auto industry for the past century has suffered from “not invented here” syndrome, an attitude that discounts any ideas that did not spring full-blown from the brow of loyal company employees. The facility in California is headed by Doug Field, who started his career at Ford before going to work for Tesla where he played a major role in getting the Model 3 into production.

Now Field is back at Ford, where he is heading up a team of about 500 employees drawn from major tech companies as well as Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid. Their mission is simple — design electric vehicles that can be manufactured in the US that are better than anything China has to offer, and are price competitive with them as well. You might think that is a tall order, and it is. But there are hints that suggest Ford may actually be making progress toward that goal.

The Least Expensive Electric Motor

In a recent interview with Motor Trend, Doug Field said his team is hard at work designing electric motors for Ford’s upcoming electric vehicles that cost less to produce than those used by any other manufacturer — even its Chinese rivals. It’s all part of the company’s push to develop the Universal EV Platform unveiled last summer at what CEO Jim Farley called a Model T Moment.

Farley previously had raved about a Xiaomi sedan he had driven for 6 months and lamented that neither Ford nor any other US-based company could build anything like it for the price. The Doug Field team is tasked with radically altering that equation.

The Universal EV Platform will be used first as the basis of a new midsize electric pickup truck, but images that flashed behind Farley during his Model T Moment presentation indicated it could also be used for a variety of other vehicles, including several SUVs of various sizes and even (gasp!) a sedan. Farley proclaimed the new platform will offer impressive range, be capable of powering a home for up to six days during a grid outage, and offer passengers the same interior space as a Toyota RAV4.

The Universal EV Platform is a clean sheet design that borrows nothing from any other Ford vehicles, except for having a wheel at all four corners. Motor Trend says it “aims to leverage cost savings, engineering cleverness, and manufacturing changes to streamline development and more to reduce parts count, complexity, and weight.” It will feature larger and simpler high pressure castings, fewer fasteners, 4,000 fewer feet of wiring, and a battery one-third smaller with the same performance.

Sources say it will use LFP cells and be an integral part for the vehicle’s structure. Who will supply those advanced battery cells is unknown at this time, but Ford has a long standing relationship with CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer.

The assembly line for the new vehicles sounds a lot like the “unboxed” method begin promoted by Tesla, in which front and rear castings are fitted with all the necessary componentsbefore being combined into a finished vehicle. Traditionally, the unibody structure was completed first, with those components — steering wheels and pedals, stereos and seats — slipped in later through door and window openings.

The first vehicle to use the new Universal EV Platform will be the midsize pickup, which will start at less than $30,000. It will be built at Ford’s Louisville assembly plant, where the F-250 Super Duty pickup truck is manufactured today. The target date for the start of production is late 2027. Where other vehicles using the same platform will be made is unknown at this time. Of course, if the midsize pickup truck has disappointing sales, there may not be any other vehicles.

Eyes-Off Driving

The mania to make cars that people don’t actually have to drive is accelerating. New players like Mobileye, Qualcomm, and ZF are now offering bespoke off the shelf autonomous driving systems that manufacturers can use to relieve their customers of the burden of actually paying attention to the road ahead. Ford is charting its own course, however, and once again the California “skunk works” is involved. In a blog post on January 8, 2026, Doug Field said:

“For too long, the auto industry has been in a race to apply technology to products: more screens, sensors, megapixels, and compute that drive up cost. Too often, the most meaningful innovations end up reserved for the elite, gated behind $70,000 – $100,000 luxury price tags.

“At Ford, our North Star for technology implementation starts with the utility and joy it delivers to as many people as possible. That includes the families who rely on us daily and the millions of workers who use our trucks and vans as their most important tool.

“This is the democratization of technology, just as Henry Ford democratized the automobile over a century ago. If a feature doesn’t solve a real problem or make you smile, customers shouldn’t have to pay for it. Truly impactful technology must be attainable. If it doesn’t reach the many, it isn’t a revolution — it’s a luxury.”

“What customers need is intelligence that understands where you are, what you’re doing, and what your vehicle is capable of, and then makes the next decision simpler. Imagine you’re at a home improvement store standing in front of a pallet of supplies. Instead of guessing or searching for a tape measure, you can simply snap a photo on your phone of the bags of mulch and ask: ’How many of these will fit in my truck bed?’” Field wrote.

As an answer to Mobileye and Qualcomm, Field explained that his team is “focused on efficiency — delivering more capability, not just sheer processing power. Because we own the technology behind our driver assistance systems, we can deliver significantly more capability at a 30 percent lower cost than if we bought it from outside suppliers, which makes advanced driver assistance scalable.”

“We plan to introduce new hardware and software, thanks to our in-house teams, starting in 2027 on our all-new, affordable Universal Electric Vehicle platform. And we aren’t stopping at hands-free driving. Building on this same flexible foundation, Level 3 eyes-off driving will be road ready in 2028, making the ultimate in-vehicle experience available for the many, not just a privileged few.”

Technology For All

Field said Ford has created a “vehicle brain” — one powerful module that “unifies infotainment, ADAS, audio, and networking. By doing this ourselves, we’ve cut the size nearly in half while dramatically increasing performance. For customers, that means a vehicle that feels more consistent, more reliable, and more capable year after year.”

“The industry is at a crossroads. Many are outsourcing the soul of their machines and saving their best work for their most expensive vehicles. We chose a different path. Build the capability in-house, fuse deep software and hardware expertise with Ford’s global scale, and make the math work for the customer. Because the only innovation that matters is the kind you can actually use — every day. That’s how we turn the advanced into the accessible and deliver the future to everyone.”

Those are bold words, and music to our ears here at the CleanTechnica global fun house. These are dark times for EV revolution in the US, and Field’s words are just the elixir we need to give us hope for the future. More capable and affordable EVs are coming. Even though Ford got a bloody nose in round one of the EV transition, it has not abandoned the fight. In fact, it has taken the lessons learned and applied them to new strategies that hold promise for the future.

We wish Ford well with its Universal EV Platform. We only get so many chances in life to grab the brass ring, but Ford has taken prudent and rational steps to do just that. Beginning next near, we will start to find out if Doug Field and his band of merry pranksters have cracked the code for EV success.