- Ford’s upcoming $30,000 electric pickup won’t be limited to a rear-wheel drive setup
- Dual-motor all-wheel drive also comes with the affordable EV truck.
- The EV chief also confirmed that multiple battery options will be available.
FordComing Affordable mid-sized electric pickup truckwhich has no name or confirmed release date, is making headlines once again – and for good reason.
Scheduled to go into production next year, we thought the four-door electric car would be It will only be offered with rear-wheel drive configurationas noted by Ford CEO Jim Farley. This was a disappointment for people who need four-wheel drive for fun or because they live in areas that get frequent snowfall.
Dodge Field at Ford’s EV event in Louisville, Kentucky.
Photo by: Ford
But this assumption was wrong, confirmed Doug Field, head of Ford’s electric vehicle division Motor Trend The upcoming $30,000 electric pickup will also be offered with a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup at launch. The rear wheels will use a permanent magnet motor, while all-wheel drive models will add an induction motor driving the front axle.
Furthermore, Ford claims that these engines, which will be manufactured in-house, will be the cheapest in the world, allowing the blue oval automaker to keep costs low and the selling price low.
Field also said the unnamed electric vehicle will be available with multiple battery options, allowing buyers to choose between a lower price and longer range. However, we still don’t know what those capabilities are, and whether or not the larger package will make the first model built on Ford’s Universal EV platform a true all-rounder.
I expect that the cheapest option, which is slated to start at $30,000, will be powered by a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack, but it’s too early to know for sure. Ford said during a press conference in August last year that it aims to have a battery that is approximately 15% smaller than that of the Chinese-made BYD Atto electric car, which amounts to Approximately 51 kWh of energyAccording to our calculations.
However, no one – except Ford – knows what will open at the top and bottom of this package, so it’s anyone’s guess at this point. What we do know is that the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistries will be powered by the automaker’s new EV platform, with batteries rated at 400 volts instead of 800 volts to cut costs.
Whatever the capacity, CEO Jim Farley has insisted that the new mid-sized electric truck will be able to export energy from its battery to power an entire home. The discontinued F-150 Lightning has the same functionality, and has proven its worth during hurricanes and power outages, so it’s great to know that an entry-level electric vehicle will offer the same feature for a lot less money.
