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Ford Prepares EV Platform For Compacts And Cheaper Models
Ford is taking important steps in the electric field in Europe, including with the help of Volkswagen’s MEB platform. The electric Ford Explorer is based on this, and a sportier brother of the Explorer will eventually appear. However, Ford is also thinking further. Earlier this year, it was learned that a platform is in the pipeline to eventually get rid of the MEB basis again. Ford CEO Jim Farley is now talking about a newly developed base, and he may be referring to the same thing.
Farley revealed that the basics have been silently being worked on for two years. That was done by a team outside Ford’s mothership’, through some kind of Ford-funded start-up. “They have developed a flexible platform that is not only suitable for various vehicles but also serves as a basis for software and services.” A fairly broad description, but according to Farley, it should concretely lead to smaller and more affordable electric cars. That certainly sounds like music to our Europeans’ ears. Farley says he hopes to be able to provide Tesla and Chinese manufacturers with a response.
For the time being, a lot is still unclear, and you can bet that we will only see something concrete about this in the longer term. As mentioned, in Europe, we are first waiting for the Ford Explorer and possibly the Capri, but also for the fully electric Ford Puma. The latter has nothing to do with this new base yet but is almost certainly on a base prepared for electric propulsion that was already under the Fiesta and the Puma with combustion engines.
