Ford’s $30,000 electric pickup project is moving ahead apace ahead of its launch next year, despite the U.S. market pullback from EVs.
The automaker offered a few notes on the Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) during its 2025 fourth quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
CEO Jim Farley reiterated that the pickup will be followed by “multiple vehicles off that same platform,” which is aimed at “bringing younger and more divers customers into our brand.”
The Kentucky-built UEV is being designed with simplicity and low production costs in mind. Its construction uses large “unicastings” that replace dozens of parts and its electric motors are engineered to be the cheapest in the industry to manufacture.
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“We believe this platform localized in LAP [Louisiana Assembly Plant] will hit the majority of profitable EVs sold in the U.S., which are $30,000 to $35,000 dollar EVs, high volume,” Farley said. “Tesla’s shown that they could we can make money in that market even without subsidy from the government at the current cost level.”
The UEV is scheduled to launch in 2027. (Ford)
Tesla’s lowest-priced, U.S.-built models today are the $38,630 Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive and $41,630 Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive.
Ford recently discontinued the full-size F-150 Lightning and scrapped plans to replace it with an new all-electric model, following the early cancelation of the $7,500 federal tax credit on electric vehicle purchases by President Trump and the republican-led congress. It will focus its efforts in that segment on internal combustion engine and hybrid powertrains, which are in far greater demand, especially without EV subsidies available.
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However, while the UEV business plan is being developed to make a profit at the production level that takes the current state of the market into account, it’s also future-proofed if things take a big swing back towards EVs.
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“We will launch multiple vehicles off that same platform, starting with the midsize pickup, bringing younger and more diverse customers into our brand. The universal platform also gives us a scalable hedge against a potential regulation snapback in the future,” Farley said.
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In any event, despite its low price, the UEV will come loaded for bear with Ford’s next-generation Level 3 semi-autonomous driving system, which will allow the driver to take their eyes off of the road on certain highways while the vehicle operates in a lane-centering adaptive cruise control mode. Farley said Ford saved thousands of dollars per vehicle by developing the technology itself.
“Many of our competitors are launching Level 3 with their luxury brands. We’re gonna be doing it with our $30,000 to $35,000 vehicle. That’s a big strategy choice by Ford. We can do that because we did this inside the company and we had control over the hardware, and it wasn’t supplier-based. So it was more affordable. The second thing is experience,” he said.
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