The company has “locked down” the designs of its new electric trucks and crossovers and aims to lower battery cell costs to less than $70 per kilowatt-hour as it phases in cheaper lithium iron phosphate chemistry, Farley said.
In order to boost profitability on its second-generation EVs, Farley said Ford plans to shift to large underbody castings to reduce parts count and simplify manufacturing – a process Tesla Inc. pioneered.
Other gains will be made by introducing more efficient battery chemistries and reducing pack sizes, while shifting to more aerodynamic vehicle designs, the executives said.
Making an EV more aerodynamic can save “thousands of dollars in battery costs,” Farley said. “Why do you think we are doing Formula One? Because they have the best aero people in the world.”
He said Ford is still fighting entrenched mindsets in design and engineering – one of the reasons he created a separate organization, Ford Model e, to oversee development, manufacturing and distribution of the automaker’s future electric vehicles.
“We have a bracket group,” Farley said. “We have hundreds of engineers who make brackets. If you want to make 8 percent margins in EVs … There’s no bracket group.”
