Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed right this moment in an earnings name {that a} previously-unknown “skunkworks team” has been engaged on growth of a brand new EV platform. This crew — which Farley mentioned operated as a “startup” exterior of the standard firm construction for the previous two years — centered on creating a low-cost electrical platform. This new versatile platform goes to be the premise for a number of upcoming automobiles.

While specifics of those new automobiles are obscure, Farley famous this platform’s primary purpose is low price. He famous that EV patrons, as soon as bought on electrification, stay loyal to EVs, however up-front bills have made the transition slower than initially anticipated. The new platform, Farley defined, is meant to fight “affordable Teslas and Chinese OEMs”, which he sees as the last word opponents within the EV market.

This comes at a time when Tesla’s Model Y undercuts Ford’s Mustang Mach-E by a number of thousand {dollars}, and Tesla’s most cost-effective car — the Model 3 sedan — is cheaper by virtually $8,000. Despite being a few of Ford’s costlier automobiles, the corporate has not turned a revenue on them, as an alternative shedding $4.7 billion {dollars} on EVs in 2023. This means the brand new skunkworks-developed platform will deal with revenue from any angle.

To this finish, Farley famous the brand new platform will probably be “a large install base for software and services.” Specific providers weren’t talked about, however at the moment, Ford provides its hands-free driving system, BlueCruise, for $75 a month. Ford Pro — the corporate’s fleet and work-focused truck division — noticed virtually 50% progress in 2023 in software program subscriptions (for issues resembling car telematics and charging patterns), and Ford executives stress that subscriptions are high-profit. It’s doable this new technology of EVs coming in 2026 — which firm officers have mentioned must be worthwhile, not like the present technology so far  — will department out and provide extra subscriptions. That may very well be dangerous information for these of you who need to pay for your heated seats once.