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• Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed new details about the company’s upcoming $30,000 electric pickup.
• On The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Ford’s head honcho referred to the revolutionary new EV as “really not a pickup,” but rather as having “a new silhouette.”
• What’s more, the American automaker is planning on offering a digital experience that’s never been seen before.

Ford is taking a lot of risks with its revolutionary Universal EV Platform that will underpin a series of affordable electric cars starting in 2027. From the three-piece body structure to the ruthless elimination of any component that’s not necessary.

Now, though, the company’s CEO, Jim Farley, just threw a curveball into the discussion about the upcoming $30,000 mid-size pickup truck, the first vehicle to use the new platform. “Our first body style will be a pickup, but it’s really not a pickup. I would say it’s a new silhouette,” Farley said during The Verge’s Decoder podcast. That’s unexpected, but there’s more: “What I mean by that is that it has more room than a RAV4, the best-selling passenger car in the US. That doesn’t include its frunk and pickup truck bed.”

A teaser of Ford’s $30,000 electric pickup

Photo by: Ford

There’s very little concrete information about Ford’s affordable electric pickup, and this only complicates things. Some auto journalists, including we at InsideEVs, have said that the battery-powered truck will be something akin to a Maverick, but now the company’s head honcho is making things a bit more complicated by putting this riddle out there.

What we do know is that, whatever the body shape, Ford’s new electric pickup will have a unibody construction, like the Maverick. Unlike the Maverick, however, the American automaker’s radical new construction method, which combines just three big castings, could allow it to achieve major packaging gains. The Toyota RAV4 is a pretty practical vehicle for the segment, but if Ford sticks to its word, it might convince buyers who usually go for larger vehicles that they can have the same space in a smaller package and at a lower price.

Ford CEO Jim Farley

Photo by: Ford

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That $30,000 price tag is a huge undertaking, and it’s aimed directly at the biggest chunk of the American car market: used vehicles. Farley said on The Verge’s podcast that two-thirds of cars sold in the United States right now are used vehicles, and that the industry doesn’t really talk about this very often.

“We never really talk about those two-thirds, but their average price is around $30,000,” the company’s CEO said. “The average new car is obviously much higher than that. Most of the five-year-old vehicles that people are driving around in the U.S. are going to be around $30,000. This is the most important part of the EV market. It’s not expensive Lucids and Teslas.”

What’s more, Farley let it slip out that the new EV will be more like a car and less like a traditional pickup, just because it won’t have all-wheel drive, at least not at first. “It is very fast, it’s rear-wheel drive, it’s super fun to drive,” Ford’s CEO said for The Verge.

Inside, customers should expect a totally different user experience, with Farley emphasizing that the infotainment system is unlike anything on the market today, including in China, where car companies are far ahead of Western competitors, a fact that we observed during our hands-on time with several Chinese EVs.

Ford Universal EV Production System

Photo by: Ford

“It has a digital experience that no one’s seen–at least that we’ve seen–even in China. The digital experience is quite different for customers. I think the whole package is something that has not been offered in the U.S. or anywhere else to date. I think this first product is quite revolutionary,” Farley added.

It’s all very impressive, but all the pieces must fall into the right place for it to happen and to be profitable–a delicate sticking point in the world of EVs.

“No one has ever built a car in three pieces. No one’s offered their own electric architecture at this price. We’ve never done it. We’ve never had two large unit castings and high quality. No one’s done it. Tesla’s talked about it, but it hasn’t done it. In fact, our manufacturing process has radically moved on beyond what Tesla’s ever shown in its unboxing. So, there’s a lot of risk here. This is not a guarantee that Ford’s going to get this done.”