Ford Motor Company is attempting to make more waves in the electric vehicle space. The company's CEO, Jim Farley, and Chief Officer of EVs and Digital Systems, Doug Field, recently teased out some details of the company's newest car — a battery-electric SUV with three rows of seating — during presentations at Ford Investor Day.
Among those details is a 350-mile range with only a 100-kilowatt-hour battery pack. That's a much smaller battery size than would normally have been required for an electric Ford SUV of that size, according to Carscoops. To accommodate, Ford is making this SUV lighter, with less rolling resistance in the tires.
The Ford higher-ups are describing the new SUV, which doesn't yet have a name and is set to be released in 2025 at a price point around $60,000, as a "personal bullet train," Carscoops reported. Presumably, this is a reference to the car being fast and also fitting a lot of passengers (seven seats in total).
Ford recently announced that it would begin construction on a Michigan factory that would produce lithium iron phosphate batteries — a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries — signaling the company's enthusiasm to continue to grow its EV line.
Some EV enthusiasts believe that the excitement generated by the new SUV could be bad news for the current market leader, Tesla.
"You can't dismiss the threat," wrote one EV enthusiast, commenting on the story on Teslerati, a Tesla fan site. "FORD is going full energy. They announced the next gen Truck, even when Lightning is just in its 1st year. Farley is transparent about how 'behind' he is, as he wants to catch up. Tesla has been weak in releasing multiple products. They are, in effect, still building factories across the world."
"This is why Tesla is in a race against time," replied another. "If they want to be more than a boutique manufacturer, they need to grow and have the product/factories/infrastructure in place when everyone catches up."
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