Ford is doubling down on its plans to launch low-cost electric cars after showing dealers several new renderings. The latest images show electric sedans, crossover SUVs and pickup trucks coming to market that could challenge Tesla and Chinese electric car leaders like BYD.

Ford shows dealers possible upcoming low-cost electric cars

Ford’s new platform for low-cost electric cars is no longer a secret. In fact, CEO Jim Farley has made it very clear that it is the future of the company.

After Farley revealed in February that Ford is employing a “Skunkworks” team in California to develop the platform, we now learn what models we can expect from it.

A few months ago Bloomberg The report revealed that Ford is planning smaller, more affordable SUV and pickup truck models based on the platform. The models are expected to start at around $25,000.

Accordingly Automotive NewsFord gave dealers a preview of other models based on this platform at an event in Las Vegas. Dealers were shown several images of new electric vehicles, including sedans, crossover SUVs and pickup trucks.

However, those present said the renderings were more about highlighting possible future vehicles rather than highlighting models that are in development.

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Alan Clarke, known for his work on the Tesla Model Y, is leading Ford’s low-cost electric car project, but the company is recruiting talent from across the industry.

In recent months, Ford has hired over 20 former Tesla employees, about 50 from Rivian, a handful from Lucid and Apple’s canceled electric car project Titan, and the company has also recruited executives from the eVTOL industry.

Farley stressed that Ford and its competitors must compete with cheap Chinese electric cars and Tesla or risk declining sales. Ford’s CEO said “20 to 30 percent of your sales are at stake” if you can’t keep up.

“As CEO of a company that has struggled to compete with the Japanese and South Koreans, we need to solve that problem.” Ford “learned pretty quickly to rely on a smaller EV platform” to keep up in the global EV race.

Farley said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call last month that Ford, along with Tesla and Rivian, “are the only OEMs outside of China that control software across the entire vehicle space.”

The Ford boss believes that many competitors will turn to Chinese original equipment manufacturers to use their platform – including Volkswagen with XPeng.

Farley further explained that Ford has learned a lot from using Volkswagen’s MEB platform (which underlies the Electric Explorer and the new Capri EV).

Ford wants to compete with Chinese OEMs and Tesla with affordable electric vehicles. Will we see affordable electric sedans from Ford? SUVs? Pickup trucks? Ford claims the platform will be flexible. Maybe we’ll see all of that.

Dealers who attended the event said it was the first time in years that they had received such a comprehensive preview of upcoming Ford models. Many attendees left the event feeling optimistic about Ford’s plans.