Furai
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From Car and Driver article: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a71204448/ford-ev-truck-future-details/
We did get a quick "surprise" glimpse of a heavily camouflaged development mule traveling through the yard between the two buildings before it vanished through a door. It was enough to persuade reporters that the new EV would visually resemble a traditional truck from a distance.
What It Looks Like: Our Guesses
Though we never saw a full, uncamouflaged vehicle, a few things were apparent after the tour:
The new electric pickup will be the first of several low-priced EVs built on the company's new UEV platform. Ford said the platform will accommodate vehicles from the B-segment (subcompact) all the way up to commercial vans. During our visit, Dan Smith, director of occupant architecture and seating, said the team is now "exploring the smallest and largest vehicles we can build" on UEV underpinnings.
We'd expect one follow-up to be a small, Escape-like SUV (an obvious choice). Touring the design studio, we saw no fewer than five car shapes under black covers, some showing obvious braces under the cloth to disguise their shapes. Most looked like some SUV variant, though one might have been a sedan or hatchback. An SUV-shaped wooden frame held three rows of prototype seats, so add that one to the list as well.
We did get a quick "surprise" glimpse of a heavily camouflaged development mule traveling through the yard between the two buildings before it vanished through a door. It was enough to persuade reporters that the new EV would visually resemble a traditional truck from a distance.
- During our visit to the Ford Electric Vehicle Development Center in California, Ford gave reporters the tiniest glimpse of its forthcoming affordable EV truck.
- The takeaway: It has the appearance of a traditional pickup, but we weren't able to see it in detail or for long.
What It Looks Like: Our Guesses
Though we never saw a full, uncamouflaged vehicle, a few things were apparent after the tour:
- The UEV pickup truck has the shape of a real truck, with a vertical cab back and horizontal bed sides—setting to rest fears it would feature sail panels like a first-generation Honda Ridgeline, the recently axed Hyundai Santa Cruz, or the current Avalanche-like Chevrolet Silverado EV.
- The bedsides seem higher than those of the current Ford Maverick—akin to the bed of the 2004 F-150, which was two inches taller than its predecessor. This may have an aerodynamic benefit in reducing air drag from the bed.
- Overall size seems similar to the Maverick, perhaps a bit larger. The EV truck seems to have a longer cab with wider front doors (Ford said several times "more interior volume than a RAV4") offset by a shorter nose.
- That nose might be beveled, like that of the Kia EV4 sedan, if the inner wheel-well casting is any indication. Its front upper edge sloped sharply downward, starting at the casting for the top strut mount. You can see this on the gray plastic model if you look carefully. A cooling duct with a radiator inside, shown in the thermal lab, was both low and beveled as well.
- Finally, a foam model of a hood for an unspecified future model had a beveled leading edge too, though less extreme than the angle of the pickup's front casting. The Ford video image below shows airflow over a low nose; the bodywork itself, and whether this is idealized or real, isn't clear.
The new electric pickup will be the first of several low-priced EVs built on the company's new UEV platform. Ford said the platform will accommodate vehicles from the B-segment (subcompact) all the way up to commercial vans. During our visit, Dan Smith, director of occupant architecture and seating, said the team is now "exploring the smallest and largest vehicles we can build" on UEV underpinnings.
We'd expect one follow-up to be a small, Escape-like SUV (an obvious choice). Touring the design studio, we saw no fewer than five car shapes under black covers, some showing obvious braces under the cloth to disguise their shapes. Most looked like some SUV variant, though one might have been a sedan or hatchback. An SUV-shaped wooden frame held three rows of prototype seats, so add that one to the list as well.
