Category Archives: News

News

Ford Thinks It Can Build the World’s Cheapest EV Motors

Ford wants to sell you an electric pickup for $30,000. Not a “starting at” fantasy stripped of wheels and dignity, but a real, midsize electric truck you can actually buy when it arrives in 2027. The secret sauce, according to Ford, isn’t magic batteries, miracle chemistry, or government fairy dust—it’s an electric motor that costs less than anything on the planet, including those made in China.

That’s the claim from Doug Field, Ford’s head of EVs and a veteran of Tesla, Apple, and the Model 3 program, who told MotorTrend that Ford’s next-generation electric motors undercut every benchmark his team could find. Yes, even the Chinese units that benefit from massive scale, aggressive automation, and labor costs Western automakers can’t touch.

If Ford is right, this motor isn’t just a component—it’s the keystone holding up the entire Universal EV project, the internal codename for Ford’s next wave of affordable electric vehicles.

Rear-Drive, All-Wheel Drive, No Funny Business

Despite earlier comments from Ford CEO Jim Farley that suggested a rear-wheel-drive-only strategy, Field clarified that Ford’s upcoming electric pickup won’t be a one-trick pony. At launch, buyers will be able to choose between rear-wheel drive and a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup, both wrapped in a single four-door crew-cab body style.

Rear-drive trucks will use a permanent-magnet motor, while AWD models will add an induction motor up front—an architecture straight out of the Tesla playbook and one Field knows intimately. Battery options will also vary, letting buyers decide whether they want to prioritize price or range. In other words, Ford is aiming for flexibility without complexity—an EV unicorn if they can pull it off.

The California Skunkworks That Built It

Here’s the twist: Ford says this motor could only have been developed outside Ford.

The Universal EV program is run by a roughly 500-person team operating out of a deliberately isolated office in Long Beach, California—about as far culturally and geographically from Dearborn as you can get without crossing an ocean. The idea, Field says, was to recruit “20x contributors”—engineers capable of delivering twenty times the output of an average employee.

That talent came from places like Tesla, Rivian, and Apple, not from traditional Detroit pipelines. And rather than relying on supplier squeeze tactics—Detroit’s historic strength—this team focused on designing the motor to be cheap from the start.

No exotic materials. No moonshot tech. Just ruthless simplification, aggressive integration, and fewer parts.

Cutting Cost by Deleting Stuff Entirely

The Universal EV philosophy goes well beyond motors. Ford is rethinking how vehicles are designed, assembled, and even conceptualized, with the explicit goal of deleting cost rather than negotiating it away.

The upcoming electric truck uses:

  • 25 percent fewer fasteners than a typical vehicle
  • A wiring harness 4,000 feet shorter and 22 pounds lighter than the Mustang Mach-E’s
  • Large aluminum unicastings that replace dozens of smaller structural parts
  • A battery pack whose top surface doubles as the cabin floor

This isn’t incremental improvement—it’s Tesla-style manufacturing logic filtered through Ford’s scale and truck experience.

Faster to Build Than an Escape

Ford says the new EV will roll off the line at its Louisville, Kentucky, plant 15 percent faster than the Ford Escape that previously occupied the space. And the gain doesn’t come from robot overload. Instead, it comes from removing steps entirely.

Workstations at the plant will be cut by 40 percent, not because humans are slow, but because unnecessary tasks are expensive. It’s manufacturing minimalism, and Ford is betting it’s the only way to make a truly affordable EV in the U.S.

The Clock Is Ticking

Field believes there’s a narrow window where this approach works—before EV motors become fully commoditized and suppliers lock in their advantage. If Ford gets there first, it gains a cost edge that could last years.

If it doesn’t? Then this $30,000 electric pickup becomes just another ambitious slide deck.

But if Ford actually delivers on its promises, the Universal EV won’t just be a cheaper truck. It’ll be proof that Detroit can still out-engineer the world—when it’s willing to forget how it’s always done things.

And that might be Ford’s boldest move yet.

Source: MotorTrend

News

Volvo EX60 Promises 503 Miles of Range

Volvo has made plenty of noise about going electric, but the forthcoming EX60 looks like the moment when talk finally turns into teeth. Set to debut on January 21, the EX60 electric SUV is shaping up to be the most important Volvo of the decade—and if the numbers hold, one of the most compelling EVs on sale anywhere.

Start with the headline figure: 503 miles of claimed range. In the UK, that would make the EX60 the longest-range electric vehicle you can buy, edging out rivals like the BMW iX3 despite using a slightly smaller battery. Volvo credits a 106-kWh pack paired with improved efficiency, proving—once again—that brute-force battery size isn’t the whole story.

Put another way, this is enough range to drive from London to Dundee without stopping, or cruise from Paris to Amsterdam with electrons to spare. For buyers still worried about range anxiety, Volvo seems determined to bury the concept altogether.

When it does need juice, the EX60 won’t hang around. DC fast-charging at up to 400 kW means Volvo claims you can add 211 miles of range in just 10 minutes, assuming you find a charger powerful enough to keep up. That’s squarely in next-generation EV territory and puts the EX60 in the same charging conversation as the fastest-charging vehicles on the road.

Volvo calls the EX60 a “no-compromises electric car,” and for once that doesn’t sound like marketing fluff. This SUV is built on the brand-new SPA3 platform, an all-electric architecture that replaces the foundations used by today’s EX90 and upcoming ES90. Unlike some platforms shared across parent company Geely’s empire, SPA3 is—according to Volvo—“100 percent electric and 100 percent Volvo.”

Because the platform was designed from a clean sheet, engineers were free to ditch combustion-era constraints entirely. The result should be a more efficient layout, better packaging, and a vehicle that’s as software-defined as it is mechanically engineered. Over-the-air updates will be standard, and Volvo says all future models will share the same underlying tech stack—think Apple’s ecosystem, but with seat heaters and crash structures.

Visually, early preview images suggest the EX60 will be sleeker and more aerodynamic than today’s gas-powered XC60. Expect a lower hood line, smoother surfacing, and Volvo’s familiar “Thor’s Hammer” LED headlights, closely resembling those on the larger EX90. Dimensionally, it should land right in the heart of the compact luxury SUV segment—the same sweet spot that has made the XC60 Volvo’s best-selling model.

Under the skin, the EX60 will also introduce megacasting, a manufacturing technique that forms large sections of the vehicle as single pieces instead of dozens of smaller parts. Tesla made the process famous; Volvo plans to use it to reduce weight, complexity, and production costs. That’s good news for margins—and potentially for pricing.

Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson has described the EX60 as “designed and developed in Gothenburg” and about as Swedish as it gets. That shows not just in the minimalist design language, but in the company’s broader focus: safety, sustainability, and a calm, seamless ownership experience rather than headline-grabbing gimmicks.

When the EX60 arrives, it will sit at the center of Volvo’s European EV lineup, alongside the EX30, EC40, EX40, ES90, and EX90. But make no mistake—this is the linchpin. If Volvo’s electric future hinges on one vehicle getting everything right, this is it.

On paper, the EX60 doesn’t just look competitive—it looks quietly dominant. And if it drives as convincingly as its specs suggest, Volvo may have just built the electric SUV that finally makes compromise-free EV ownership feel genuinely normal.

Source: Volvo

News

Mercedes-Benz Keeps the A-Class Alive—At Least Until 2028

Just when we were preparing to write the A-Class obituary, Mercedes-Benz tore it up and tossed it in the recycling bin. Thanks to stubbornly strong European demand, the brand’s smallest—and most affordable—car isn’t going anywhere. At least not yet.

Despite earlier plans to end production by the close of last year, the fourth-generation A-Class (W177) has earned itself a stay of execution through 2028. That means Mercedes will continue to field an entry in the premium compact segment, a category many luxury brands have quietly stepped away from while chasing higher margins upmarket.

Originally built in Germany at Mercedes’ Rastatt plant alongside the CLA, GLA, EQA, and B-Class, A-Class production is now shifting east. Starting in the second quarter, the compact hatch will roll off the line in Kecskemét, Hungary—a factory that’s become a quiet workhorse in Mercedes’ global manufacturing network. Opened in 2012 and employing roughly 4,500 workers, the Kecskemét facility already assembles the CLA Coupé, CLA Shooting Brake, and the electric EQB, among others.

The reasoning behind the reversal is refreshingly straightforward: people are still buying the thing. Launched in 2018 and refreshed in 2022, the current A-Class continues to resonate with European buyers who want a premium badge without committing to a midsize sedan—or a second mortgage. In Germany, prices start at around €38,000, which still counts as “entry-level” in Mercedes terms, even if that phrase feels increasingly theoretical.

As for what comes next, Stuttgart is keeping its cards close. There’s no official word on a direct successor, even though the current A-Class lineup includes both hatchback and three-box sedan variants. Still, Mercedes sales boss Mathias Geisen recently assured German media that customers shopping for more affordable Mercedes models won’t be left stranded.

Translation: the A-Class may be living on borrowed time, but Mercedes isn’t quite ready to abandon the gateway drug that brings new buyers into the three-pointed-star ecosystem. In an era where luxury brands seem eager to forget how they built their audiences in the first place, keeping the A-Class alive feels almost… rebellious.

Source: Mercedes-Benz