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Ford Offers Hints About Its Second-Generation EVs

The carmaker is "deep in the development."

After a brutal fourth quarter that took a big bite out of the company’s stock, Ford is offering a small glimpse of the second-generation EVs that will continue the automaker’s electric efforts.

During Ford’s most recent earnings call, CEO Jim Farley said his company is “deep in the development” of its second-generation EVs. That includes the automaker’s next electric full-size pickup, which, “by the way, is awesome,” according to Farley.

“These EVs will be fully software-updatable. That means a brand-new electric architecture, and they're going to be radically simplified. Imagine three body styles, each with volume potential of up to 1 million units and just a handful of orderable combinations. That's what we're doing at Ford for the second generation of products,” said Farley, according to a Motley Fool transcript of the call.

Ford believes its simplified approach to building EVs will result in higher customer satisfaction, better overall quality, lower bill of material and lower manufacturing costs. The automaker is also working on improving the customer buying experience for EVs through its Model e dealer program.

Farley said the program has been adopted by nearly two thirds of the company’s 3,000 U.S. dealers, and said it's based on a “radical redesign” on our customer experience.

“Next January, we'll be selling EVs in high volume with virtually no inventory, a simple e-commerce platform for our customers, [a] non-negotiated price set by the local dealer and remote pickup and delivery for all customer experiences,” Farley said.

While looking ahead, Ford still heaped praise on its first-generation of EVs. Farley said the F-150 Lightning has been the best-selling electric pickup since it launched last year. And he said the Mustang Mach-E, which just saw a substantial price drop in the U.S., “remains a huge hit for our customers.”

After leaving $2 billion on the table in 2022, a decline Farley said his company could have prevented, Ford has plans to significantly ramp up EV production to 600,000 units annually by the end of this year.

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