Ford says that the towing is “much less important” for its $ 30,000 EV collection

• Ford bet that affordability will be the best functionality it can give to its $ 30,000 collection.
• The automaker knows that buyers will probably never use the truck for towing or transport, so he built it for something else.
• This is the secret sauce for the construction of an affordable EV: to return to the essentials.

Ford’s new affordable electric pick-up could have had a massive battery. But then he could not have been at the price of $ 30,000. It could have been the supercross between the Ford Maverick and the electrification, but it would not target the right buyer. Instead, Ford has made its homework and put a ton of efforts to determine who devil really wants a cheap EV And A pick-up.

It turns out that the ideal buyer of Ford is not someone who really wants a truck mainly for trucks. In fact, this buyer may very well never connect a trailer or fill the mulch bed Never. If you read this and question the interest in making affordable EV a pickup, then I have bad news for you: you are not for whom this truck is intended.

The Ford Skunkworks’ development boss of Ford’s EV Skunkworks, Alan Clarke, recently sat with Insidev to talk about Ford’s next affordable pickup.

“The towing for large trucks is very, very important. The towing for small trucks is much less important,” said Clarke. He then continued to justify the fact: “Less than 25% of Maverick owners towed only once in the life of the vehicle.”

Clarke compared the purchase of a truck for towing a small family with two children buying a three -seater SUV with three rows. Do they need three rows? Not necessarily. In fact, studies show that the occupancy rate for most third row seats is only about 3%.

“People buy all these vehicles that have three rows of seats,” according to Clarke, adding later: “You buy it for the third row seat, but you never use it.”

Its point is that many people buy a vehicle equipped to manage a specific task, but rarely (if not at all) use this specific feature. Ford’s vision is to respond to the vehicle to the potential customer and allow the vehicle to perform tasks such as towing; However, if the construction of the vehicle to manage towing would compromise a basic product principle such as affordability, its objective has already been compromised. This is where the balance comes into play.

“(It’s not like) we do not care about towing. We want our customers to get rid of it. We want them to be able to do it. But it is something that is generally rare,” said Clarke. “Going up your boat, towing your jet skis, these are the most common. (With) this vehicle class, you do not trailer a fifth wheel trailer across the country.”

Ford, like many car manufacturers, now uses telematics on its connected cars to determine how their customers use their vehicles and use this data to build better vehicles in the future. This means studying how its customers are driving, their driving and load habits, as well as specific statistics for vehicles. The data allows them to take determinations such as the type of battery to stuff in the truck and the range it really needs.

Clarke remained close to the real technical details of the battery, but thanks to a meticulous deduction, we could estimate that Ford is likely to ship anonymous collection with approximately 51 kilowatt hours usable. By way of comparison, the RWD Tesla Model 3 has a usable capacity estimated at around 60 kWh.

“The range is another third row seat,” said Clarke. He said:

“We examine what we can give to the customer, who is the direct cost with the range, and access to this range depends on the load speed. In the end, due to the lower volumetric energy in lithium-ion phosphate, you really have to rely on the things that gives you. And these are things like, whenever you leave your home, we encourage you to be 100%.”

What we know is that Ford does not expect the buyers of the Maverick to really cross this new EV. In fact, on the basis of Clarke’s explanation, it seems that Ford actually expects that this affordable EV is more a lifestyle capable of allowing you to go to adventures.

“EV buyers in general, many of them are looking for more use and have anywhere to look for it,” said Clarke. “Go ahead to an adventure, bring what you want with you. If it allows your lifestyle and it allows you to do these things, then finally, you will vote with your wallet and buy the product.”

Affairs quickly becomes the name of the EV game for car manufacturers. For Clarke’s point, create more modular and tailor -made vehicles and jump the “third -row seat” could actually help carries buyers and reduce costs at the same time.