Ford Hypes “Bounty” Tradition and UEV Platform

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Ford has been everywhere on electrical autos previously 15 years or so. Again in February 2013, it launched the Ford Fusion Electrical, which was principally consultant of the expertise on the time however was a fairly weak try at creating an electrical automobile by electrifying a preferred fuel mannequin. It didn’t appear any particular effort was put into maximizing the strengths and limiting the weaknesses of EVs. Ford additionally launched a few plug-in hybrids again then — the C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi — which had a number of the smallest batteries within the historical past of plug-in autos, however truly offered fairly nicely, in all probability as a result of they weren’t too far off of the costs of the standard C-Max and Energi. The corporate simply dragged its ft, dragged its ft, dragged its ft.

Then, in all probability due to how profitable Tesla had been, the corporate launched the Ford Mustang Mach-E, bringing an iconic, legendary identify to the primary EV the corporate developed as an EV in earnest. Reasonably than modifying a fuel automobile, the corporate had a startup-like group working arduous to create a compelling, aggressive, actually thrilling and standard electrical automobile. Then there was the F-150 Lightning. However with each approaches, the merchandise weren’t particularly environment friendly, and apparently not aggressive sufficient to draw giant gross sales volumes.

With Donald Trump and Republicans altering US insurance policies on gasoline effectivity and EVs so dramatically, Ford determined to drag again enormously on EV plans. That looks like an enormous blow. Properly, it is an enormous blow. Nonetheless, it might even be associated to a Ford journey of self-discovery and efforts to develop EVs that may compete with some other EVs on the planet — even Chinese language ones.

Ford has simply revealed an article about the way it needs to realize this large goal, and its intention to have as environment friendly and light-weight a platform as doable to construct EVs on. I’m a bit skeptical, because the pitch gave the impression to be much like what we noticed BMW doing greater than a decade in the past, much like what Rocky Mountain Institute (now merely RMI) used to push automakers to do, and much like different skunkworks tasks have targeted on whereas attempting to advance EV improvement at their respective corporations. However the article, written by Alan Clarke, govt director of Superior EV Growth at Ford, brings that up as nicely and signifies they want to go above and past.

After telling the historical past of gas-powered autos, the necessity to change into extra gasoline environment friendly within the Seventies, and the invention of the turbocharger, Clarke says, “Immediately, the business faces an analogous problem with electrical autos, the place the engineering resolution for vary anxiousness has principally been to extend the dimensions of the battery within the automobile. However the battery is essentially the most essential element to deal with affordability as a result of it accounts for someplace round 40% of the automobile’s complete price and upwards of 25% of its complete weight. […]

“Our massive guess for electrical autos? Obsessing over the automobile as a system to get extra miles out of a smaller battery and radically simplifying the system to scale back the variety of components so we will ship a brand new household of reasonably priced electrical autos to driveways around the globe.”

Cool. Yep, who isn’t engaged on this?

However the attention-grabbing a part of the article was the place Clarke defined how autos are usually developed, after which mentioned it was completely different for individuals growing the Common Electrical Car (UEV) platform for future Ford EVs.

“We began by making a group throughout the skunkworks operation, tasked with growing vary, effectivity, and efficiency metrics for priorities reminiscent of weight, drag and rolling resistance, and in the end battery dimension. That group armed each engineer with a brand new method of evaluating tradeoffs — we name them bounties.

“Traditionally, engineers in conventional automotive corporations might be siloed in departments that match the element or system they’re assigned to. They’re anticipated to advocate for the half they’re engaged on whereas lowering its price, usually with out the context of understanding the way it impacts the shopper’s expertise or efficiency of the automobile.

“For instance, the aerodynamics group at all times needs a decrease roof for much less aerodynamic drag; the occupant package deal group needs a better roof for extra headroom, whereas the interiors group needs to lower the cabin dimension to scale back the associated fee. Often, these teams negotiate till they discover a center floor, one which inevitably ends in a tradeoff led by one more division tasked with making tradeoffs on behalf of the shopper.

“Bounties change the negotiation, making the true price of a tradeoff a lot clearer by connecting it to a particular worth tied to the vary and battery price. Now, the aerodynamics group and inside group share the identical aim, and each understood that including even 1mm to the roof peak would imply $1.30 in further battery price or .055 miles of vary. With bounties, every group has a standard goal to maximise vary whereas lowering battery price — a direct linkage to giving our clients extra.

“This is only one instance of numerous bounties our group targeted on. After we met targets, we’d set harder ones to problem ourselves additional. One among these areas was our power administration system.”

Hmm. Will the idea of bounties make all of the distinction? Is Ford lastly going to change into a pacesetter on EVs?

Along with that, the article included a bit on “sensible power administration.” Once more, it doesn’t look completely different from what different corporations have been engaged on, however maybe their group and their work are particular in what they may obtain?

“{An electrical} structure is the blueprint for the way energy and alerts transfer via a product — what connects to what, how every thing is managed, and the way it all works collectively reliably. Energy conversion inside an electrical automobile platform can account for a shocking quantity of wasted power in a automobile whereas charging and even taking power from the 400V battery and changing it to 48V for the low-voltage units.

“Extra importantly, it’s usually segregated into capabilities that get sourced to exterior suppliers, every with their very own enclosures, fasteners, and connecters, which drives excessive prices and extra weight into the platform.

“So in 2023, we moved our high-voltage energy electronics structure and design for this platform in-house. With the acquisition of Auto Motive Energy, or AMP, proficient engineers joined our group with expertise, pushing the bounds of energy conversion and power administration for quite a few world electrical autos already in the marketplace immediately.

“For the primary time, clients will expertise a completely electrical automobile charging ecosystem designed in-house by Ford utilizing our personal software program. Meaning the {hardware} within the automobile, together with the bi-directional charging capabilities, comes from a group immediately built-in into the one engaged on the platform and automobile merchandise. Clients will profit from enhancements that lower the period of time ready round for the battery to cost, maximize the lifespan of the battery, and reduces in complete price of possession.

“The group’s work has had profound enhancements past simply growing Ford’s first 48-volt low-voltage system. The truth is, this new {hardware} and software program have performed a key function in making the mid-size electrical truck’s wire harness 4,000 ft shorter and 22 kilos lighter than one in every of our first-gen electrical autos.”

Properly, on the very least, it appears to be like like vital progress at Ford. What extra are you able to ask for?

After all, there shall be skeptics. Till Ford does one thing vital within the EV world, there shall be skeptics. However Clarke is aware of that and acknowledges it, and I like that very a lot. “We all know there shall be skeptics, identical to there have been when Ford launched the turbo on the F-150. Different corporations will declare that they’ve tried a lot of this earlier than. However physics isn’t proprietary. We’re creating a very built-in electrical automobile platform, not a single half that may be simply copied,” he says. “If we succeed, we may have a household of autos that we count on to compete on worth with one of the best on the planet, together with fuel autos. There’s nonetheless lots of work to do, however we’re making progress, and we will’t wait to share extra quickly.”

I like this strategy, and I’d love for all of our skepticism to be confirmed incorrect, confirmed pessimistic moderately than sensible. Let’s see.