Ford has taken what began as a small secret skunk works project in California and turned it into a full-blown Electric Vehicle Development Center in Long Beach. The 350-person team is hard at work on the Universal EV Platform with the first result expected to be a practical midsize electric pickup arriving in 2027. The promise is real capability at a much more approachable starting point.
The project includes longtime Ford engineers along with talent from startups and various tech backgrounds to rethink how electric trucks are designed and built. The team is focused on speed and simplicity to make it easier to get vehicles from concept to production.
The project started three years ago in a smaller setup but has now expanded across multiple buildings where ideas move from sketch to test much faster than traditional methods. The focus stays on making electric ownership feel normal rather than complicated or expensive…