Ford boss admits huge EVs 'will not make money'

Ford chief executive Jim Farley has conceded the push towards increasingly large EV batteries is untenable.

Speaking at Ford's Capital Markets Day, Farley said batteries are becoming too ‘huge’ to meet the size, capability, driving range and pricing usually expected from a petrol or diesel vehicle.

At the same time, he teased an upcoming three-row electric large SUV with around 560 kilometres of range and a 100kWh pack, which will release after another big new electric ute.

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“I have no idea what’s going on in this industry right now,” Farley told investors and media, as reported by The Verge [↗].

“If you have those kinds of [extra large] batteries, you will not make money.”

Ford’s technology head Doug Field added that its second-generation EVs will focus on improving energy efficiency.

“The real battleground in electrification is about efficiency.”

“There's a bit of an arms race in the industry to shove bigger and bigger batteries into large EVs to try and make them like ICE [internal combustion engine] vehicles,” said Field (Green Car Reports [↗]).

“But the real battleground in electrification is about efficiency.

“We started by changing the way we think about the tyres with lower rolling resistance, squeezing every little drop of propulsion system efficiency out.

“And in computer simulations we took a bunch of mass out, we lowered the right height, changed the aerodynamics. And the result is a different product.”

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For context…

Ford’s own F-150 Lightning electric ute packs a 131kWh usable battery in Extended Range guise which provides up to 515km range on the EPA cycle.

But, while already large, that pales in comparison to the tank-like Hummer EV, Chevy Silverado EV, and Ram 1500 REV Extended Range – which all boast batteries in excess of 200kWh.

In contrast, most ‘normal’ passenger EVs today have between 30 to 80kWh battery sizes.

For example, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 electric sedan stresses a sloping rear design to maximise aerodynamics and eke out between 65 to 107km more claimed range than the higher Ioniq 5 SUV using the same 74kWh usable battery.

The big battery issue

While American automakers are packing big batteries into burly large SUVs and utes in a bid to achieve range comparable to combustion models, Farley emphasised that it is too expensive to manufacture and sell.

Big batteries are also environmentally unsustainable by using more raw materials. And, there’s the safety risk – including thermal runaway – a heavy vehicle poses to other vehicles and pedestrians in the event of an accident.

Solid-state batteries are in development to address this range and weight burden on current lithium-ion technology.

But, there’s still no denying the physics challenge for brands to make SUVs and utes aerodynamically efficient.