38: Ford's Alan Clarke on Building an Affordable, Next-Gen EV Pickup Truck

Alan Clarke, executive director of Advanced EV Programs at Ford, joins Max to discuss his team's work on the Universal EV Platform—an ambitious plan to make low-cost, next-gen vehicles that make the existing Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning look old-school. Ford's first BEV efforts were well received but had no path to profitability and were simply too expensive for consumers. Now, his team of Tesla vets and auto industry outsiders is using first principles engineering to do more with less, starting with a Ranger-sized pickup truck around $30,000.Max and Alan go over- The engineering tradeoffs going into the design like battery chemistry choices- Emerging use cases like vehicle to grid and vehicle to home- What first principals engineering looks like and the benefit of starting fresh- Merging Michigan and California cultures to create a startup environment inside of one of the world's largest automakers🎙️ Listen on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platformResources and Links:Check out Ford's Bounty Hunters video⚡ Stay Plugged InSupport EVs for All America (and buy our merch!)