The CEO of Ford stated on a Tuesday earnings call that the business established a "skunkworks" lab two years ago with the goal of creating reasonably priced electric vehicles. 

As one of the biggest car manufacturer in the world, Ford has made a bold step into the EV market by creating a small secret ‘skunkworks’ team that develops batteries for cheaper electric vehicles. With Alan Clarke, a former Tesla executive, it seeks to transform the EV(Electric Vehicles) landscape and compete with car industry leaders such as Tesla and Chinese OEMs.

Developing an Inexpensive EV Framework

These engineers were formerly employed by Auto Motive Power (AMP), a specialist firm in energy management for electric vehicles which was acquired by Ford at the latter’s ‘skunkworks’ site based in Irvine, California on 30th November, Led by AMP founder Anil Paryani, this team is busy working on developing a modular EV platform that can be easily adapted to different vehicles. Powering future Ford EVs, this platform is engineered to serve as the beginning of software and service breakthroughs.

Competing with Tesla and Chinese OEM

The attempt by Ford to set up a "Skunkworks" team shows their apparent intent to compete on an equal level with the leaders in the EV market. So, in doing so Ford intends to break Tesla’s monopoly of the low-cost EV section and at the same time continue with successful Chinese automakers like BDY. Being aware of the high consumer demand for affordable electric vehicles, it is threatening for traditional carmakers because of their lack such as huge investments or troubles in producing clean energy to power vehicle fleets. But it looks like, Ford is ready to deal with these problems.

Summing up, the setting up of a secretive ‘skunkworks’ team by Ford with the intent to develop more affordable electric vehicles is surely one great milestone in electrification efforts made by this company. Under the guidance of experts from the industry and supported by powerful technology, this team led Ford to catch a significant breakthrough in the EV market by mass-producing cost-effective electric vehicles. They remain a critical part of Ford’s aspirations to spearhead this transition into achieving a sustainable/ clean automobile industry under increasingly stringent emission and environmental regulations.