Ford on Monday teased the automaker’s upcoming three-row electric SUV, promising efficiency that will yield sufficient range without enlarging battery packs.
This model is due in 2025 alongside the Project T3 pickup truck teased in March, with both models using Ford’s Generation 2 EV architecture. At Ford’s Capital Markets Day on Monday, CEO Jim Farley and product development chief and CTO Doug Field provided a hint at what’s in store for these next-generation EVs.
“Ford’s Generation One was a scrappy endeavor: Low investment, really small teams, and pushing against a large organization that hadn’t really endorsed or embraced EVs yet,” Field said of efforts like the F-150 Lightning, which he still called “great products” and partly why he came to Ford from Apple.
Ford Gen 2 electric SUV starting point
“Now our Gen 2 products we’ll take a lot further. We’ll invest in Gen 2 only in those places and segments where we know we can win…starting with a full-size pickup that goes to the next level, and a three-row SUV,” Field explained. “Our Gen 2 products will be unlike anything customers have ever seen; that starts by not trying to be everything to everyone and make every possible flavor for every individual.”
Field said the three-row electric SUV will be “groundbreaking,” while Farley described it as being “like your own personal bullet train.” But it won’t be an electric version of an existing Ford SUV.
“Now we could have converted an Expedition into an EV but it wouldn’t have made for a very good EV and it wouldn’t have made for a very good Expedition,” Field said. That’s partly because, to get 300 miles of range on the highway, an Expedition would need a roughly 150-kwh battery pack, adding weight and cost, Field explained.
2025 Ford 3-row SUV – not going to be an Expedition EV
“There’s a bit of an arms race in the industry to shove bigger and bigger batteries into large EVs and try to make them like ICE vehicles,” Field said. “But the real battleground in electrification is about efficiency.”
“We optimize it rather than compromise it,” Field said. “When we set out to build our Generation 2 three-row we started by changing the way we think about the tires 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 ride height, changed the aerodynamics. The result is a different product.”
This approach yields a three-row family SUV with 350 miles of range from a 100-kwh battery pack, that can still cover more than 300 miles while cruising at 70 mph, Field said, along with charging that can recover 150 miles of range in 10 minutes.
Ford Gen 2 electric SUV after efficiency improvements
Field also said the electric SUV will be longer, sleeker, and quieter than conventional large SUVs. The Gen 2 EVs will also debut a new software and hardware platform enabling Level 3 driver-assist functionality, he added.
The three-row SUV and pickup will be high-volume models. Farley said Ford’s Model E division is targeting production of 1.2 million to 1.3 million EVs annually by the end of 2026. Ford is also asking dealers to get onboard with a new EV-heavy business model or leave the brand.
