Doug Field, director of EV Ford, digital and design officer who previously conducted AppleCar program I was led by Model 3 in Tesla, the Marszał Internal Srunkworks team, which secretly develops this project, described internally as CE1.
“We are building a structural battery from cells, and this is the vehicle floor. So we actually built seats on it,” says Field. So, for clarity, there is no frame or structure with the battery on it, to which the seats are screwed – with the up-to-date Ford model the battery is the construction. How is this different from existing cell or cellular technology for packaging? “This is a body cell,” says Field and adds that it was very, very challenging.
“There is no single magical breakthrough. It’s just really, really difficult engineering,” he says. “And there are many problems to solve. For example, now you have this body that has no floor, how do you stop it from bending down the line? How do you deal with the paint when you painted the back half, but you did not paint the front half, and then you intend to press them at the end?”
“We knew we wanted to build [EVs] differently and we decided how we want to build them – and then we have huge We had to solve the set of engineering problems to work. “The worst of these problems? Sealing, failure [strength]Corrosion, dimensional accuracy – all of these things, doing these at the end is … this joint at the front is by far the most challenging. “
Yes, most of this make up for the most modern things for EVs, such as zone architecture, in which various functions are controlled in different parts of the car, which can already be seen in the new model Y Tesla and many Chinese EVs. Similarly, large aluminum castings are already used by Tesla and Chinese artists.
However, if Ford really managed to produce a car in three separate and complete modules, which are then filled fully and only when it is true. Yes, Tesla talked about doing something like that in 2023 With the “unpacked” EV production process, but he hasn’t done it yet. In other words, Ford could beat Tesla here. The old dinosaur turned into a fairly velociraptor.
Almost as impressive as the new modular production of Ford is the number of people and the usual speed at which the company achieved this undeniable win. “The size of the team is really fascinating [the skunkworks had] Compared to this, if Ford had to do it, “says Farley.” If we force ourselves [Ford] Do it, it would take five times people. “
“When we agreed to start the program, three years ago, we hired Alan Clarke. He went to the building and it was one person. This is how the project began,” says Field. Alan Clarke He worked for Field in Tesla, where he helped to create Model 3, he worked on Y, Cybertruck and more. “There are now people in China who probably passed him, but at that time he was architecting more electric vehicles than anyone in the world, so he was absolutely the right person to touch. And he is also a talent magnet. He built a team of the team really fast-world class. Many people are very excited about moving with Rivian or Tesla and build something for Ford.”
Farley believes that the new way of creating EVS is an ideal weapon for taking Chinese car manufacturers, an ideal example of how the West must compete. “You have a model of BY: 700,000 employees, 200,000 drive engineers. How will you beat them?” He asks Farley.
“It turns out that Doug and Alan and the team have built a drive system that was like Apollo 13, they coped with Watt, so that our battery could be much smaller than ben. Their cost advantage in vertical battery integration is compensated by innovations in the drive system. We cannot beat them on a scale.