Jim Farley's Ford Boosts Low-Cost EV Team With Top Talent From Rivian, Tesla And Apple

Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co F has reportedly been recruiting talent from major industry players, including Rivian, Tesla, and Apple, to build its low-cost EV team.

Why It Matters: Ford has built its low-cost EV team to around 300 employees over last year, including 50 from Rivian, over 20 from Tesla, 12 from Canoo, about 10 from Lucid, and a few from Apple’s disbanded Car team, TechCrunch reported, citing LinkedIn data. The company has also roped in two senior aerodynamicists from Formula 1 teams to work on its low-cost EV, the report added.

Ford developed a "super-talented skunkworks team" to create a low-cost EV platform two years ago and they have developed a flexible platform that will be deployed to several types of vehicles, company CEO Jim Farley said in February.

Though Ford was building the team before, its acquisition of the startup Auto Motive Power (AMP) in late 2023 added over 100 employees to the team known internally as Ford Advanced EV, TechCrunch reported. Ford then capitalized on the recent layoffs across multiple EV companies including Lucid, Rivian, and Tesla to ramp the team further. While most of the new hires are from other EV companies, some are from eVTOL startups like Joby, Archer, and Supernal, the report said.

Why It Matters: Ford is currently attempting to make lower-cost EVs to address customer demand while also beating competition from market giant Tesla and Chinese EV makers who have more affordable offerings. The average price of an EV in the U.S. is currently significantly higher than the average cost of a combustion engine vehicle due to the higher costs of manufacturing and batteries.

As of the end of the first five months of 2024, Ford's cumulative EV sales in the U.S. stood at 37,208 units, nearly 88% higher when compared to the 19,809 EVs sold in the corresponding period of 2023. However, Ford expects its EV division to post an EBIT loss between $5.5 billion and $5 billion in 2024, wider than the $4.7 billion loss recorded in 2023.

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