Ford Hypes “Bounty” Tradition and UEV Platform

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Ford has been all over on electrical automobiles previously 15 years or so. Again in February 2013, it launched the Ford Fusion Electrical, which was principally consultant of the expertise on the time however was a fairly weak try at creating an electrical automobile by electrifying a preferred gasoline mannequin. It didn’t appear any particular effort was put into maximizing the strengths and limiting the weaknesses of EVs. Ford additionally launched a few plug-in hybrids again then — the C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi — which had a number of the smallest batteries within the historical past of plug-in automobiles, however truly bought fairly nicely, in all probability as a result of they weren’t too far off of the costs of the standard C-Max and Energi. The corporate simply dragged its ft, dragged its ft, dragged its ft.

Then, in all probability due to how profitable Tesla had been, the corporate launched the Ford Mustang Mach-E, bringing an iconic, legendary title to the primary EV the corporate developed as an EV in earnest. Quite than modifying a gasoline automobile, the corporate had a startup-like group working exhausting to create a compelling, aggressive, really thrilling and widespread electrical automobile. Then there was the F-150 Lightning. However with each approaches, the merchandise weren’t particularly environment friendly, and apparently not aggressive sufficient to draw massive gross sales volumes.

With Donald Trump and Republicans altering US insurance policies on gas effectivity and EVs so dramatically, Ford determined to tug again enormously on EV plans. That looks as if an enormous blow. Effectively, it is an enormous blow. Nevertheless, it might even be associated to a Ford journey of self-discovery and efforts to develop EVs that may compete with another EVs on the earth — even Chinese language ones.

Ford has simply printed an article about the way it desires to realize this large goal, and its goal to have as environment friendly and lightweight a platform as attainable to construct EVs on. I’m a bit skeptical, because the pitch gave the impression to be just like what we noticed BMW doing greater than a decade in the past, just like what Rocky Mountain Institute (now merely RMI) used to push automakers to do, and just like different skunkworks initiatives have centered on whereas making an attempt to advance EV growth at their respective corporations. However the article, written by Alan Clarke, government director of Superior EV Growth at Ford, brings that up as nicely and signifies they wish to go above and past.

After telling the historical past of gas-powered automobiles, the necessity to develop into extra gas environment friendly within the Nineteen Seventies, and the invention of the turbocharger, Clarke says, “At this time, the trade faces an identical problem with electrical automobiles, the place the engineering answer for vary nervousness has principally been to extend the dimensions of the battery within the automobile. However the battery is essentially the most essential part to sort out affordability as a result of it accounts for someplace round 40% of the automobile’s complete price and upwards of 25% of its complete weight. (…)

“Our large wager for electrical automobiles? Obsessing over the automobile as a system to get extra miles out of a smaller battery and radically simplifying the system to cut back the variety of elements so we will ship a brand new household of inexpensive electrical automobiles to driveways all over the world.”

Cool. Yep, who isn’t engaged on this?

However the fascinating a part of the article was the place Clarke defined how automobiles are usually developed, after which stated it was completely different for folks growing the Common Electrical Automobile (UEV) platform for future Ford EVs.

“We began by making a group inside the skunkworks operation, tasked with growing vary, effectivity, and efficiency metrics for priorities equivalent to weight, drag and rolling resistance, and finally battery dimension. That group armed each engineer with a brand new method of evaluating tradeoffs — we name them bounties.

“Traditionally, engineers in conventional automotive corporations will be siloed in departments that match the part or system they’re assigned to. They’re anticipated to advocate for the half they’re engaged on whereas reducing its price, typically with out the context of understanding the way it impacts the shopper’s expertise or efficiency of the automobile.

“For instance, the aerodynamics group at all times desires a decrease roof for much less aerodynamic drag; the occupant bundle group desires the next roof for extra headroom, whereas the interiors group desires to lower the cabin dimension to cut back the associated fee. Often, these teams negotiate till they discover a center floor, one which inevitably ends in a tradeoff led by yet one more division tasked with making tradeoffs on behalf of the shopper.

“Bounties change the negotiation, making the true price of a tradeoff a lot clearer by connecting it to a selected worth tied to the vary and battery price. Now, the aerodynamics group and inside group share the identical purpose, and each understood that including even 1mm to the roof peak would imply $1.30 in extra battery price or .055 miles of vary. With bounties, every group has a standard goal to maximise vary whereas reducing battery price — a direct linkage to giving our clients extra.

“This is only one instance of numerous bounties our group centered on. After we met targets, we’d set tougher ones to problem ourselves additional. One among these areas was our vitality administration system.”

Hmm. Will the idea of bounties make all of the distinction? Is Ford lastly going to develop into a frontrunner on EVs?

Along with that, the article included a piece on “sensible vitality administration.” Once more, it doesn’t look completely different from what different corporations have been engaged on, however maybe their group and their work are particular in what they are going to obtain?

“{An electrical} structure is the blueprint for the way energy and indicators transfer by way of a product — what connects to what, how every thing is managed, and the way it all works collectively reliably. Energy conversion inside an electrical automobile platform can account for a stunning quantity of wasted vitality in a automobile whereas charging and even taking vitality from the 400V battery and changing it to 48V for the low-voltage units.

“Extra importantly, it’s typically segregated into capabilities that get sourced to exterior suppliers, every with their very own enclosures, fasteners, and connecters, which drives excessive prices and extra weight into the platform.

“So in 2023, we moved our high-voltage energy electronics structure and design for this platform in-house. With the acquisition of Auto Motive Energy, or AMP, proficient engineers joined our group with expertise, pushing the bounds of energy conversion and vitality administration for quite a few international electrical automobiles already in the marketplace right now.

“For the primary time, clients will expertise a totally electrical automobile charging ecosystem designed in-house by Ford utilizing our personal software program. Meaning the {hardware} within the automobile, together with the bi-directional charging capabilities, comes from a group instantly built-in into the one engaged on the platform and automobile merchandise. Prospects will profit from enhancements that lower the period of time ready round for the battery to cost, maximize the lifespan of the battery, and reduces in complete price of possession.

“The group’s work has had profound enhancements past simply growing Ford’s first 48-volt low-voltage system. In reality, this new {hardware} and software program have performed a key position in making the mid-size electrical truck’s wire harness 4,000 ft shorter and 22 kilos lighter than certainly one of our first-gen electrical automobiles.”

Effectively, on the very least, it seems to be like important progress at Ford. What extra are you able to ask for?

In fact, there will likely be skeptics. Till Ford does one thing important within the EV world, there will likely be skeptics. However Clarke is aware of that and acknowledges it, and I like that very a lot. “We all know there will likely be skeptics, identical to there have been when Ford launched the turbo on the F-150. Different corporations will declare that they’ve tried a lot of this earlier than. However physics isn’t proprietary. We’re creating a really built-in electrical automobile platform, not a single half that may be simply copied,” he says. “If we succeed, we can have a household of automobiles that we count on to compete on worth with the very best on the earth, together with gasoline automobiles. There’s nonetheless a variety of work to do, however we’re making progress, and we will’t wait to share extra quickly.”

I like this method, and I’d love for all of our skepticism to be confirmed unsuitable, confirmed pessimistic quite than lifelike. Let’s see.