How is Ford designing a $30,000 electric pickup? Inside their skunkworks

Ford has decided to stay in the electric vehicle game with its “Universal Electric Vehicle,” which it announced in late 2025. This highly modular platform is designed to underpin all of the Blue Oval’s electric vehicles going forward.

The work has been largely conducted at Ford’s Electric Vehicle Development Center (EVDC) in sunny Long Beach, California, and Ars Technica was recently invited to tour the facility to see what makes it different from any of Ford’s other operations.

Inside a bland-looking tilt-up concrete building in a new-ish business park near the Long Beach Airport, Ford is attempting to upend the way it develops new vehicles. The EVDC was conceived of as a “skunkworks,” but what is that, and why is it important for Ford’s future?

Developing electric vehicles that push technology forward is expensive, and Ford is anything but a sentimental company. If the case for the UEV doesn’t make business sense, whether due to customer disinterest or the current administration and its attitudes toward environmentalism, it seems likely that CEO Jim Farley wouldn’t hesitate to cut it loose.

See all the details in the Ars Technica article here.