Ford's electric car chief to leave after five years

Ford’s electric car chief, Doug Field, is leaving the company after five years. He exits amid a restructuring of Ford’s Model E division, effectively merging it with the manufacturing arm to form a new "product creation and industrialisation" wing. This new division will be led by Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer, and focus on a significant overhaul of the American brand’s global line-up. Ford said it will refresh 70% of its global product range (by sales volumes) and 80% of its North American line-up by 2029. In his tenure, Field has overseen the upheaval of Ford’s approach to electrification and software-defined vehicles. The failure of the Mustang Mach-E SUV to compete with Tesla and the failure of the F-150 Lightning pick-up truck has forced the company to rethink its approach to EVs. CEO Jim Farley said in 2024 that the availability of cheap credit before the pandemic and pent-up demand for cars of any kind “gave us too optimistic a demand signal”. That resulted in oversupply of its EVs compared with actual demand, causing significant losses. “As the Covid shock retreated, we learned that as you scale EVs to 5000-7000 units a month and you move into the [majority of customers], they are not willing to pay a significant premium for EVs,” Farley explained. These issues prompted the development of the Universal Electric Vehicle platform under Field’s oversight. This is Ford’s first EV-dedicated platform and will from next year spawn a family of value-focused pick-ups and SUVs that are hoped to convert American buyers to EVs. Ford has described the upcoming range of models as being as significant as the Model T. The project majors on cost-cutting, taking learnings from Tesla – where Field previously headed the development of the Model 3 saloon. Farley previously said the Tesla Model Y was a “huge gift with a laser-focus on cost”, explaining that benchmarking the SUV against the Mustang Mach-E revealed that the Ford’s wiring harness was a mile longer and a mile heavier. The new Ford EVs will also use cost-cutting megacasting, as pioneered by Tesla, for their construction. In Europe, meanwhile, Ford has partnered Renault to build a range of small EVs based on the platform of the Renault 5. These are expected to replace the Fiesta, axed in 2023, and the current Puma Gen-E. Field said: “I believe Ford now has a winning technology strategy and plan. The first breakthrough product off the Universal EV platform, a mid-size pick-up, is on its way to production. "We have clearly defined hardware, software and electrification plans across our full product line. The initial quality of our core technologies is now near the top of the industry. "Most importantly, we have incredibly talented teams across these disciplines, ready to carry Ford into the future.”

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Ford's electric car chief to leave after five years

Doug Field has led a dramatic rethink in how Ford develops electric and software-defined vehicles

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