Ford begins testing tech with Universal Electric Vehicle, aiming to change Americans' minds about EVs
The expiration of the $7,500 U.S. tax credit for electric vehicle purchases last year exposed cracks in the industry that had been masked by the government subsidy for over a decade.
Demand that had been climbing, albeit almost agonizingly slowly, suddenly reversed course after the tax credits expired at the end of September 2025.
"October marked a sharp reversal for the electric vehicle (EV) market as the expiration of the federal EV tax credit cooled demand after three months of accelerated sales," said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights for Cox Automotive.
"Buyers rushed to secure incentives before the deadline, but once it passed, momentum slowed. Inventories climbed quickly, and pricing shifted upward for both new and used EVs, reflecting a market in transition."
Despite this trend and the nearly $20 billion in losses it took related to EVs, Ford Motor (F) still sees an EV future and is working hard in the present to be ready for the transition away from internal combustion engines.
This week, the company confirmed that it has begun real-world testing of the next generation of EVs, which it says will finally convince Americans to start buying battery-electric vehicles.
Ford begins real-world testing of Universal Electric Vehicle project
If you are driving around the state of Michigan in the coming months and see an alien-looking electric vehicle in your vicinity, don't be alarmed; that's just Ford testing the next generation of sub-$30,000 EVs that it hopes will make EV demand do a complete 180 in the coming years.
Recently, Ford Chief Financial Officer Sherry House revealed that prototypes of Ford's Universal Electric Vehicle, which aims to build an EV priced for most Americans' budgets, are already off the line and being tested on Michigan roads.
A Ford spokesman confirmed to the Detroit Free Press that the vehicles are "out in the wild" currently. They clarified that they are not yet on Michigan roads, but will be in a few weeks.
The first vehicle to come off its updated Universal Electric Vehicle production platform is an all-electric midsize pickup that Ford says will have a starting price of about $30,000.
"The project is going really well. We're on plan for our 2027 launch," House told the UBS Auto and Auto Tech Conference, according to the Free Press.
"We are making prototype vehicles in Michigan. We're testing those already on the road. We're testing our megacastings, which is a new product. We're doing a supplier readiness assessment. So all those things that you'd expect us to be doing… preparing for launch is in full force today."
How does Ford plan to make a $30,000 EV?
EVs cost about $11,000 more on average than their traditional gas-fueled counterparts, according to a 2023 report by SaveOnEnergy. That, coupled with the expiration of the up to $7,500 tax credit that had been propping up the industry for a decade, means EVs are as unaffordable in America as they've ever been.
Ford has been teasing progress on its Universal Electric Vehicle project, which aims to build an EV priced for most Americans for months.
Ford says it aims to produce a $30,000 EV in the near future. To get there, it needs to tackle the biggest cost driver for electric vehicles: their batteries.
Customers expect at least 300 miles of range, according to Ford, and to achieve that, batteries have been made bigger and heavier. But Ford says it is taking a different approach.
It gave its engineers incentives to increase battery efficiency by any means necessary. The team identified aerodynamics and vehicle weight as the two main areas where batteries were operating inefficiently.
The way EVs are currently designed increases wind drag, making the battery work harder and less efficiently. Ditto for weight, as heavier vehicles need more juice to operate.
At higher speeds, air drag becomes more important. For example, if you go twice as fast, the air holds you back four times as much, and you need eight times as much power from the battery, according to Ford.
So Ford devised a "bounty" program in which its engineers assigned numerical values to efficiency gains. Teams competed against each other for the largest efficiency gains, reducing battery size and cost.
A millimeter change in the height of the roof could equate to $1.30 in battery savings costs while also making its pickup truck the industry leader in efficiency, as shown by Ford.
Related: Morgan Stanley says Ford stock has a secret weapon not fully priced in
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This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 6:37 PM.