► First details of Ford’s new Universal EV Platform
► It’s designed to be flexible, cheap, and easy to build
► Will underpin a range of new electric cars from 2027
Ford has officially announced its new Universal EV Platform – a battery-electric architecture and a new way of making cars that’s designed to evoke the spirit of the car that made it great: the Model T.
The Blue Oval publicly confirmed its plans via a set of YouTube videos as well as a press conference with Jim Farley at Ford’s plant in Louisville, Kentucky – communicating the brand’s plans for a wave of new electric cars that will launch from 2027 onwards.
The UEVP is ‘a platform founded on relentless efficiency, radical simplification and flexibility,’ says Ford. The brand also promises more interior space inside the vehicles that use the platform compared to others that don’t, as well as ‘endless configurability.’ The Model T, Ford says, went from one model to a range of variants that included commercial vehicles, vans and more besides.
UEVP will use US-manufactured LFP batteries that feature no cobalt or nickel in their construction. On top of that, Ford has confirmed that the new vehicles running on UEVP will run on an entirely different software architecture.
In the videos, Ford highlights a number of body style silhouettes that are being imagined with the UEVP. The first will be a mid-size, double-cab pickup truck to sit alongside the Ranger with a circa-$30,000 asking price. This model is designed to square up against the Amazon-backed Slate truck and SUV that was announced earlier in 2025. Ford says the truck will be ‘as fast as a Mustang EcoBoost’ and will have more passenger volume than a Toyota RAV4.
After that, Farley confirmed that a hatchback, crossover, three-row SUV and a van will be among the first salvo of models planned. While unconfirmed, this architecture could mark the return of the Fiesta or underpin what replaces the Focus in the years to come.
The brand is also moving on from the assembly line format that made the Model T, and the company so successful. Instead, it is planning an ‘assembly tree,’ according to advanced manufacturing program chief, Kevin Young. ‘We’re breaking up the vehicle into three different sub-assembly lines in parallel,’ he says. ‘What that’s doing is shrinking the overall time from to go from start to finish with fewer stations, coming together seamlessly. Because of that modular construction, you have full access [to the vehicle].
Part of the manufacturing process is something Young nicknames ‘unicasting’ – much like the ‘mega casting’ technique used by Volvo and Tesla. The idea is that a single cast is designed to create complex and detailed structures into one part, rather than creating multiple that need bonding together. ‘That saves time, weight and cost,’ says Young.
Ford’s UEVP vehicles will be manufactured at its Louisville plant, with the brand – and Farley – exclaiming ‘from Kentucky to the world,’ implying Ford would export its cars made here to global markets. This move will please the President Trump and his administration, which is enacting sweeping and punitive tariffs on many of its global trade partners.
We’re expecting to see the first production model to use the UEVP in 2027.
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist
