Is Ford's New EV Really A Model T Moment?

Is Ford's New EV Really A Model T Moment? originally appeared on Autoblog.

To match its legendary ancestor, Ford's new EV needs more than a low price

In a fit of marketing swagger, Ford Motor Company is calling Monday, August 11’s unveiling of its new EV “a Model T moment.” The words come from Ford President and CEO Jim Farley, uttered during Ford’s most recent earnings call. "We will be in Kentucky to share more about our plans to design and build a breakthrough electric vehicle and a platform in the U.S.," Farley said on the call, which was first reported by InsideEVs.

The vehicle is the result of work done by Ford at the company’s Electric Vehicle Development Center, a 250,000 square-foot design and innovation hub based in Long Beach, California, and housed in a facility built 95 years ago to expand Ford Model A production. Ford considers it a skunkworks operation, even though the operation does consult with team members in Dearborn, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California.

With federal tax credits expiring on September 30th and EV sales growth slowing, Ford is delaying the launch of the next-generation F-150 Lightning and the E-Transit van to concentrate on more affordable vehicles, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. That may make this announcement seem ill-timed, but it isn’t. Consider that Ford is opening its BlueOval Battery Park in Michigan, and will start producing affordable lithium iron phosphate (LFP) automotive batteries next year. While not much is yet known about the self-proclaimed “breakthrough vehicle” Ford plans to unveil, Farley’s Model T reference does hold some important clues.

A low price is a must

In the broadest sense, this vehicle has to be affordable for most buyers. Affordability remains a huge hurdle for most Americans, and few, if any, automakers are truly addressing it, particularly in the EV market. Yet the Model T teaches an important lesson. Initially costing $850 when introduced in 1908, or $26,700 adjusted for inflation, the Ford Model T's price dropped to as low as $260 in 1924, or $4,893 today. Even then, other automakers had a hard time competing with Ford’s price, which is why the company held an estimated 57% of the U.S. new-car market in 1920.

By comparison, the average transaction price for a new electric vehicle in the U.S. in June 2025 was $56,910, according to Cox Automotive, 15% higher than the average transaction price of a new vehicle during the same period and more than 72% higher than the cost of a new 1908 Model T when adjusted for inflation. Currently, the cheapest new EV sold in the U.S. is the 2025 Nissan Leaf, starting at $29,280, and the most affordable new Ford EV is the Ford Mustang Mach-E Select, starting at $37,995, or 26% more. So, Ford has a long way to go just to match the Nissan Leaf’s price, let alone surpass it. But it could happen, and here’s why. If Ford’s EV is a true “breakthrough vehicle” in the mold of the Model T, it will clearly approach its design differently, just as the Model T did.

It must be innovative

The T's design helped ensure a low price, which is why Henry Ford designed its engine block and crankcase cast as a single unit, a first in any automobile. It was also the first to have a removable cylinder head for easy access, and the first to make such extensive use of lightweight vanadium steel. The Model T also used a planetary transmission, which proved to be simple, reliable, and easy to operate compared to the more complex manual transmission used by other automakers. It had a high ground clearance, as there were only approximately 144 miles of paved roads out of the 24 million miles of public roads in the United States in 1908, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Finally, the Model T's sheer ubiquity standardized that American cars would have their steering wheel on the left side at a time when automakers hadn’t formally decided on which side it would be placed.

For Ford’s new EV to match the Model T in innovation, it must have similar out-of-the-box thinking, both in terms of low-cost manufacturing, ease of use, reliability, and ease of repair. Given Ford’s recent record of recalls, those last two items remain to be seen.

It also has to have a similar cultural impact, something that seems far less likely and might be too much to expect. The Ford Model T allowed the average worker to afford a car, usually for the first time. In fact, it led Henry Ford to pay his workers $5 a day – double the prevailing rate – so they could afford the cars they were building. The Model T revolutionized manufacturing with the moving assembly line, allowing more cars to be produced at a lower cost, which then passed on to its customers. It also changed the way Americans travelled. In 1908, there were more than 190,000 registered cars and trucks in the United States, as most people travelled by train or trolley. Twenty years later, there were 21.3 million cars, as people chose personal transportation over public transportation.

Final thoughts

We look forward to Ford’s newest EV, and hope that Jim Farley’s pronouncement is more than marketing babble. We truly hope that it has the groundbreaking engineering, innovative thinking, and rock-solid reliability that characterized Ford’s Tin Lizzie. Affordable EVs remain beyond the grasp of many automakers, as they fall victim to design presumptions that hinder their progress. Hopefully, the folks at Ford’s skunkworks have truly rethought the EV equation, considering what’s essential and what’s not, as well as what design works and what needs rethinking. A radical rethink of what a modern car “must” have is overdue, and the result could very well lead to a car that costs less, in terms of environmental impact and price, but delivers more of what most buyers want. Whether the Ford will meet that moment will be revealed on Monday.

Is Ford's New EV Really A Model T Moment? first appeared on Autoblog on Aug 10, 2025

This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Aug 10, 2025, where it first appeared.