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An electrical architecture is the blueprint for how power and signals move through a product — what connects to what, how everything is controlled, and how it all works together reliably. Power conversion within an electric vehicle platform can account for a surprising amount of wasted energy in a vehicle while charging or even taking energy from the 400V battery and converting it to 48V for the low-voltage devices.
More importantly, it’s often segregated into functions that get sourced to external suppliers, each with their own enclosures, fasteners, and connecters, which drives high costs and excess weight into the platform.
So in 2023, we moved our high-voltage power electronics architecture and design for this platform in-house. With the acquisition of Auto Motive Power, or AMP, talented engineers joined our team with experience, pushing the limits of power conversion and energy management for numerous global electric vehicles already on the market today.
For the first time, customers will experience a fully electric vehicle charging ecosystem designed in-house by Ford using our own software. That means the hardware in the vehicle, including the bi-directional charging capabilities, comes from a team directly integrated into the one working on the platform and vehicle products. Customers will benefit from improvements that decrease the amount of time waiting around for the battery to charge, maximize the lifespan of the battery, and decreases in total cost of ownership.
The team’s work has had profound improvements beyond just developing Ford’s first 48-volt low-voltage system. In fact, this new hardware and software have played a key role in making the mid-size electric truck's wire harness 4,000 feet shorter and 22 pounds lighter than one of our first-gen electric vehicles.
We know there will be skeptics, just like there were when Ford introduced the turbo on the F-150. Other companies will claim that they've tried much of this before. But physics isn’t proprietary. We're creating a truly integrated electric vehicle platform, not a single part that can be easily copied.
If we succeed, we will have a family of vehicles that we expect to compete on price with the best in the world, including gas vehicles. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’re making progress, and we can’t wait to share more soon.
Alan Clarke is executive director of Advanced EV Development at Ford.
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- Great overview video! Really looking forward to seeing the next gen EV from you all (hopefully including a Lincoln option, finally!). We just added a third Mach E to our family. Fantastic vehicles- Looks like a very promising vehicle, guys. Nice job. But I have a few comments about this approach. Single-piece castings are going to make the vehicles significantly less survivable in an accident. I trust this was looked over, but the moment that casting is compromised, replacing it is (I'm confident) cost-porhibitive and will total the vehicle instantly.
I love that you haven't lost sight over EVs despite the current political atmosphere, nor the high-stakes competitive market the Chinese will be bringing to North America. That said, I really was hoping Ford would have developped a generator for its EVs that would have given them a flexibility that is much needed in the 'transition' time. Many (most?) people who are reluctant to swtich to EVs would likely do so if they had an on-board generator and given that two-fuel choice. That's why cars like the Rav4 Prime are so popular. And if you look at Scout and their order book, it's mostly packed with people choosing it because of its generator.
And lastly, I know you've given up on compact and midsize vehicles for the North American market, but these really do need to make a comeback, as simple hybrids, plug-in hybrids or EVs, and they need to be fun, light and cheap.
Keep going Ford, this isn't an easy time for the North American manufacturer. Invest in Canada, build here.
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