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Ford’s upcoming $30k electric truck was spotted testing in Dearborn.
Prototype sits noticeably lower than a Ford Expedition Max.
The compact pickup rides on Ford’s new in-house EV architecture.
Ford’s highly anticipated, affordable electric truck is still working through development testing ahead of its debut next year, and our spy photographers have sent over fresh shots from Dearborn that put the compact pickup right next to a full-size SUV for scale. The result tells you a lot about how small this thing really is, especially when compared to the Blue Oval’s other truck offerings.
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The camouflaged prototype got a brief escort from a Ford Expedition Max , and the pairing does the truck no favors. At 221.9 inches (5,636 mm) long and 78 inches (1,981 mm) tall, the giant SUV makes the pickup look like a car with a bed bolted on. The EV’s low roofline barely clears the Expedition’s shoulder line. There’s a good reason for that.
A Roofline Shaped by the Spreadsheet
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Ford’s designers poured their attention into aerodynamic efficiency , chasing every bit of range so the truck can get away with a smaller, lighter battery. In an earlier video, the company walked through the math, noting that adding 1 mm (0.04 inches) to the roof height would cost $1.30 more in battery or trim 0.055 miles off the range, which explains why the roofline sits where it does.
Beyond the low roof, the model has a steeply raked windshield, smaller mirrors, low-resistance Michelin E Primacy tires, an integrated roof spoiler, and cross-shaped aero wheel covers measuring 19 inches across. All of it adds up to what Ford claims is 15% better aerodynamics than “any other pickup truck on the market today,” including the similarly sized Maverick .
Retro Cues Hiding Under Playful Camouflage
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Ford’s engineers have stuck chunks of camouflage onto the front end to disguise its shape, and the production version is expected to wear a lower, more rounded nose than what the prototype shows.
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The droopy headlights sit low enough to suggest Ford might be dusting off the design language of the second-gen F-Series from the 1950s, a look it already leaned on for the mid-2000s and early-2010s Mustangs. Then again, these might be placeholder units, since earlier teaser sketches pointed toward a more futuristic take on the lighting signature.
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The spy shots also give us a glimpse inside the cabin, where a large free-standing infotainment display dominates the dash. The new camouflage wrap comes into view too, scattered with graphics of a dog, a sailboat, a soccer ball, a heart, a flower, a motorcycle, and plenty more.
A Clean-Sheet Architecture
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Underneath, the pickup rides on Ford’s new Universal EV platform, developed in-house by a dedicated skunkworks team. The architecture leans on large aluminum unicastings for a 27% weight advantage over rivals, and it cuts parts by 20%, fasteners by 25%, and factory workstations by 40%. It also runs a simplified 48-volt low-voltage system with a wiring harness that comes in 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) shorter and 10 kg (22 lbs) lighter than the harnesses in Ford’s first-generation EVs .
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Ford hasn’t said anything yet about the electric motors or the battery pack. What we do know is that the truck will use a cost-effective Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery, which is how Ford plans to hold the starting price near the $30,000 mark.
More details should surface over the coming months as the 2027 debut draws closer. Earlier reports suggest the model could revive the historic Ranchero nameplate, though Ford hasn’t confirmed anything on that front.
Official sketches of a futuristic truck shared on an earlier teaser.
Ford
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