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There has been a lot of bedlam recently in the man of galvanizing vehicle , andFordhas capitalized on it to build out its secretive abject - price EV team .
A TechCrunch followup of LinkedIn data point found that Ford has built this squad up to around 300 employee over the last yr . That includes around 50 coming fromRivian , more than 20 from Tesla , and a 12 from John Cash - strap Canoo . It also hire around 10 employees fromLucid Motors , and a handful from Apple’srecently disbandedEV squad known as Project Titan .
Ford has also lease two senior aerodynamicists aside from Formula 1 teams to ferment on the project .
The growth of the secretive team comes as Ford , like its contender , looks for ways to dramatically force down the cost of EVs in a bid to catch Tesla , while also fending off gimcrack competition brewing in China . “ All of our EVs team are ruthlessly focussed on monetary value and efficiency in our EV merchandise , because the ultimate contest is going to be the affordable Tesla and the Chinese OEMs , ” CEO Jim Farley said in February when herevealedthe project on an psychoanalyst call .
The new reported hire add to a group that Ford already bolstered with its late 2023 acquisition of a startup called Auto Motive Power , or AMP . That team of more than 100 citizenry was brought into Ford to help advance employment on a low - price galvanic fomite platform entail to power next - generation vehicle that could truly compete with Tesla on a mass - securities industry stage .
Ford was already growing the squad before the acquirement . The primary hub is located in Irvine , California , the same place Rivian claim as its main office . In the 2nd one-half of 2023 , Ford hire about a dozen former Rivian employees , many of them engineers . It also brought Canoo ’s former director of software procedure and a senior fabricator on circuit board . ( Canoo has a large office in nearby Torrance , California . )
Hiring accelerated at the beginning of 2024 , with Ford play in a senior mechanical design engineer who work on Tesla ’s “ gigacasting ” team . That effort involves create the underbelly of a fomite in just a few big piece as oppose to welding or riveting together many more , in an effort to simplify the outgrowth .
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Rivian’sdecisionto lay off 10 % of its workforce in February also appear to have offered Ford an chance to snap up natural endowment , as the Advanced EV squad hire another twelve technologist in the following calendar month . Ford also fetch on Canoo ’s former VP of engineering in May .
More recently , Ford has built out the team ’s mien in Palo Alto . It bring on electrical railroad engineer and program managers from Ab operator Nuro ( whichrestructured in 2023 ) , Lucid Motors ( whichslashed1,300 job last yr ) and eVTOL startup Joby . In May and June 2024 , it also added multiple Project Titan engineers to the Palo Alto office .
Very few of the Modern hires Ford bring onto the project over the last year or so hail from outside of the world of galvanising cars . Those who did lean to come from eVTOL startup like Joby , Archer , and Supernal .
The fellowship declined to respond to specific questions about how it ’s work up out the squad , which is known internally as Ford Advanced EV . It also noted that some of the work being done by Ford Advanced EV could be applied to other efforts across the company , not necessarily just to the lowly - toll EV project .
“ The Ford Advanced EV team is part of a global movement to ramp up focussed technology and product development team local to the good talent meat . This squad is leading the growing of breakthrough EV products and technologies , ” Doug Field , Ford ’s chief EV , digital and design officer , said in a statement to TechCrunch .
