Recent developments in the electric vehicle industry have spurred chaos among companies, and Ford has utilized this opportunity by establishing a secretive and cost-effective team dedicated to EVs.
A review of LinkedIn data by TechCrunch uncovered that Ford has swiftly expanded its EV team to over 300 members in the past year. This includes approximately 50 individuals from Rivian, over 20 from Tesla, and a dozen from Canoo. It has also recruited around 10 employees from Lucid Motors and a handful from Apple’s disbanded EV project, known as Project Titan.
Ford has additionally welcomed two senior aerodynamicists from Formula 1 teams to join this project.
The growth of this covert team coincides with Ford’s pursuit to drastically decrease the cost of EVs and compete with Tesla, while simultaneously competing against inexpensive opponents emerging in China. CEO Jim Farley acknowledged the team’s efforts during a quarterly analyst call in February, stating, “All of our EV teams are aggressively focused on cost and efficiency in our EV products, because our ultimate competition will be the affordable Tesla and the Chinese OEMs.”
The newly reported recruits enhance an already advanced team that was strengthened with the acquisition of Auto Motive Power (AMP) in late 2023. This group of over 100 individuals was incorporated into Ford to expedite their work on a low-cost EV platform, intended to power next-generation vehicles and truly challenge Tesla on a mass-market level.
Ford was already expanding this team before the acquisition, with its primary headquarters located in Irvine, California, the same location claimed by Rivian. In the latter half of 2023, the company recruited close to a dozen former Rivian employees, predominantly engineers. It also welcomed the former director of software operations from Canoo and a seasoned fabricator. (Canoo has a significant facility in nearby Torrance, California.)
The pace of hiring intensified at the start of 2024, with Ford bringing aboard a senior mechanical design engineer who previously worked on Tesla’s “gigacasting” team. This initiative involves creating the base of a vehicle using a few large parts instead of welding or riveting together numerous smaller ones, to simplify the process.
Additionally, Ford seemed to have obtained an opportunity to seize talented recruits when Rivian announced a layoff of 10% of its workforce in February, resulting in the Advanced EV team bringing on board another dozen engineers over the following months. In May, Ford also hired Canoo’s former VP of engineering.
Recently, Ford has spread its team’s presence in Palo Alto, recruiting electrical engineers and program managers from companies such as AV operator Nuro (which underwent restructuring in 2023), Lucid Motors (which laid off 1,300 employees last year), and eVTOL startup Joby. In May and June of 2024, it also welcomed multiple Project Titan engineers to the Palo Alto office.
Moreover, the majority of the new additions to Ford’s project team in the last year come specifically from the electric car industry. Exceptions to this include recruits from eVTOL startups like Joby, Archer, and Supernal.
The company chose not to address specific inquiries regarding the team’s expansion, known internally as Ford Advanced EV. Ford also noted that the work done by this team may be applied to other projects within the company, not just the low-cost EV initiative.
“The Ford Advanced EV team is a part of our global efforts to establish focused technology and product development teams near prominent talent hubs. This team is leading the way in developing innovative EV products and technologies,” stated Doug Field, Ford’s Chief EV, digital, and design officer, in response to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
