Last year Ford Motor suspended production of an electric pickup truck, shut down a battery factory in Kentucky and booked a $20 billion loss to account for its diminished plans.
Then, last month, the senior executive who oversaw development of this new technology left the company.
But Ford executives insist that those setbacks do not mean that the company has given up on electric vehicles. As evidence, they point to a former warehouse here in Long Beach, Calif.
There, a team lead by Alan Clarke, a Tesla veteran, is building a new electric pickup truck that will go on sale next year, the first of many models designed to compete on price and technology with the best cars sold by Chinese automakers.
Ford has begun lifting the secrecy that has shrouded the project, and last week allowed reporters to tour its Electric Vehicle Development Center in Long Beach.
Mr. Clarke acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that last year was tough on morale for his young team, which includes former employees of Tesla, Apple and other tech companies.
Sales collapsed after Congress eliminated a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of electric cars. The federal government also gutted regulations that put pressure on carmakers to sell zero-emission vehicles.
But William Clay Ford Jr., the chairman of Ford, and Jim Farley, the chief executive, kept the electric truck project alive while cutting others.
“It really tested the leadership’s mettle,” Mr. Clarke said. “The fact that it still exists,” he said of the pickup, “is a testament to the leadership of Ford, that they really believe it’s the future.”
Mr. Clarke is aiming for the vehicle to sell for $30,000, or about the same as a Ford Maverick, a small pickup. That would be a milestone, bringing the purchase price of an electric vehicle in line with a comparable gasoline-powered truck. The electric truck, which will be able to travel 300 miles on a charge, will be a lot cheaper to fuel than similar gasoline models.
The vehicle may arrive just in time. Electric vehicle sales are soaring in much of the world and showing signs of hitting bottom in the United States as gasoline prices rise because of war with Iran.
Sales of new electric vehicles in the United States rose 20 percent in March from February, according to Cox Automotive, and they are rising much more in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
It usually takes months of high fuel prices to change consumer preferences, suggesting electric vehicle sales could keep rising this year.
If so, Ford won’t have much to offer American car buyers for many months. The company is making only one electric vehicle, the Mustang Mach-E. Last year it suspended production of the F-150 Lightning, a full-size electric pickup. Ford also shut down a factory in Kentucky that produced batteries for the Lightning and laid off 1,600 employees. Ford is converting the plant to make energy storage batteries.
Doug Field, a former Tesla and Apple executive who had overseen electric vehicle development, unexpectedly announced his departure from Ford last month. Mr. Clarke, who was recruited by Mr. Field from Tesla in 2022, said the work that Mr. Field had championed would go on.
“He laid the foundation for all of us to walk on here,” Mr. Clarke said. “Now we have to forge the rest of the path ourselves.”
Ford has already produced prototypes of the electric pickup that the company is testing. And the company has begun equipping a factory in Louisville, Ky., to produce the truck, which will arrive at showrooms next year.
Until recently, the Long Beach center was off limits even to other Ford employees. Some areas still are, to insulate Mr. Clarke and his colleagues from meddling by others.
His team is already developing other vehicles that will use the same components and technology. Ford is not saying much about those products, but it would be logical to expect sport utility vehicles, including a successor to the Mach-E.
Last week, several prototypes at the center were shrouded in black fabric. The building is crammed with equipment used to design and test new vehicles and their parts.
In one room, a large, lathe-like machine sculpted life-size models from foam and clay. In another area, Ford is installing what Mr. Clarke called “a very expensive, very nice thermal chamber” to test whether vehicles and batteries can withstand extreme temperatures.
Ford has not yet shown a complete prototype of its pickup. The company says it will have a streamlined design for energy efficiency while having more interior space than a Toyota RAV4. It will be the first Ford model designed from the ground up to be electric.
The front and rear ends, which Ford showed to reporters, will be molded from liquid aluminum. Most contemporary vehicles are made up of hundreds of parts that have to be welded together. The new approach will greatly simplify manufacturing and is central to hitting the $30,000 price target.
“It’s profoundly different,” Mr. Clarke said.
Jack Ewing covers the auto industry for The Times, with an emphasis on electric vehicles.
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