Project T3, Ford’s Next Electric Truck, Enters Production in 2025
Photo: Ford
Ford Motor Company has already hit its goal of becoming America’s No. 2 EV brand, but it’s not going to be satisfied until it owns the top spot. On Friday, the automaker announced a key part of its plan to become No. 1 — Project T3, its second-generation electric truck. BlueOval City — Ford’s mega-campus in Stanton, Tennessee — will kick off production on the EV in 2025.
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Project T3 Is a ‘Millennium Falcon — with a back porch attached’
Ford CEO Jim Farley on Friday teased that Project T3 will perfectly leverage Ford’s storied history of leadership in the truck industry with its fast-emerging leadership in the electric vehicle space. The result, he said, will be “a platform for endless innovation and capability.
“PJ O’Rourke once described American pickups as ‘a back porch with an engine attached.’ Well, this new truck is going to be like the Millennium Falcon — with a back porch attached,” said Farley. “The manufacturing process will be equally breakthrough, with radical simplicity, cost efficiency, and quality technology that will make BlueOval City the modern-day equivalent of Henry Ford’s Rouge factory. A factory of the future that people from all over the world will want to tour.”
BlueOval City promises to be a destination to be sure, covering 3,600 acres in West Tennessee and housing a BlueOval SK battery manufacturing facility, a supplier park, and an upfitting center for on-site truck customization. It will also be one of the most sustainable manufacturing sites on the planet, leveraging carbon-free electricity from day one and an innovative utility system that will save around 50 million gallons of water a year.
What We Know About the Project T3 Electric Truck
Construction is currently underway at BlueOval City, and production will kick off sometime in 2025. When it does, the cornerstone product will be Project T3, which Farley calls “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize America’s truck.”
Project T3 — T3 representing the message “Trust the Truck” — will build on the runaway success of the Ford F-150 Lightning and further recalibrate expectations of what a Ford truck is and can do. The team behind Project T3 is aiming to create an electric truck that is “fully updatable,” presumably giving customers unparalleled options for continued upgrades of both the physical and digital variety.
To ensure optimal success, Ford is developing its next-gen EV pickup truck in conjunction with BlueOval City. This, Ford says, will allow the plant to have a 30% smaller general assembly footprint while delivering a higher output.
With Ford gunning to take the mantle of America’s bestselling EV brand, production output will play a pivotal role. On that front, Ford expects that BlueOval City will be a huge contributor to helping the brand achieve its projected run rate of 2 million EVs globally by the end of 2026. BlueOval City will be able to produce a half-million electric trucks per year at max capacity.
Ford Primes West Tennessee with BlueOval Learning
Photo: Ford
One of the objectives of BlueOval City is to lift up the West Tennessee community, and that’s where BlueOval Learning comes in. Announced Friday, the talent development program seeks to help residents of Stanton and the surrounding communities learn the skills necessary to build the vehicles of tomorrow.
Once deployed, BlueOval Learning will offer learning tools for students as young as K-12, extending access to STEM learning. Additional aspects of the program include providing high school students with greater opportunities for certification, more co-ops and internships for university students, and the creation of a $40 million BlueOval City TCAT training center.
By the time production gets underway at BlueOval City in 2025, Ford will have created some 6,000 jobs in West Tennessee. Ford is also supporting the community directly with investments totaling more than $20 million to date.
Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.