Jim Baumbick, vice president, Enterprise Product Line Management, outlined Ford’s strategy for success at a recent online meeting of Ford Retired Engineering Executives (FREE), emphasizing the company’s laser focus on providing must-have products, embedded and connected systems, and technology that creates an always-on relationship with customers.

“If you think at a macro level about how Apple and Google in the early days started to build out various different ecosystems with their operating systems, it’s really starting to play out in a very similar way,” he said.  “The core differentiator is going to be how the vehicle interacts with these technologies to make people’s lives and businesses better.”

Baumbick went on to discuss how we’re changing the way we work under the Ford+ plan, pointing to the development of the all-new Maverick as an example.

“Our challenge in the early days was to do this product program 25 months faster than we ever have.  Enablers like flexible architectures had to be in place, and our way of working shifted dramatically,” he said.  “We used the Global Product Development System (GPDS) as a skeleton and used an agile approach to get from Point A to Point B.  We broke work into smaller chunks and empowered the team to try new and different things.”

Baumbick said the Maverick shows that we can compete differently with a unique point of view.

“You basically have the interior package of a Fusion with a 4.5-foot bed and the flexibility of a truck,” he said.  “And it has all kinds of innovation.  It really speaks to customers in this space who are really interested in DYI, which is a growing trend for millennials and Gen Zs.”

The Maverick was developed 20 months faster than comparable vehicle programs – not the original 25-month target but still much faster, and it uses 70% carryover parts in areas customers can’t see, touch or feel.

“What’s interesting and more powerful are the investment savings,” he said.  “When we set up the architecture, the first vehicle is always the most expensive.  But if you’ve been thoughtful about the flow of product behind it, the total spending leverage is incredible. The Maverick was done at one-third the cost of an equivalent all-new vehicle.”

Baumbick also discussed Ford’s plan to lead the electrification revolution.  

“You can see a tremendous increase in investment and capital allocated to BEVs.  Our first three vehicles out of the gate – Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit just around the corner – are being very well received,” he said.  “What’s really unique about this is we’re touching very high-volume segments, and our scale will grow very rapidly.” 

He said Ford has teams working to understand customers apart from product programs so that when we start a program, we have a body of knowledge we can accelerate.

“We’re focusing on amplifying attributes in our most iconic products that only a BEV can do. Things that you can do in a BEV that you can’t do in an ICE vehicle that are core to a truck, a Mustang or other vehicle,” he said.  “And we’re looking at commonality and modular architectures, leveraging scale across the portfolio.”

Baumbick said Ford will have BEV offerings in over 70% of vehicle segments by 2027, however, he acknowledged that no one really knows for sure how electric vehicles will   progress with customers.

“We don’t know how it’s going to play out.  Electrification is a rapidly growing trend.  We need to be there, and we need to lead,” he said.  “So, a lot of our Ford investment is in BEVs, but we’ve been very surgical as a team on critical ICE investments.”

A big part of that investment is in batteries, with Ford working to deliver fifth-generation lithium ion batteries as well as preparing for the transition to solid-state batteries, which promise longer range, lower cost and safer EVs for customers.

Baumbick concluded his presentation by discussing Ford’s investment in always-on customer relationships and Blue Oval Intelligence, the next-generation cloud-based software technology infrastructure for connecting Ford, Lincoln and Ford Pro products. Data gather from Blue Oval Intelligence will be used to create even more compelling vehicles that can be updated using Power-Up over-the-air and tie Ford closer to our customers.

“This is going to be the area of differentiation, and it is the area that will create the stickiness with customers,” he said.  “These are the things that are going to stop people from switching brands, coupled with emotive products.”