Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, promises a “Model T moment” soon to come. He added, “We will be in Kentucky to share more about our plans to design and build a breakthrough electric vehicle and a platform in the U.S.”
Nothing could be as far from a “Model T moment” as this. The actual Model T was the vehicle that killed off the electric vehicle, the first time around. How did it do that? By being superior as a vehicle. That this self-evident truth has to be repeated is a function of historical amnesia. Probably not one out of 100 people who aren’t knowledgeable about the history of vehicles has any idea that today’s electric vehicles are not the first electric vehicles. They are thus easy to intellectually swindle. They are led to believe that electric vehicles are a new and revolutionary technology; the corollary of this lie is that vehicles such as the Model T are inferior technology, destined to be supplanted.
The historical truth is that electric cars were tried – and replaced – by the genuinely revolutionary technology embodied by the Ford Model T. It was the first simplified car, made out of a relatively small number of easily and inexpensively mass-produced parts. Henry Ford was big into simple. The T did not even have a fuel pump. It had a gas tank mounted above the level of the engine that fed fuel to the carburetor via gravity. Gravity – unlike mechanical and electrical fuel pumps – never fails. The T sat high and rode on thin and tall wheels; this enabled it to traverse deeply mudded roads and fields, too. The T was in this respect decades ahead of its time in that it would not be until the ’90s that mass-market vehicles that were any good at all in poor conditions became common.
The T’s engine was so simple a farmer with basic hand tools – provided with the car – could service it and fix it when it needed fixing.
Above everything else, though, the T could be driven as far as you liked because its range was not limited to how nearby a place to charge up its batteries was. You could carry extra gas with you. You could store gas at the farm and that didn’t require anything more than a barrel and a hand pump. Gas stations proliferated because it was a simple matter of trucking the gasoline to wherever the station was; no need for a pipeline from the refinery to the gas station – which is basically the situation with electricity. The latter must be transmitted over wires from the source to wherever the outlet (or charger) is via physical infrastructure. This makes it much more complicated to build out EV charging stations in a diffuse and convenient manner, as we have come to take for granted (as a society) with regard to gas stations.
What is coming from Ford, then, is the anti-Model T moment. It is also – and this is especially interesting – the anti-original-EV moment, too.
Early EVs such as the Baker Electrics were also simple, like the Model T. They did not have complex electronics or even complex electric battery packs. What they had was a bunch of easily removable lead-acid batteries that the owner could take out for charging or replacing as necessary. They were not particularly expensive, either and so neither was the Baker – because other than the batteries and electric motors that propelled it, there wasn’t much to it. The thing was actually a useful, short-distance conveyance that was particularly liked by women because it was easy to operate. The T – for all its other virtues – took more effort to operate. It had to be hand-cranked and the driver had to learn how to operate and synchronize the operation of several controls at once. The Baker, you just got it, turned the power on and drove.
Its fatal weakness was that it could not be driven very far. This was compounded by the time it took to swap in freshly charged batteries, plus the time it took to charge them. Same then as now, with the only “breakthrough” being that today’s battery packs can store more energy and they can be partially charged at a faster rate. The price that has to be paid for that, however, is enormous weight, extreme complexity and high cost. A modern electric vehicle’s battery pack is a sealed-unit thing that is not owner-serviceable. It requires elaborate peripherals – such as a thermal management system, to keep it at just the right temperature so as to prevent it from being damaged as a result of getting too hot or too cold. The electronic controls in a modern electric vehicle are more complicated, probably, than the controls used to keep the Lunar Module operational during its flight to the Moon.
Farley says that what’s coming from Ford – the announcement is scheduled for Aug. 11 – is “a chance to bring a new family of vehicles to the world that offer incredible technology, efficiency, space and features.”
He adds that Ford has “cracked the code.”
No mention of affordability – which is always a function of simplicity – whether we’re talking Model Ts or electric vehicles. Farley hints at a miracle, a kind of wunderwaffe and the parallels there are apt. Absent a miracle, der krieg ist verloren – as they said in the bunker back in that dreary April of ’45.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $25 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you’d like a Baaaaa hat or other EPautos gear, see here!
Purely anecdotal but the 8 EV chargers at our local Whole Foods now have signs on them stating that they’re “offline…and to go find another EV charging station”.
Mini cheer!
Excellent news, RS!
I keep hoping to see the same at the two EV “fast” charger kiosks in my area, too. I will pass by one of them today and report back any news…
Hmm…Telsa chargers at a Whole (Paycheck) Foods NOT WORKING. GOOD. I’d like nothing more than to see the pissy looks on those smug Leftists that have constantly “Eco-Shamed” we that “cling” to our “gas guzzling V8s.
I believe the Baker Electric, or at least many of them, used Edison nickel iron batteries. They have a little less energy density than lead acid but they can be recharged indefinitely, and can handle deep discharges without damage.
Some of the hundred year old nickel iron Edison batteries still work. And they don’t take complex battery management technology.
NiFe batteries are awesome Ernie. Someone should be making them affordable for off grid use, but the few options here are very much not affordable.
No sure it was a Baker, but there was an electric car someone fad whose NiFe batteries lasted 80 years, and they only replaced them because the steel cases were failing and leaking the caustic electrolyte solution.
Sorry for typos. Damn twonkies.
Farley & Barra at GM both needed to be fired years ago.
Hey Jim… you had the opportunity to create a Model T moment with the Fiesta and Focus and yet you palmed off a boutique POS transmission on budget conscious buyers and even gas lit them with the corporate policy that “they all do that: overheat, shudder, slip slide and fail early at great repair expense. For almost 10 years.
https://www.freep.com/in-depth/money/cars/ford/2019/07/11/ford-focus-fiesta-transmission-defect/1671198001/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-workers-break-silence-faulty-145800004.html
Then you stuck it to your customers with belt in oil 3 cylinders whose blocks would also crack and your Eco Bust turbo engine BS.
And just recently Ford announced there was no fix for the problems that the Eco Bust 3 cylinder has. Just like with the Power Shift automated manual…
You keep engineering stupidity into you cars like water pumps in the block and oil pumps deep inside the engine being driven by a rubber belt. One time use pieces and plastic crap inside and out.
You need a new model “The Recall King Ranch” as an homage to your junk status.
This makes me just seethe.
Henry Ford would roll over in his grave.
Ford 2025 has no interest in a real Model T inspired car. But it will sell you $90,000 Excursions and F-150 Titanium Ultra 500 Ghia Brougham Elite 500 LTD Galaxie 500 Premiere Fairlane Ranch Deluxe Victorias that’s for damned sure.
And 7vkk you for it.
Preach it, Bostwick!
In addition to your summary, I’m appalled by Ford’s bait-and-switch with regard to the Maverick. Advertised as starting under $20k, its price quickly escalated to close to $30k. Why not offer this little sort-of truck with a base (non-hybrid and non-turbo) drivetrain that would enable it to be sold at a profit for around $20k or even less? Because – apparently – it would not be profitable enough in terms of margins per car. But this proves Ford has lost sight of what Henry Ford understood, which is that volume sales can make a lot of profit. The per-car margins on the T were not high but because For sold so many, the profits overall were immense.
The Maverick could have been the affordable little truck so many want.
PS: Ford is perfectly willing to lose money – lots of money – on EeeeeeeeeeeeVeeeees such as the Lightning. But it’s unwilling to offer a vehicle like the Maverick that is popular with buyers at the price originally touted, which may have been too low to make a profit but didn’t incur anything close to the tens of thousands lost on each sale of the Lightning.
“Hey Jim… you had the opportunity to create a Model T moment with the Fiesta and Focus and yet you palmed off a boutique POS transmission”
If you got a Focus with an MTX-75 5-speed manual it was a FANTASTIC car. Bulletproof. I have a 2012 with 215,000 on it… original starter, alternator, and clutch. No timing belt either, it’s a chain.
It is at the end of its life because of rust, a bad module with a parasitic draw, and I suspect the clutch disc is finally going to need replacement. But it has, without a doubt, been the best car I have ever owned and if it were not for rust I would continue to drive it indefinitely.
Mark III Focuses got a bad rap (deservedly) because of the shitty automatic transmissions, and probably 90% of them had automatics. A real shame.
Hey Jimbo, not sure if ya heard, but CAFE is dead and there’s no more emissions crap to worry about. Mopar’s back to snorting lines off of strippers and putting hellcats in minivans, and you’re pushing for crap no one wanted in the first place.
Better get with the times, Pedo Peter and his handlers are long past gone, no need to kowtow to them anymore
Hi Carmelo –
I may be mistaken, but I believe what Trump did is dial back the fines for exceeding the 2020 CAE standards; CAFE itself remains in force.
Maybe he’s going to reveal the updated Nucleon. With the Chinese cracking the thorium conundrum we might be on the verge of a truly revolution…but, I’m not holding my breath.
https://www.ans.org/news/article-3058/the-1958-ford-nucleon-an-idea-thats-still-ahead-of-its-time/
Something like this, Mark?
https://www.drive.com.au/news/the-thorium-powered-car-eight-grams-one-million-miles/
Ford is a major investor in Solid Power (Nasdaq: SLDP), a startup trying to make solid state lithium batteries at scale, using techniques and equipment borrowed from the printing industry. The biggest challenge is getting the yield up to mass production requirements. Maybe they’ve cracked it? If they did, it will certainly make the EV a more palatable option for many buyers. The range still won’t be competitive with gasoline, but the time to recharge will drop and the degradation we see with wet cells will decrease.
https://www.solidpowerbattery.com/investor-relations/investor-news/news-details/2025/BMW-Group-and-Solid-Power-are-Testing-All-Solid-State-Battery-Cells-in-a-BMW-I7/default.aspx
Ford….another garbage auto company dependent on government cheese – just like Goobermint Motors and whatever ChryCo was/is/will be.
Everyone remember when Bill Ford had to mortgage the entire company – because the Ford family’s income was based on stocks, and they would have been without cash flow if they took the deal that GM and Chrysler did?
Did they ever pay the money back? Who knows? Because the lamestream media never follows up.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2020/07/29/ford-government-loan-department-energy-debt/5526413002/
I think Jim’s cousin Chris Farley had more common sense than he does.
Ford stockholders need to eliminate Jim Farley just as Hitler eliminated Justin Bieber:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWBv522Eevg
The Chimp’s administration forced the issue of replacing Bill Ford with Alan Mulalley, a real engineer, in an uncharacteristic moment of common sense.
I dont think Ford stockholders will be that lucky when the next bailout happens.
Hiring Fire-sale Alan (who came from Boeing of all places…) ultimately turned out to be the wrong move. After all, he was the guy who sold Volvo to the Chinese, and Jaguar and Land Rover to the Indians. As the saying goes, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat, and offloading these brands to Asia was one of the greatest strategic blunders in recent automotive history, even if it did allow Ford to keep the lights on in the short term.
How far is the event site in Kentucky from Sandusky, Ohio?
https://www.tommyboyfest.com
I’m sure it is just a coincidence.
You can get a good look at Bankruptcy by sticking your head up an EV’s tail pipe, but wouldn’t you rather take the CFO’s word for it?
One apparent difference between EVs of the early 20th century compared to today is that back then, I’m not aware of corporations & the government viewing them as a tool that could be used to CONTROL & MONITOR the driver. It has become obvious to me that the propaganda campaign claiming EVs are THE answer to “cliiiiiiiiimate change” is complete BS. In fact, EVs are actually WORSE for the environment than a regular gas vehicle, and it appears to me that the REAL purpose for trying to SHOVE EVs down everyone’s throats is CONTROL & SURVEILLANCE.
Given that more & more people are waking up to the reality of EVs, this demented EV push could eventually collapse like the demented push to inject people with endless mRNA COVID booster jabs. I saw on a recent Jimmy Dore interview with Dr. Peter McCullough that the percentage of Americans who’ve taken “the latest” COVID booster jab is really small.
Nailed it John!
EV’s are part ot the digital prison we are being herded into; I hope to keep my non-connected ‘03 Corolla running until I’m no longer able to drive it.
Mike,
I also hope to keep my late 1990s truck running as long as possible. I’m not interested in an EV period, as they’re very expensive as well as complicated.
Most if not all of this digital stuff being pushed by the globalist/ technocratic elite (Digital ID, digital vaccine passports, CBDCs, digital carbon footprint trackers, etc.) are also about control & surveillance. However, it’s all being marketed to the masses as “Convenient”, “Promoting DEI”, “Stopping climate change”, “Stopping terrorism”, “Protecting public health”, etc., and there are people who are propagandized enough to belieeeeeeeeeeeeve the narratives.
The early electric vehicles had 40 volt lead-acid batteries to power the drive train.
In New York City, electric cabs thrived during the 1890s.
Change out the batteries for newly charged at the battery swap exchange. You can go again.
How it was done.
Gasoline is the culprit here, if there is no gas, fuel, it’s over for ICEs.
Plenty of oil out there, a resource, something that can be used to make life a little bit better, can’t argue with that.
Gobs of electricity, you want some, just have an outlet, a switch, a supply, it’s right there for you.
Don’t have to generate the stuff to have it, somebody did that a long time ago. Nikola Tesla gave everybody access to distributed AC electricity.
Thomas Edison lit up your living room, no more whale oil for oil lamps, no wicks, flip the switch, you can see the light.
Not Trump though, he’s in the dark and refuses to see the light.
His factitious disorder makes him think he runs the world, conflates it to the sick economy he wants to heal, but only makes it worse, ignores the symptoms, what not.
Trump is off on himself, he ain’t got much time left in this world, he has to do something to save us all.
Trump thinks he is a saint to everybody. One sick puppy.
Hilarious! Trump is a monkey on your back, really is that way.
Supply and Demand, what rules the game, nothing else.
You want a post-modern society with the luxuries of running water, decent plumbing, readily available electricity, reliable transportation, crude oil is the leader of the pack.
Whatever Farley has up his sleeve, he is full of shit. In 1925 a Model T cost $260. That’s $4792 in today’s money. I will absolutely bet my life to any and all takers that Farley is not going to be offering a car to the masses for $4792, EV or not. It can’t be done today.
The (foreign-built) Maverick hybrid at $19,995 was an immense success, so they raised the price to $27,000. Tariffs may raise that further. And that is about the cheapest Ford you can buy today. Screw Farley and his corporate propaganda.
“ In 1925 a Model T cost $260. That’s $4792 in today’s money.”
Bullshit. The BLS inflation calculator lies especially when going that far back.
In 1925 we were on a gold standard where a $20 bill was redeemable for 1 gold double eagle which contained 0.9675 ounces of gold.
$260/20=13 gold eagles to buy a model T
13×0.9675 =12.578 ounces of gold to buy a model T
Today’s gold price = $3398/oz
$3398/oz x 12.578 oz=$42,738 fiat dollars in 2025.
Don’t trust the BLS inflation calculator; the government lies!! Surprise.
260 USD in 1910 or so is 260 one dollar US minted silver coins.
Silver is close to 40 dollars per Troy ounce, 40×260=10,400 dollars in 2025 silver price valuation.
Gold is overpriced four times, nobody buys at 3398, everybody sells.
I will trade one Troy ounce of gold for 339,800 US minted cents. Half will probably be 95 percent copper pennies, some will be wheat pennies, maybe five percent. You will be money ahead with 339,800 pennies instead of one Troy ounce of gold which will be useless unless sold.
Silver has to increase in price by four times to be at par with gold.
Yeah, but let’s see you hide 339000 pennies in your shoe to bribe the guards at the camp.
Though I am also a fan of pennies and nickels, the hundreds of quart jars look really cool on my walls.
BiD,
Scored a couple of liberty & St Gaudens “Double saw bucks” (2020)…….paid a Serious Premium BUT…..I scored the lot at $1,625 spot +$287 premium over spot…plus slabed and graded…”fees”…..
However, my “loose change”…has scored a serious return…plus they pair so nicely together…showcasing a period of USA history…..that has sailed……
And so it goes….
One of the big things that killed off the early EV’s was the electric starter. Anyone could start their car with out the risk of a broken arm if you forgot to retard the timing.
You’ll know someone is trying to jump the shark when they announce that they are releasing a new steam powered automobile. Although it might be interesting to watch a generation that is unsure of which washroom to use confront a high pressure steam boiler, steam turbine and “complications” resulting from lower quality water and it’s effect on the boiler.
I’m down with a steam powered car. Perhaps not practical but highly cool.
‘Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, promises a “Model T moment” soon to come.’ — eric
One is reminded of the months of tease and hype preceding the Dec 3, 2001 announcement of the Segway scooter, initially known only as ‘Ginger’ or ‘It.’ ‘It’ was supposed to change personal transportation forever. ‘It’ didn’t.
Now Inside EeeVees brings us this scoop about Fubar Farley’s Model T moment:
‘The first model of the new wave of cheaper electric Fords is expected to be a 2027-bound midsize pickup that could be named Ranchero, as a recent trademark filing suggests.’
*sigh*
Well, there they go again — taking cherished Ford brand names like Maverick and Mustang and Ranchero, and plastering them onto vehicles wholly unlike their namesake.
Apparently this is supposed to be a retro thing, to induce wizened 120-year-olds like myself to tap our canes with undisguised glee as we drool on our bibs. But it ain’t workin’.
Listen up, Farley: there’s a huge hunger out there for simple, lightweight compact pick-ups. Your own misbadged Maverick proves it. But not with freaking electric motors. Get your brain damage treated, and give us what we want, goofball.
After all the capital destroyed, the endless quality blunders, and the overall mismanagement of a once great company, it’s hard to believe Farley is still the ceo.
Amen, Auto –
The same goes for Barra at GM. These people are paid double-digit millions annually to preside over failure after failure. I wish I could get work like that…
Nah Eric,
You actually have a level of self respect that would not allow you to shill for mediocrity like the modern “automobile” makers. The market continues to rapidly eliminate these purveyors of unwanted products…just takes time. That the fix has been in enabling temporary survival for GM, Ford, Mercedes, BMW et al will not stop the eventual demise of these companies…..governments can only prop up such markets until the debt bubble collapses.
Truth
Mary Barra also has a seat on the board at Disney.
It’s a big club, you ain’t in it, nor do you want to be.
Can’t have what you want, you will take what we give, what we say goes.
And no, you can’t have any alcohol either, unless we say who can distribute it.
During Prohibition, pharmacists could sell medicinal alcohol, pharmaceutical whiskey was prescribed for numerous ailments.
Walgreens stocked medicinal alcohol and made a mint, had a total of 500 pharmacies after expansion, all from selling copious amounts of medicinal alcohol.
There must have been a huge demand for medicinal whiskey, Al Capone could have bought all of the Walgreens stores and kept his nose clean.
Apparently, Al wasn’t interested in being a member of any big club.
It didn’t take long to realize that booze was in plentiful supply and demand was strong.
Level taxes on alcohol and you’ll make some money.
Dotgov is always late to the party.
Yes, and given how much Barra makes ($28 mil a year?) and looking at photos of her – one would think that she could afford a decent hairdo. But I guess I’m being sexist to say that.