Bloomberg: Ford is Reengineering Mach-E in Real Time to Boost Profit

[leeman]

I have to say that future versions of the car will probably not be a feature rich as what we have today it may be more efficient ways of removing weight 80 somethings will be better who knows but until Ford creates their own electric motors they will have very little control on performance.

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[BobMatrix]

Great now EVERY car is the first model year!.......

 

[NJ Silver Bullet]

Well, this change does reduce weight and losses in the coolant system, making the car a little bit faster and more efficient.

The marketing wanks at Ford would have worded it your way! In reality, it is a win/win for Ford and the owners if you ask me.

 

[john `doc`]

cut the number of motors in half??

is this the drive motor? Or coolant pump? Or something else?

On the video breakdown of the 2021 Mach-e with the chief person in charge of the engineering of the Mach-e - indicated they had two coolant tanks in the 2021 and were going down to one - so I'd say it was coolant pumps. She also said the the tubing for the 2021 was using existing tubes designed for ICE engines with much higher pressure and temps and capacity requirements (basically over engineered for the EV) and that they in the future they would be going for lighter (plastic vs metal) and smaller capacity which would reduce costs and weight. That is why I wanted to go with the 2022 rather than the 2021 - expecting that my 2022 would have these better engineering fit to the EV. The area under the frunk where the hoses were was the one area that the break down team had big negative comments.
johnh...

 

[dtotten]

Ford Reengineers Plug-In Mustang In Real Time to Boost Profit - Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co. is reengineering its electric Mustang Mach-E on the fly to make it more profitable, an approach that portends big changes in how the automaker designs and builds vehicles.

Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley told analysts Thursday Ford will no longer wait for the next model change to rework a vehicle. With software updates and hardware reengineering, the company is lowering the cost to build the Mach-E at its factory in Mexico in real time.

“We are not going to wait for next year,” Farley said on a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings, which fell short of Wall Street estimates. “We’re are going to reengineer that vehicle now, and then use that expertise for the F-150 Lightning” plug-in pickup that’s going on sale this spring.

As an example, Farley said engineers are reworking the Mach-E’s cooling system to reduce the number of hoses by one-third and cut the number of motors in half. Fewer parts mean lower costs and higher profit, he said.

This on-the-fly engineering to boost the bottom line will become a new way of doing business at Ford, Farley said. Ford’s CEO has frequently praised Tesla Inc. and is said to be reorganizing using that company as a template.

“We have learned so much about the lack of integration in our engineering operations as we compared our engineering on Mach-E to others that are best-in-class, and we are finding lots of profit opportunities,” Farley said. “Being in the industry as long as I have, I haven’t felt this chance to take out so much cost after Job 1.”

While I appreciate saving costs this narrative seems to be more to make Wallstreet and the accountants happy. I hope they worry less about reducing hoses and more on OTA and continuously improving the vehicle and performance.

 

[csilvest]

A couple of you have mentioned that the cooling system was initially over-engineered - coudn't that be a green light for Ford to adjust the performance (increase the 5 second boost) on those cars already built since the cooling system should be able to handle it?

 

[HuntingPudel]

A couple of you have mentioned that the cooling system was initially over-engineered - coudn't that be a green light for Ford to adjust the performance (increase the 5 second boost) on those cars already built since the cooling system should be able to handle it?

It’s not that it was over-engineered, it’s that there are superfluous parts in the system due to having to use parts that were already on the shelf. The redesign of the cooling system will reduce the parts count and repurpose parts groups and types to perform the same group of functions. ??

 

[UW2]

It’s not that it was over-engineered, it’s that there are superfluous parts in the system due to having to use parts that were already on the shelf. The redesign of the cooling system will reduce the parts count and repurpose parts groups and types to perform the same group of functions. ??

I am sure such reengineering will result in a better product, in addition to it becoming more profitable for Ford. However, an FE is an FE.

 

[FullyCharged]

I have to say that future versions of the car will probably not be a feature rich as what we have today it may be more efficient ways of removing weight 80 somethings will be better who knows but until Ford creates their own electric motors they will have very little control on performance.

I can’t think of many examples over time where cars went backwards from a technology and/or product offering perspective, excluding of course the current chip and component shortage issues.

With regard to the electric motors, this is not true at all anymore. Ford scale and volumes are more than enough to dictate and tool up custom designs. Years ago automotive traction motors and the associated expertise were not that common and internal design and even some assembly was more common, but the world is in a very different spot now. Multiple supplier options. They create detailed specs of what they want and lean on the component suppliers to provide it; they are not at the mercy of a motor supplier giving them some tweaked version of a catalog product. They very much have control over the related performance…

 

[yngwenli]

Well, we don't actually know why Ford made the design decision that it made. Sandy offers an educated guess, that they used off the shelf parts rather than designing something from the ground up, but we don't actually know that's what happened.

Ford's been pretty conservative when it comes to stuff that might hurt the battery, it could also simply be that at this point, they are comfortable that the vehicle does not need as much battery cooling as they thought it needed (at least as far as the non-GTs go?), and so are OK dialing it back a bit.

Yeah, I really hope there are no fire/battery issues with any changes. I was ok with not getting more range from my battery if it means I am putting more stress on it.

There has been various Tesla fires, I had a Bolt in the past so am not willing to see any Mach-e burn (uses LG batteries).

It would be bad if these hoses/optimizations were done, then we start seeing issues/fires on the 2022.2 versions due to less hoses.

 

[yngwenli]

I’m not gonna lie, I hope all this praise Ford gives Tesla means that we’ll be on the list to get access to super chargers before other brands ?

That Alex on Autos video did say the Ford nav now seems to only pick high speed EA chargers so that's something maybe?

Still waiting for that Apple Exec to start helping with the whole OTA update mess that's been plaguing old vehicles and have a more consistent update process.

 

[Mablanc]

Change in configurations will only complicate matters at the dealership. Technicians training or lack thereof on all modifications will result in us having to wait longer to get our vehicle repaired (when repairs are needed). Wow, profit over service!

 

[Neil4Real]

Change in configurations will only complicate matters at the dealership. Technicians training or lack thereof on all modifications will result in us having to wait longer to get our vehicle repaired (when repairs are needed). Wow, profit over service!

Not really, they put in the VIN and get the workshop manual for your exact car.

 

[MrClean]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the 3-month delay in estimated delivery time that many of us are experiencing, or if it is just a consequence of the chip shortage.

 

[Mablanc]

Not really, they put in the VIN and get the workshop manual for your exact car.

I agree partially with your comment, but I have seen this configuration management on airplane and manuals (even electronic) do not keep up as too many changes are not properly tracked.

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