Ford reshuffles EV team

Ford has folded its electric-vehicle, digital and design unit into a new product-and-manufacturing group, and Doug Field will leave the company in May. (fromtheroad.ford.com) Ford said on April 15 that the new organization, called Product Creation and Industrialization, will be led by Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra. The change combines the former EV, Digital and Design team with Ford’s global industrial system. (fromtheroad.ford.com) Field had been Ford’s chief EV, digital and design officer and is set to depart after nearly five years at the automaker. Alan Clarke was named vice president of Advanced Development Projects and will keep leading the California-based team that built Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle platform. (fromtheroad.ford.com) The reorganization lands as Ford pushes a broad product reset tied to its Ford+ plan. The company said it aims to refresh 80% of its North American portfolio by volume and 70% of its global portfolio by volume by 2029. (fromtheroad.ford.com) Ford has also been reworking its electric-vehicle strategy around lower-cost products and tighter spending. In February, the company said Model e is now expected to reach profitability by 2029, with improvement beginning in 2026, after it redeployed capital toward trucks, hybrids, affordable electric vehicles and a battery energy storage business. (fromtheroad.ford.com) That same February update outlined about $19.5 billion in special items tied to U.S. electric-vehicle assets and product-roadmap changes, with about $5.5 billion of cash effects expected mostly in 2026 and the rest in 2027. Ford also said its first vehicle on the Universal Electric Vehicle platform will be a midsize pickup. (fromtheroad.ford.com; fromtheroad.ford.com) Ford had already been breaking down the walls around its EV unit before this month’s move. In October 2025, it put its gas, hybrid and electric retail businesses under Andrew Frick, while Darren Palmer, the vice president of EV programs, retired. (fromtheroad.ford.com) Field had been one of the public faces of Ford’s software-defined vehicle push, including the in-house electronics architecture and factory changes tied to the Universal Electric Vehicle platform. Ford said those programs will continue under the new structure as it prepares a 2027 launch for the midsize electric pickup. (fromtheroad.ford.com; fromtheroad.ford.com) The immediate test is whether the new setup can turn Ford’s next wave of electric and software-heavy vehicles into a business with better margins, not just more models. That is now the job Ford has handed to Galhotra’s combined team after Field’s exit. (fromtheroad.ford.com; fromtheroad.ford.com)