Ford Wants to “Reinvent” BEVs by Following the Tesla Recipe

And that’s why it won't work

Author

Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
August 17th, 2025

Welcome to the latest issue of autoevolution weekly!

Let’s begin by discussing at Ford’s “Universal Vehicle” new plan, where we’ve seen it before and why that’s not a good omen.

The next couple of years will bring several affordable EVs to the US market. For the full list of cars, and how this came to be, read on.

Formula 1 is still on a break, a perfect time to look back to the leading team’s history and some of the iconic McLaren race-winning cars.

If you’re searching for a new triple-channel dashcam, our review of the Vantrue N4 Pro S might help you decide (with some caveats).

When the long version of the Tesla Model Y first leaked, it was thought to be a China-exclusive, but new spy photos hint it will come to other countries as well.

Lastly, it looks like Google Maps will soon get an interesting feature: black spot warnings (aka. frequent accident areas).

PS: if this newsletter was forwarded to you, here’s a handy link if you’d like to subscribe yourself.

Table of Contents

Editorial: Ford Wants to “Reinvent” BEVs by Following the Tesla Recipe, and That’s Why It Won't Work

By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

Ford’s event and announcements from earlier this week were supposed to be music to those concerned with the automotive industry. The Blue Oval brand revived a logo and a motto from the Model T era to create not The Universal Car, but rather The Universal (Electric) Vehicle.

The formula is "relentless efficiency, radical simplification, and flexibility." Too bad that we have already seen this, and it did not really work.

The innovative plan Ford announced consists of nothing but the same concepts Tesla has conceived to manufacture its own cars. The Dearborn carmaker just named them differently, which is far from innovating anything. Henry Ford was inspired by meatpackers to create the Model T's assembly lines, but he had to adapt those ideas to the automotive reality. This time, his company did not even go through that trouble.

There are several examples of what the Blue Oval is doing. The carmaker said that its "large single-piece aluminum unicastings" will "replace dozens of smaller parts, enabling the front and rear of the vehicle to be assembled separately." Tesla calls these things mega or giga castings, and the idea is the same: instead of having several stamped parts welded together, the automakers use a casting machine to make massive parts.

Although they really save time on the manufacturing process, these mega / giga / unicastings are not very friendly when repairs are necessary. If you were to replace anything, you'd have to swap the entire casting. On top of that, these components do not bend in crashes. They crack. Unless these components have radically changed since they were introduced, it is not unlikely that wrecked BEVs will become total losses in minor crashes.

Ford also talked about reducing the wiring in its vehicles by "more than 4,000 feet (1.3 kilometers)," which also made it "10 kilograms (22 pounds) lighter." Whatever the Blue Oval decides to call it, that's what Tesla achieved with its EtherLoop wiring architecture, which allows the sub-assemblies in a car to communicate without having to connect to a main CAN bus cable. It was a prerequisite for the third step of Ford's manufacturing revolution. Or is it Tesla's?

Note: this is an abridged version, you can find the full article on our site.

Affordable EVs That Will Upend the US Market in the Coming Years

By: Cristian Agatie

Note: this is an abridged version of the full article that you can read on our site.

For years, people have complained that electric vehicles are too expensive to be true alternatives to combustion cars. However, the car market is set for a revolution as more carmakers announced plans to build affordable, cheap-as-chips electric vehicles in the next couple of years.

This has been almost inconceivable a couple of years ago, when people would've paid anything to buy any car they could find, gas or electric. However, the market has cooled significantly, and the economic conditions have worsened, so people are now turning their backs on anything above $50,000.

Toyota CH-R, Ford Ranchero, Slate Pickup, Nissan Leaf

Any carmaker that planned an $80K electric vehicle might find itself in a tight corner. Lucid Motors and Rivian might be especially at risk, although both plan to bring more affordable models into the market. However, by the time a $50K Rivian R2 is available, others might already have $30K EVs in production. It will be tough to survive.

Ford was among the first to figure out that expensive and big EVs would not sell well in the future. We have to give it credit for postponing its T3 full-size pickup platform and focusing on compact EV plans. The first to arrive is a $30,000 compact pickup truck that might be named Ranchero based on a recent trademark filing.

Ford will launch a handful of cheap EVs in the next five years, but the Blue Oval is not alone. Chevrolet is also planning to launch the second-generation Bolt EV later this year, and it's projected to cost under $30K. Chevrolet already sells the Equinox EV for less than $35,000, so we're not surprised. Other affordable EV projects include the Telo truck and the Slate shape-shifting pickup/SUV.

If you're wondering what caused this spirited price competition, it's precisely the phasing out of the federal EV credit from September 30. Without incentives, carmakers are forced to find new ways to lower the prices of their vehicles.

The full list for 2025-2027:

  • Nissan Leaf (Q3 2025)

  • Kia EV4 (Q4 2025)

  • Chevrolet Bolt EUV (Q1 2026)

  • Toyota CH-R (Q1 2026)

  • Kia EV3 (Q4 2026)

  • Slate Pickup (Q4 2026)

  • Ford Ranchero (2027)

  • Jeep Renegade EV (2027)

For a lot more info (including prices) into upcoming affordable EVs, please continue reading on our site.

F1 Special: Iconic Race-Winning McLaren Formula 1 Cars

By: Ed Spencer

The last race before the summer break was a triumph for McLaren, bringing them another step closer to clinching the Constructors Championship. But the Hungarian Grand Prix was also a landmark victory for the team, which wrapped up its 200th win in Formula 1.

The Woking-based team, founded by Bruce McLaren in 1963, has come a long way from being F1's newbies and has endured its fair share of triumphs and disasters along the way.

To commemorate McLaren's 200th triumph, autoevolution has picked five of the Woking-based team's most iconic F1 cars and what made them so special.

McLaren MP4/4 (1988)

  1. McLaren M23 (1976): By 1973, McLaren had won races but had not quite managed to contend for championships. But that all changed with the Gordon Coppuck-designed M23, which in 1974, with Emerson Fittipaldi at the wheel, won the team both the Drivers' and Constructors' titles.

  2. McLaren MP4/2 (1984): In the early 1980s, Ron Dennis brought a McLaren team in disarry and set about restoring the Woking-based outfit to former glories.

    Dennis made an instant statement persuading the then-retired Lauda to join the team in 1982 and Williams shareholder Mansour Oijeh to switch allegiances to McLaren. Oijeh invested in Porsche-built engines rebranded as TAG, in the name of his company Techniques d'Avant Garde.

  3. McLaren MP4/4 (1988): The final year of turbos coincided with a new era at McLaren, as Hondas replaced TAG engines, while the now double World Champion, Prost, was partnered with Ayrton Senna. With the Gordon Murray-designed MP4-4 proving to be the class of the field, McLaren enjoyed a season for the ages, winning 15 of the season's 16 races.

  4. McLaren MP4/13 (1998): By 1995, McLaren was a team in transition. The glory days of Senna, Prost, and Honda were gone, and after a failed experiment with Peugeot in 1994, McLaren switched to Mercedes in an attempt to return to winning ways. In 1997, McLaren-Mercedes finally came of age, with David Coulthard taking two wins, while Mika Hakkinen took his maiden win at Jerez, less than two years after a near-fatal crash at Adelaide.

  5. McLaren MP4/23 (2008): The 2007 season had been a demoralising one for McLaren. Their reputation was in tatters after receiving a $100 million fine for the Spygate scandal. Meanwhile, the partnership between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton had become a powder keg, prompting the Spaniard's return to Renault.

Note: this is an abridged version of the article, for many more details see the full text on our site.

Review: Vantrue N4 Pro S Triple-Channel Dash Cam

By: Bogdan Popa

Premium dash cams are rapidly gaining ground in this product space for a good reason: they promise better image quality than more affordable models, and more importantly, they are fitted with premium hardware you obviously wouldn't be able to get at a lower price point. Vantrue's N4 Pro S dash cam is one of the latest competitors in this market.

To better understand why it's considered a premium product, here's a quick look at some of its features: triple HDR wide-angle dash cam with LTRE support, IP67 water resistance, voice control, a GPS logger, the company's signature PlatePix technology, parking monitoring, collision detection, and a large 3.19-inch IPS screen. If these didn't catch your attention, I don't know what else will.

Vantrue N4 Pro S Dash Cam

Make no mistake, this is not a small dash cam. You can tell it's there, and more importantly, others can tell it's there. It's easy to observe that there's something on the windshield, even from a distance, and we all know what it means for a car that's always parked on the side of the road. If you're okay with this form factor, let's move on.

It's important to remember this is a three-channel dash cam, so it includes not one, not two, but three cameras. All are based on Sony STARVIS sensors, so they can capture what happens in front, in the back, and the car at all times. Vantrue calls this "360-degree coverage," but I wouldn't go that far, considering the sides of the vehicle are still exposed.

The N4 Pro S comes with Vantrue's signature GPS mount, a suction mount, 5 GHz Wi-Fi, voice control, and a maximum resolution of 4K + 1080p + 1440p at 30 FPS. So no, like in the case of the E1 Pro, which shares the front camera sensor, this flagship Vantrue dash cam does not offer 60 FPS support.

Note: For the full review and conclusions, please continue reading on our site.

Tesla Model Y Long Variant Escapes China

By: Mircea Panait

In a bid to improve faltering sales, Tesla is planning to introduce two new versions of the Model Y. One is a stripped-out specification with cloth seats and no rear screen, whereas the other flaunts three-row seating. Leaked in China last month, the Model Y L has been recently spied by autoevolution's crack team of carparazzi just outside of the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Although the test engineers did their best to camouflage the rear of said Euro-spec prototype, it's clear as day that we are looking at longer rear doors. Compared to the Model Y, the rear doors of the Model Y L do not meet the rear wheel arches. In a similar fashion to China's Model Y L, this fellow is likely 7.3 inches longer overall and 5.9 inches longer in wheelbase than the Model Y.

Tesla Model Y L

While on the subject of electric vehicles, GM is also putting the finishing touches on the heavily anticipated 2027 Chevrolet Bolt. More than a refresh but not quite a ground-up redesign, the second generation of the Bolt is derived from the now-discontinued Bolt EUV. Coming in 2026, the small electric utility vehicle appears to leverage many aesthetic traits from the Equinox EV.

Given that Detroit's largest automaker wants $33,600 at the very least for the Chevrolet Equinox EV, the next iteration of the Bolt could start at $30,000 or thereabouts. LFP battery cells, a NACS port for Tesla Supercharger access, and a punchier electric drive unit are in the offing, along with a new infotainment system that probably won't have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The Rivian R2 was also sighted this week, and Rivian has understandably made changes to the R2 concept from last year. When it comes to features that matter in the real world, the one that matters the most is the 4Runner-style dropdown rear glass. The accessory port of the concept, however, will not make it into production.

Although the Volkswagen Group also puts a big emphasis on electrification due to increasingly stringent emission regulations, the Audi brand's next-gen Q7 will retain combustion engines well into the 2030s. Be that as it may, the 2027 Audi SQ7 has been confirmed to be a plug-in hybrid with a potentially smaller engine than the outgoing model's twin-turbocharged V8 lump. In this case, a sixer with 3.0 liters of displacement may have to suffice.

Black Spot Warnings Coming to Google Maps

By: Bogdan Popa

After incident reporting, Google Maps is about to get a new big feature. The search giant has started working with Indian authorities to add black spot warnings. The application will show notifications when drivers approach an area with a history of crashes, giving them more time to slow down and approach the intersection more carefully. Google has remained tight-lipped on a possible expansion to more countries.

Waze is also making some changes, though some users might not like them. The company has announced updated system requirements, dropping support for Android 8 and Android 9. The move isn't surprising, as the Google-owned company is switching to a modern infrastructure specifically to add new-generation capabilities.

Android Auto is also evolving, and the recently released update to version 15 includes a change many of us have been drooling over for years. Android Auto will show more icon columns in the app drawer.

No week without the Kia Boys, as teenagers have started stealing cars again. A 14-year-old boy stole a Kia, hit another Kia, and destroyed the front porch of a home before being caught by the police and released to his parents. It's 2025, so why not?

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