Ford Forming New Product Creation Team, Doug Field Departing

[Harley Lover]

Significant changes, hopefully this works:  

Quote

Doug Field, a former Tesla and Apple executive who joined Ford Motor Co. in 2021 to steer its electrification and technology efforts, is leaving the company next month as the automaker reshapes the teams he led. Field is leaving voluntarily, Ford said. 

Ford on April 15 said it will form a “Product Creation and Industrialization” organization led by COO Kumar Galhotra. Alan Clarke, executive director of advanced electric vehicle development, will become vice president for advanced development projects.

 

Galhotra’s group combines Ford’s electric vehicles, digital and design team with the industrial system that includes engineering and cycle planning, gasoline and hybrid vehicle programs, supply chain management and vehicle manufacturing.

The goal is to make decisions faster as the automaker prepares to launch a slew of new and updated products in the back half of the decade. 

Galhotra’s new team will be responsible for numerous upcoming vehicles as it strives for 8 percent profit margins by 2029.

 

By 2029, Ford plans to freshen 80 percent of its North American portfolio by volume and 70 percent of its global portfolio, the company said April 15.

It also intends for nearly 90 percent of its global nameplates to include electrified powertrains by 2030.

Alan Clarke assumes bigger role at Ford

Clarke, a former Tesla engineer, will step into a larger role at Ford as he heads the launch of a product platform whose importance Farley has likened to the Model T.

A lot is riding on the midsize electric pickup Ford plans to introduce next year as the first product on that platform. Ford will assemble vehicles using the Universal EV architecture in a completely different way in a bid to better compete with low-cost Chinese rivals.

Clarke will continue to lead the advanced EV development team in his new role, Ford said. The automaker intends to use the same method by which Clarke developed the upcoming electric pickup — small, agile teams — on future programs.

 

https://www.autonews.com/ford/an-ford-doug-field-leaving-0415/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter-ANBreakingNewsAlert-20260415

Edited April 16 by Harley Lover

[morgan20]

Field will be missed. Skunkworks wouldn't have come to fruition at Ford if it wasn't for his efforts.

 

Is Galhotra a Ford lifer? If he is, getting him to lead Product Creation and Industrialization doesn't bode well for the company. 

 

Clarke is an outsider who used to work at Tesla, hopefully his new role will continue to bring fresh thinking to product development at Ford.

[joseodiaga4]

Did Fields work on the Skunkworks or is the leaving with no product developed under this tenure?ñ (aside from the thousand of products canceled by Ford) 😂

Edited April 15 by joseodiaga4

[morgan20]

2 hours ago, joseodiaga4 said:

Did Fields work on the Skunkworks or is the leaving with no product developed under this tenure?ñ (aside from the thousand of products canceled by Ford) 😂

 

Dunno if Field worked in the skunkworks directly, though he is largely responsible for laying the foundation that made Ford skunkworks possible. As the big shot that led Model e since 2021, there are several products either developed or first produced under his tenure: F-150 Lightning (which Ford killed earlier this year 😡), MME, E-Transit, Explorer EV, Capri EV, and Puma Gen-E, not to mention the upcoming CE1 products.

 

Field won't have any trouble finding another automaker to hire him and pay him major moolah:

 

Field, meanwhile, is one of the most coveted executives in the industry. Tesla, Apple, Ford — he’s tried it three times. Wherever he lands next will matter. His track record in actually shipping vehicles is now considerably better than the industry average, and there’s no shortage of EV startups and legacy automakers that could use him.  

[DeluxeStang]

Even though Fields departing is sad news, the overall change is a positive one. It sounds like Ford is doing exactly what we wanted them to do which is take more leanings from the skunkworks team and apply it to their ICE lineup. 

 

I'm really eager to see how this influences future products. A radical new approach that radically reduced ev weight and cost is an approach that I would love to see applied to the mustang. Some of the learnings wouldn't transfer, but if they find a way to make the mustang lighter without making it crappy or insanely expensive, that would be awesome. 

 

[morgan20]

12 minutes ago, DeluxeStang said:

Even though Fields departing is sad news, the overall change is a positive one. 

 

I was thinkin' otherwise. The announcement represents one step forward (Alan Clarke's new position as vice president for advanced development projects), two steps back (departure of Doug Field and promotion of Kumar Galhotra as head honcho for Product Creation and Industrialization).

 

But if the startup culture that flourished at Model e and skunkworks during Field's tenure still remains strong a year from now, I'll eat those words. 😄

[akirby]

13 minutes ago, morgan20 said:

 

I was thinkin' otherwise. The announcement represents one step forward (Alan Clarke's new position as vice president for advanced development projects), two steps back (departure of Doug Field and promotion of Kumar Galhotra as head honcho for Product Creation and Industrialization).

 

But if the startup culture that flourished at Model e and skunkworks during Field's tenure still remains strong a year from now, I'll eat those words. 😄

Sounds to me like Doug is handing this over to his trained successor and moving on to something new.  I'm optimistic it won't be a step backwards.

[mackinaw]

I worked long enough to know that anybody can be replaced, but losing Fields is a tough one.  Can't help wonder why he left.  

[DeluxeStang]

26 minutes ago, morgan20 said:

 

I was thinkin' otherwise. The announcement represents one step forward (Alan Clarke's new position as vice president for advanced development projects), two steps back (departure of Doug Field and promotion of Kumar Galhotra as head honcho for Product Creation and Industrialization).

 

But if the startup culture that flourished at Model e and skunkworks during Field's tenure still remains strong a year from now, I'll eat those words. 😄

To be fair, it sounds like the main contribution he had was setting clear goals, and then assembling a capable team capable of making it happen. The team will still be there after he leaves, so with the goals they're working towards. So I think it'll be fine. 

[DeluxeStang]

Just now, mackinaw said:

I worked long enough to know that anybody can be replaced, but losing Fields is a tough one.  Can't help wonder why he left.  

He's older, maybe he just wanted to retire. 

[morgan20]

42 minutes ago, DeluxeStang said:

He's older, maybe he just wanted to retire. 

 

Yea, good point. Also, Billy Boy and Jimbo gave Field a 4 to 5 year timeframe after he was hired to accomplish a monumental task:

 

Ford CEO Jim Farley came calling. He persuaded Field to come to Ford in late 2021.

“Two things came through loud and clear,” Field says. “One was humility. ‘Our success is not assured.’”

“The other thing was urgency. Jim and Bill Ford said the exact same thing to me: ‘We have four or five years to completely remake this company.’"

 

The launch of CE1 products - on time, in large volume, and with high quality - will be the primary indicator that Field's efforts to completely remake this company are a success

Edited April 16 by morgan20

[akirby]

Just FYI it's Field not Fields.  Not to be confused with Mark Fields.

[rmc523]

This was unexpected, but as pointed out, hopefully it just means he was ready to move on (I read somewhere that it was his decision) now that the program/ground work has been set up.  I also hope that they can implement the learnings to their ICE products.

[mackinaw]

11 hours ago, morgan20 said:

......The launch of CE1 products - on time, in large volume, and with high quality - will be the primary indicator that Field's efforts to completely remake this company are a success.....

 

Absolutely.

[bzcat]

Field is a design and engineering guy... UEV is now in the hands of production planning and marketing people. So that's why he is leaving... what's left to do on UEV launch doesn't require his expertise and he is probably not that interested anyway.  That's the glass half-full interprtation.

 

The glass half-empty interpretation is old guards won the political struggle and skunk work will not be allowed to continue thru product launch. Although it seemed that skunk work was always just trying to change how Ford design and engineer cars, not how it market and sell the cars. 

Edited April 16 by bzcat

[mustang84isu]

From what I am reading, the "Model e" structure of the company sounds like it is dead from an financial reporting standpoint.  I.e. Ford Blue and Ford Model e are merging together again.  Maybe that is not correct, but if it is, that was a short-lived experiment that was solely done to placate Wall Street.  I remember when Wall Street was pushing Ford to spin off Model e because Ford Blue would eventually be "killed off" because EV's were going to be the future and Ford Blue would become such a small part of the business.  So much for that BS.

https://electrek.co/2026/04/15/ford-doug-field-leaves-ev-unit-dissolved/

So Doug Field likely left due to the plan to fold Model e back into the larger organization.  Ford is folding it back in solely because continuing to have Model e exist as a separate entity highlights the massive financial losses from the EV side of the business, which they are now trying to distance themselves from, IMO.

Edited April 16 by mustang84isu

[rmc523]

3 minutes ago, mustang84isu said:

From what I am reading, the "Model e" structure of the company sounds like it is dead from an financial reporting standpoint.  I.e. Ford Blue and Ford Model e are merging together again.  Maybe that is not correct, but if it is, that was a short-lived experiment that was solely done to placate Wall Street.  I remember when Wall Street was pushing Ford to spin off Model e because Ford Blue would eventually be "killed off" because EV's were going to be the future and Ford Blue would become such a small part of the business.  So much for that BS.

https://electrek.co/2026/04/15/ford-doug-field-leaves-ev-unit-dissolved/

 

I thought it was stupid to have them reporting separately anyway.

[Sherminator98]

5 minutes ago, mustang84isu said:

From what I am reading, the "Model e" structure of the company sounds like it is dead from an financial reporting standpoint.  I.e. Ford Blue and Ford Model e are merging together again.  Maybe that is not correct, but if it is, that was a short-lived experiment that was solely done to placate Wall Street.  I remember when Wall Street was pushing Ford to spin off Model e because Ford Blue would eventually be "killed off" because EV's were going to be the future and Ford Blue would become such a small part of the business.  So much for that BS.

https://electrek.co/2026/04/15/ford-doug-field-leaves-ev-unit-dissolved/

 

Man the comments under that where interesting...but no need to make a comment because it get ignored anyways. 

[morgan20]

1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

I thought it was stupid to have them reporting separately anyway.

 

Yea, exactly. Even though the Ford big shots repeatedly stated that Model e was a startup company, the media would constantly harp on the losses incurred by that division with idiotic and misleading headlines like Ford Loses This Whopping Amount of Money on Each EV It Makes. 🙄

 

None of Ford competitors reported its financials like that, and it's about time the Ford big shots put this to rest.

[akirby]

2 hours ago, mustang84isu said:

From what I am reading, the "Model e" structure of the company sounds like it is dead from an financial reporting standpoint.  I.e. Ford Blue and Ford Model e are merging together again.  Maybe that is not correct, but if it is, that was a short-lived experiment that was solely done to placate Wall Street.  I remember when Wall Street was pushing Ford to spin off Model e because Ford Blue would eventually be "killed off" because EV's were going to be the future and Ford Blue would become such a small part of the business.  So much for that BS.

https://electrek.co/2026/04/15/ford-doug-field-leaves-ev-unit-dissolved/

So Doug Field likely left due to the plan to fold Model e back into the larger organization.  Ford is folding it back in solely because continuing to have Model e exist as a separate entity highlights the massive financial losses from the EV side of the business, which they are now trying to distance themselves from, IMO.

There is nothing there that indicates model E will be assimilated into Ford Blue.  What is changing is that many of the things learned by the skunkworks team are being rolled out across ford blue and ford pro vehicles.  The skunkworks team continues as before under Clarke.

 

The reason to separate them is to highlight how well blue and pro are doing.  If it was combined it would say Ford only made 4% and hide the fact that blue was at 8% and pro was at 12% (I made those up but they're in the ballpark).  Until Model E starts turning a decent profit they need to be reported separately.

[akirby]

Doug's statement.  He accomplished his goals and is moving on to the next challenge.

 

Quote

I believe Ford now has a winning technology strategy and plan. The first breakthrough product off the Universal EV platform – a mid-size pickup – is on its way to production. We have clearly defined hardware, software, and electrification plans across our full product line. The initial quality of our core technologies is now near the top of the industry. Most importantly, we have incredibly talented teams across these disciplines, ready to carry Ford into the future. I am completely confident in them and so excited to see their work in the coming years.”

 

[morgan20]

19 minutes ago, akirby said:

Doug's statement.  He accomplished his goals and is moving on to the next challenge.

 

And Field did it in exactly the timeframe he was given - four to five years after he was hired by Ford in 2021! Thanks for sharin' that tidbit.

 

I'm more confident now that the skunkworks and CE1 efforts are on the right track, even though Galhotra leading Product Creation and Industrialization still worries me.

 

[rmc523]

15 hours ago, akirby said:

Doug's statement.  He accomplished his goals and is moving on to the next challenge.

 

 

 

Looking at his resume, aside from a 9 year stint at Segway, he doesn't seem to stay longer than 5ish years at places (not saying that in a bad way, just that it fits his MO):

 

1987-1993 - Ford

1993-1996 - Johnson & Johnson

1997-1999 - DEKA Research and Development Corp.

1999-2008 - Segway

2008-2013 - Apple

2013-2018 - Tesla

2018-2021 - Apple

2021-2026 - Ford

 

 

So he may just have done what he wanted and was like eh, time for something else.....

[morgan20]

1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

So he may just have done what he wanted and was like eh, time for something else.....

 

Yea, good point. Plus as mentioned earlier, Field is one of the most coveted executives in the industry. Not just automotive industry, either.