At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really think the way they assembled the skunkworks team and let them work in secret for two years really opened Bill and Jim's eyes to what is possible.     The affordable market is a growth opportunity for Ford that wasn't viable under the old processes.  The question is how far will they go to make permanent changes or will the old corporate bad habits creep in?

About time Billy Boy! Engineering costs have been out of control at Ford for a while. Certainly when I worked there in the 1990s and 2000s, probably before too.   A combination of not invented here syndrome, inefficient processes, and the usual finger pointing, back stabbing, and an every person for themselves mentality at Ford corporate meant that otherwise talented engineers were handicapped compared to competitors.     Ford's skunkworks has already started to address these issues, and hopefully the lessons learned there can help FoMoCo achieve Billy Boy's goal of engineer vehicles that are fundamentally lower-cost so that you can pass that on to the consumer.

The 1978 recall of Pinto actually cost Ford around $20 million which was a fraction of the cost it used to decide against that action, I did read somewhere they thought the cost would be $137 million. The actual cost was pretty close to the original estimate for settlement of envisaged 180 deaths and 180 serious injuries.   Had they done the recall in 71, the Pinto could have gone from zero to hero vs competition vehicles- and that’s what really annoying 

A statement from Bill Ford on affordability and reducing engineering costs. This is something that'll benefit all their models, I really hope they take this approach with the next mustang to make it a lot more affordable, but it's also relevant for this affordable truck. 

If other competitive small cars had been put under the same microscope, I'm sure that they would have been found to have been unsafe, too.    The parties in the lawsuit aren't looking for the truth. They are looking to get their version of the facts before the trier of fact (the judge or a jury). That means excluding facts that could be harmful to their case - such as the speed at which the 1963 Galaxie hit the Pinto in which Grimshaw was riding.    The Pinto's overall safety record was better than competitive small cars, and its record of deaths due to fire was only slightly worse than the class average, based on some measurements. (And that included ALL deaths due to fire, which meant if the fire started in the engine compartment, and it was fatal to the occupants, it was counted.)   The car met all applicable safety standards of the time - including standards covering fuel tank and fuel system safety. All small cars of the era were death traps by our standards, and I wouldn't want to have been in any of them in a collision with a larger vehicle. The Pinto was simply typical for small cars of that time. 

True, and the fact that the Model S hasn't been redesigned since 2012  

They forgot to mention that tariffs on imported Batteries for EVs are less than those for grid-scale storage. Basically, encouraging the production of US-made batteries for grid Storage, while enabling the Importation of foreign-made batteries for EVs.  

All of what you posted is true, the problem wasn’t just the gas tank alone, it was a bunch of other engineering flaws that when combined caused great peril to occupants.   Its a matter of history now and fortunately, automakers behave much differently now. Some would say they over react but better that than leaving underlying faults go unfixed.

Yes that and maybe competition coming in offering different products? Outside of USA, BYD is outflanking Tesla in both products and price.

Yeah mostly but isn’t that the whole reason early reservations collapsed? An expectation of an affordable price and then the goalposts get moved.   Imagine if that sort of thing happened with an ICE vehicle…..