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.

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. 😄

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.   

We followed a very similar journey. When these were first revealed, I thought they were awesome and a built a few on their site. Then the appeal wore off.    Basically the only think I like is all the customization options, but Ford management has hinted CE1 EVs will have a lot of customization themselves. 

If you guys remember a ways back I actually mentioned how the crossover looked a lot like a FF crossover. It looks like that, blended with the dodge Magnum's wheel arches and like the GTA version of the Ford edge blended into one vehicle.

I noticed this as well. What's interesting is Farley has commented quite a bit one what he calls new blended silhouettes, especially referring to EVs and affordable EVs. Where he said he could see affordable EVs needing new silhouettes that blended things like car and crossover styling into a halfway point between the two to make them more areo efficient but also practical. That's also how he's referred to the skunk truck, calling it a new silhouette instead of a traditional truck design.    Time will tell if consumers respond well to this, but I actually don't hate the idea of they try to execute it well moving forward. 

How would you enforce that?   You can charge off a 15amp line, but yeah it takes forever, but it is doable (and I know someone who does it-they don't drive that much)  

I keep thinking these startups should follow the “ghost kitchen” model, but with dealerships. Strike a deal with Stellantis or someone and pickup/drop off service at existing stores (without ever having to bring your Slate to Dodge etc).  When Ford had their Rivian stake, and planned on using the R1 platform I’d hoped they’d have done this as well. Rivian would be the only option if I had to replace my Lightning, but the service situation makes me nervous (Same with the R2, which my wife would like to eventually replace her Maverick with).

Just like the 2.7L in the Bronco? LOL   IMO think most of the time problems are overstated and are just "content" for social media content creators on Youtube etc. 

just for shits and grins I used google lens to look the photo up and it claims its a Faraday Future FF 91 LOL