To me it just looks like green painters tape that might be holding up the plastic material at the bottom that is either protecting something while its being detailed or its hiding something in the photo. 

No, Ford stated this: https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-affordable-electric-vehicle-platform-midsize-electric-truck I'm guessing it will be around $35K or so for starting MSRP   The sub 40K price point is to fit in the other products that are coming   There are five new products coming:   One is the CE1 Pickup   We can infer the other is going to be the new van going in Ohio, which will be C1 based hybrid replacement for the Transit Connect   So that leaves us with three more products-   My assumptions: A new Bronco nameplate to replace the Edge/Escape...but might be just an updated Bronco Sport   EV CUV on the CE1, which apparently is going to be called the Escape   Some sort of sedan, not sure if it will be a hybrid or based on the CE1.     

The average cost of a new car is around $50K in the USA at least

I had this issue on my 2024 F250.  It drove me nuts.  I could see the top left corner of the tailgate just ever so slightly out compared to the upper right corner.  It started about 6 months after I bought it.  I was thinking the lock in the tailgate wasn't quite closing 100%.  The post that the lock wraps around is adjustable, so I loosened it and moved it out, or towards myself to see if the lock would wrap around the post more.  I worked, and the corner of the tailgate was more flush.  I haven't had that light in 6 months.  

There was one year in the twenty teens where Louisville produced a combined 430,000 Escapes and MKCs 2016 I think….

A subtle shift of the goalposts as the reality of continued price increases sinks in.

Weren’t they originally supposed to be sub 30k? Sub 40k probably means 39,999 and that’s already more expensive than other EVs out there. I thought the new manufacturing process was supposed to save a lot of money, yet they might not even undercut the equinox ev that’s been out for a few years?   The rivian r2, which should be a big step up from these vehicles, is supposed to be only 45k.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/ford-promises-5-new-cars-under-40k-by-2030-including-midsize-electric-truck   We've discussed this before, but we have more info now. Ford's labeling affordable models as sub 40k, the types of vehicles seem pretty varied, with them mentioning cars, trucks, SUVs, and vans will all receive new affordable models. Additionally, these will all be new products, not just stripped down variants of existing models, and they'll have multi-energy powertrains.     

So now that we know this is the front of the truck for sure, a few observations.   1. Very clean upper fascia, there's no vents, fake grille pattern, or lighting that we can see.   2. The leading edge of the hood seems to droop or angle down quite a bit if we use the rag sitting in the hood as a reference. My guess is this will be kinda similar to a Maverick's hood where it drops down near the leading edge, and then levels out further back.    3. Maybe the boldest design detail is that white-ish horizontal strip running across the lower half of the front end. It looks a bit like a light bar to me, so maybe they're playing around with the placement of the lights, mounting a light bar lower in the front end to give it a more unique look?

I agree with Sherm, it's gonna be very interesting to see how all of this plays out. The two trucks are simultaneously pretty similar, and couldn't be more different at the same time.    They're both smaller, more affordable, apparently both will have a lot of accessories for customization. Apparently people who attended the Ford event back in August that gave us more details about CE1 said all of the vehicles might be build in one, fully loaded, configuration rather than having base and premium models. So both trucks might also be built with pretty limited off the line variations.    Yet the CE1 truck is a lot more advanced, faster, fun to drive, and 4 doors. I personally believe it's gonna blow slate out of the water, but time will tell.