This timeline backs up my thought that we won't see actual product/concepts, just info on the platform, which I also throw in the "why bother now" category, but I've long been in the camp of shrink that debut to sell date timeline to a few months at most.     Sure, but I'm just more skeptical about it given how overall BEV adoption has gone.   I feel they're backing themselves into a corner if they don't sell well, but it's a gamble they're willing to take....     Right, we haven't even seen the hacked up vehicles yet.  I don't see us seeing actual vehicles until a year from now........   Best case scenario I see is that we get a few "concept" vehicles that are close to what we'll get for production, and they'll pass it off as a "what we could with the platform" sort of thing, when it's really a preview of what they're going to build.       Uh, that's what the whole thread is about lol.

,Well I don't want to be banned but first thought was two stars for DEI..Female and of color.  Second thought a clueless top side job hopping "Leader". some facts; In terms of education....BS in Chem Engineering, Northwestern, MS Engineering Science, RPI-one top engineering schools!  MBA Indiana.  She was first female plant mgr. at GM Had a lot of "people type" roles at GM Executive VP of Global Manufacturing at GM.. have  to  believe a huge job. then a couple of jobs at Amazon..system type issues  I  would say. Currently at Alto Pharmacy, a 1200 employee co.  Sounds to me like she needed a break from pressures of high level of corporate life.   I think of Ford Pro as a side of Ford that is heavy into  the  commercial logistics world.  As key as that business is to Ford's profitablity, I would like to see someone who had a lot of relevant experience in that world but I guess Mr Farley subscribes to ..."a manager is a manager, forget about  the details."   Hopefully she will do well.    

Ford has stated more than once that the skunkworks EV will match the Chinese EV's in price.  I agree that we'll learn more on the 11th.

In what class of vehicle?  If Farley doesn’t plan to compete with South Korean and Japanese manufacturers in mass-market vehicles, I would guess it’s safe to assume they can’t compete with China either because of skunkworks’ “comparable low price”.  I hope we get clarity on skunkworks achievements on August 11.

Where will the output of the Kentucky battery plant be directed? I've always reckoned that the plant in Louisville (once converted to EV) made the most sense, given the lower freight costs that would be incurred?

Most likely.  The auto community and investors are going to want to know how the skunkworks managed to make an EV that is comparable in price to something made by the Chinese manufacturers like BYD.  

Mach E battery packs are supplied by LG Chem.   BlueOval SK in Tennessee, the JV with SK is supposed to be the first Ford plant to manufacture battery in house. It was planned to supply batteries to the next gen F-150 and the now canceled GE1 Explorer.    The CE1 battery packs will also be made in house in Michigan in the Ford CATL JV. 

I expect them to show the skateboard chassis and maybe some concept designs but I think the focus will be on the manufacturing changes.  

I agree with this. I also think the first wave of CE1 will be these 4 models. However, I think Ford should prioritize the Transit Connect first.   For Transit Connect, I think Ford cancelled the C1 Maverick based panel van again so they maybe going all in on CE1 van. This will be Ford's entry into the autonomous driving van market that's about to blow up big time. Uber signed a deal with VW to deploy ID.Buzz and Waymo was planning to use Zeekr RT made by Geely. But both plans maybe in doubt now due to tariff on European and Chinese cars. Ford has a great opportunity to dominate this fleet market if they can bring the van market quickly.   Amazon is apparently building its own autonomous van (Zoox) which explains why they are so far behind Waymo. So far Zoox has a very small deployment in Las Vegas where as Waymo is already done millions of rides in SF, LA, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta, with more cities coming online every month.   And Lyft is partnering with a start up Benteler so they are still at vaporware stage, despite claims they will deploy next year.    https://electrek.co/2025/01/07/zeekr-multiple-evs-2025-nvidia-thor-tech-us-model-waymo/   https://investor.uber.com/news-events/news/press-release-details/2025/Volkswagen-and-Uber-Launch-Long-Term-Strategic-Partnership-to-Deploy-Autonomous-ID--Buzz-Vehicles-on-the-Uber-Platform/default.aspx   https://zoox.com/   https://www.lyft.com/blog/posts/lyft-and-benteler-mobility-to-introduce-next-generation-autonomous-shuttles-across-lyft-network      

I don't believe it's bad to go into this with low expectations, just expecting to see a spec sheet and that's it. Even if that's all we get, I guess we gotta say that's better than nothing.    As for the prototype mules, it's pretty common these days for brands to test the platform using a different body at first until we get really close to production. I remember when the mach-e looked like a hacked up escape and everyone was talking about how ugly the design was 😂. So for all we know, Ford's testing their EV truck platform using a maverick body as we speak and we have no idea.