Ford merges its EV and manufacturing units as EV leader departs

Ford $F has established a new organization called Product Creation and Industrialization, merging its electric vehicle, digital, and design team with its global industrial operations — a restructuring that will be led by COO Kumar Galhotra and comes alongside the departure of EV chief Doug Field.

Field held the role of chief EV, digital, and design officer since coming to Ford in 2021; the company announced he will depart following roughly a month-long transition. Ford said there will be no direct replacement for Field. Galhotra will absorb the responsibilities of the new combined unit.

The new structure merges the functions Field oversaw with Ford's global Industrial System group, with the stated aim of achieving key Ford+ milestones, among them an adjusted EBIT margin of 8% by 2029. Under the new unit, Ford intends to update vehicles representing 80% of its North American lineup by volume and 70% of its worldwide lineup by 2029. Vehicles covered by that effort include a UEV-platform midsize pickup, a redesigned F-150, and the heavy-duty F-Series Super Duty range.

"By uniting advanced technology with industrial execution, we can make decisions faster, eliminate complexity, and deliver great vehicles and digital experiences with the quality and efficiency our customers and shareholders expect," Galhotra said in a statement.

Looking toward 2030, electrified drivetrain options — spanning hybrids, extended-range, and fully battery-powered variants — are expected to be available across roughly 90% of Ford's global nameplate lineup. Ford is separately aiming to equip vehicles accounting for 90% of its global volume with new electrical architectures and next-generation over-the-air software capabilities by the same date.

The secretive internal team responsible for developing the Universal EV platform will continue under Alan Clarke — a former Tesla $TSLA executive, according to TechCrunch — who was appointed vice president of Advanced Development Projects. Ford said it will continue to use that small-team development model for select future programs.

Before his 2021 return to Ford — where he had started out as a development engineer in the late 1980s — Field had accumulated prominent Silicon Valley experience at both Apple $AAPL and Tesla, and he expressed confidence that his team could see the current work through. "Ford will be changed by taking these products all the way over the finish line. My team is ready, and they're ready to execute," he said, according to CNBC.

The restructuring follows a difficult stretch for Ford's EV ambitions. The period was marked by a $19.5 billion write-down and the cancellation of multiple electric models — including an electric F-150 Lightning variant — as softening consumer demand and a shifting policy environment under the Trump administration prompted Ford to scale back its EV commitments. The company said at the time that the case for pushing hard on EV production had "eroded."

Also announced alongside the restructuring, Kieran Cahill, Ford's vice president of manufacturing for Europe and IMG, is retiring effective May 1 after a 37-year career at the company.