{"id":245491,"date":"2023-07-18T14:37:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=245491"},"modified":"2023-07-18T14:37:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:37:36","slug":"qa-ford-ev-product-development-director-darren-palmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/07\/qa-ford-ev-product-development-director-darren-palmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Ford EV Product Development Director Darren Palmer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a slow and uncertain start, Ford Motor Co. is making a serious push into the emerging EV market. And it\u2019s Darren Palmer who is leading the charge as the product development director for Ford Model e, the automaker’s . That\u2019s the side of the company focusing exclusively on battery-electric vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Darren Palmer, Vice President, Electric Vehicle Programs, Ford Model e, is leading the company’s charge into electrification.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The British-born Palmer boasts an impressive enough CV, with an MBA from Henley Management College, and an Electrical, Electronics and Technology Degree from Birmingham University, both in the UK. But more importantly, he was a founding member of Team Edison, the skunkworks group that proved to the American automaker that it was possible to create EVs that consumers actually would like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first critical product was the Ford Mustang Mach-E, now one of the best-selling battery-electric vehicles on the market. Palmer met with TheDetroitBureau.com last week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Sussex, England where he oversaw the launch of an all-new version of the electric SUV, the off-road-focused Mach-E Rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TheDetroitBureau:<\/strong> The Goodwood Festival of Speed started out as a celebration of motorsports and the internal combustion engine. Yet, here you are, showing off a new version of the all-electric Mustang Mach-E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> It\u2019s such a diverse set of cars coming through here, there\u2019s something for everybody. It was all about the noise, and engines spitting fire. But, over time, you\u2019re seeing an entire new area, Electric Avenue, showcasing battery-electric vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> Once somebody said electric cars are all gonna look the same and they’re all gonna be commodity. As things have developed, cars like the Mustang Mach-E have a point of view. They\u2019re not, just a box on wheels. It’s got a personality, and it’s demonstrated electric can be fun, even if it’s different fun, when you experience how quickly that car reacts to you, with a 0 to 60 of 3.5 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2023
Ford showed off the Mustang Mach-E Rally edition prototype at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Yeah, there are plenty of EVs here at Goodwood, even the new Rolls-Royce Spectre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> I love how they can have these different personalities and they\u2019re going to be relevant in different ways. The Mustang Mach-E shows that performance can be superior to most gas cars. You can\u2019t deny the performance aspect. And we\u2019re seeing motorsports develop around EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Still, you surprised folks by debuting the Mustang Mach-E Rally here at Goodwood. How did you come up with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> It\u2019s our first all-electric off-road car. It came about because we have some off-road enthusiasts on our team. And somebody came forward and said, why not make a rallycross car? They made a model and (came up with) some specs, and they showed it to us. We thought it fit Ford\u2019s heritage and background. The Mustang coupe is about freedom. The Mach-E is a \u201cwe\u201d car. And this could be a car that gives you even more freedom to go places. So, we approved the project. But we didn\u2019t have the funding. It wasn\u2019t in the program. We just said, \u201cGo with it.\u201d That project took 16 months, half the time of a normal project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> This isn\u2019t a boulder-climber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> No, it\u2019s not. We knew it would run well on packed gravel, the sort of thing rally cars do. It\u2019s for high-speeds off-road, adapting to a lot of different surfaces, like a rally car. And we learned we had a lot of control over the wheels, the torque, with the electric (motors).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Could something even more off-road capable follow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2023
Palmer said it’s a learning platform of what off-road can be when you go all-electric.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> It\u2019s like a learning platform about what an off-road electric vehicle could do. You wouldn\u2019t believe the terrain it\u2019s gone over, but it does because it has skid plates on the bottom and just bounces over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> You\u2019ve said you\u2019re not going to release the specs until later but what can you tell me about what you\u2019ve done to the Mach-E Rally?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> I can talk about what you can see. You can see it\u2019s been raised a bit. How much you can work out. You can see the aero has been revised for off-road and rally. You can see the tires and wheels have been upgraded and the tires have more grip. One might deduce there\u2019s some (unique) software that comes with it because it\u2019s a software-defined car. And while we haven\u2019t talked about it yet you can assume it won\u2019t be low-performing. You might think you\u2019d lose some on-road (comfort and handling) but you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Are you going to adopt the MagneRide (magnetic ride control active) dampers from the Mach-E GT Performance Pack?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> You can deduce things. We tested against some fairly legendary rally cars to see what made them work. And we put those elements in. In Europe, we standardized the electronic suspension because they demand the handling and performance which is so important here. We may make it more available on more (non-GT) models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> You think there\u2019s a market for the Rally model?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2023
Palmer believes there is a market for the newly revealed Mustang Mach-E Rally edition.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> I think 50% of the people who\u2019ll buy it wouldn\u2019t have bought a Mach-E before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> Let\u2019s take the next step. There are others who are getting ready to bring out electric off-roaders, like Jeep. They\u2019ve gotten great response already with the plug-in hybrid 4xe models. You have to be looking at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> It\u2019s all about the electric motor being able to be controlled so accurately and quickly. And we\u2019re playing around with that with the (F-150) Lightning. If you\u2019re boulder climbing and you\u2019re in One Pedal mode where it slows the moment you lift off the throttle it\u2019s much easier to control than a normal gas (model). There\u2019s definitely potential\u2026we\u2019re exploring. The Rally is a test bed for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> It seems like you keep learning to push into other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to keep doing that. The more you do, the more new customers you can bring in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> There\u2019ve been a lot of reports lately about EVs beginning to pile up at dealer lots. Is this something to be concerned about? And will this impact pricing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> We have been constrained on production of Mach-E, Lightning and E-Transit since the day we launched them. So, we decided rather quickly to put in capacity but it takes time. That volume is just about to come online. We\u2019re also introducing a new LFP battery and making other changes that will allow us to move the price point(s) to a new area, as well as offer other derivatives in a completely new price (range) and bring it down. (The Mach-E has already) gotten more range, even as it\u2019s gotten significantly cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2023
Palmer downplayed concerns about a backlog of EVs across the country, saying it was “premature” to worry.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> So, you\u2019re not concerned that EVs may be piling up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> It\u2019s a little premature to be concerned about a pile-up. We\u2019re just loading up our dealers. Until now, every Mach-E (and Lightning) was backordered and people had to wait months for them. Now, we\u2019ll have more, and have better deals. We\u2019re in Moore\u2019s Chasm in the adoption curve. There were the early adopters at the beginning. Now we\u2019re moving into the mainstream. But that may take a little time to get going. We think this is a little valley. But customers who have them love them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> And there was a new study (by S&P Global Mobility) that said dealers are part of the problem. Are you going to have to get dealers comfortable selling EVs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> Oh, yeah, it\u2019s also a factor. We\u2019ve done a lot of work training dealers. We have to get the dealers ready and comfortable with the new scale. They have to realize these are really good products and people will love them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TDB:<\/strong> There\u2019s also the issue of \u201ccharger anxiety,\u201d which I think has replaced range anxiety as a big concern for potential customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmer:<\/strong> Yeah, definitely, evidence shows that. We have to keep improving. And that was the reason for the recent announcement of our tie-up with Tesla which effectively doubles the size of our (charger) network. It\u2019s a really reliable network and charger anxiety will go away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a slow start, Ford Motor Co. is making a serious push into the emerging EV market \u2014 and it\u2019s Darren Palmer who is leading the charge. Check out our interview with him at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3531,7,8,5,1608,10,1164,2648,969,1347,9],"tags":[11610,2775,11609,364,11607,11608],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245501,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245491\/revisions\/245501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245491"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=245491"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=245491"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=245491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}