How do you design a $30,000 electric pickup? Inside Ford's skunkworks.

To that end, the Ford EVDC currently has around 350 people working at Long Beach at any given time. Employees in outside offices that deal with manufacturing engineering and software, for example, bring the team size to around 480, but in Ford terms, that’s still a very small division. 4. A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided. This is an interesting one. EVDC is extremely well-equipped with everything from three types of 3D printers to a CNC mill bigger than my first three apartments (including one just for shaping full-size clay models). This allows for rapid iteration and a simplified approval process without the need to send changed models and drawings off-site for manufacturing. Speed also comes from everyone being under one roof, preventing silos. All of that is in addition to a wood shop, a metals shop, and more. Even elements like seat design and patterning are done in-house. 5. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly. The less time you spend justifying your decisions to upper management, the more time you have to actually do the work. 6. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program. This may seem like Project Management 101, but it goes beyond just budgeting time and money for the project’s development. Because the Universal Electric Vehicle is being designed to be as affordable as possible, constantly considering the effect of design decisions on cost is critical. This extends from material selection to making the seat mounting bolts face outward, speeding installation and reducing labor costs on the line. Ford is being relentless in this pursuit. 7. The contractor must be delegated and must assume more than normal responsibility to get good vendor bids for subcontract on the project. Commercial bid procedures are very often better than military ones. Modern manufacturing tech has largely made Johnson’s seventh rule irrelevant. Because EVDC is so vertically integrated, from computer design to clay models, rapid prototyping, assembly, and testing, the need for outside contractors has largely been eliminated. 9. The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn’t, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles. All teams at EVDC follow their work through all stages of the project. They are in constant contact with other teams to avoid the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Testing is constant, and revisions are as frequent. 10. The specifications applying to the hardware must be agreed to well in advance of contracting. The Skunk Works practice of having a specification section stating clearly which important military specification items will not knowingly be complied with and reasons therefore is highly recommended. This one isn’t super relevant, but Ford set the specs for the UEV a while ago, giving the design teams a target to hit. 11. Funding a program must be timely so that the contractor doesn’t have to keep running to the bank to support government projects. There’s probably a joke in here somewhere about Ford not taking the 2009 bailout. 12. There must be mutual trust between the military project organization and the contractor, the very close cooperation and liaison on a day-to-day basis. This cuts down misunderstanding and correspondence to an absolute minimum. This is related to teams at EVDC working in close proximity. If there’s a hardware problem with the E-Box during climate chamber dyno testing, the team that designed it can simply walk over to see what failed. No travel, no Zoom calls. 13. Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures. This is another very important rule. Johnson and the original Skunk Works were working on secret military planes and cutting-edge technology. If other nations got hold of what they were doing, there could have been very real consequences. The situation is less serious with Ford and EVDC, but the company still takes security very seriously. Our visit to the facility was the first time anyone outside the program had been allowed in. This level of secrecy and access control is a big deal for Ford for obvious reasons, but it speaks to the nature of the work the people at EVDC do. 14. Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay, not based on the number of personnel supervised. While I can’t speak to the EVDC staff’s salaries, we can discuss why Ford chose to put this facility in Long Beach. The idea behind EVDC is to attract the best employees possible from a specific pool. Getting some of those people to move to Dearborn might be a challenge—if you’ve been to the Detroit area in January, you understand what I’m talking about. Southern California, despite its high cost of living, is a popular place to live, with great weather and plenty to do. It’s a lower lift to ask people to move from Silicon Valley (like ex-Tesla employees) to the Los Angeles area. If panel bond (essentially expensive car glue) sounds like a strange solution, keep in mind that most supercars and hypercars are held together with it and not much else. Other methods to keep costs down include “zonal architecture,” which reduces the number of separate computers and control modules, thereby also reducing the wiring harness. That is further thinned down by using 48-volt architecture instead of 12-volt, allowing for thinner wires and less copper overall. EVDC engineers are most focused on increasing efficiency and reducing manufacturing costs.