But Ford still sees EVs as the future — just not oversize ones with “no path to profitability,” like the Lightning, as Andrew Frick, president of Ford Model e and Ford Blue, said last year. But by assigning a monetary value to weight savings in terms of reduced battery cost, Ford’s engineers can determine those types of parts actually lower the overall cost of the whole vehicle. Image: FordAerodynamics and weightFord’s push to develop affordable EVs is also a fight against physics itself. With 400-volt architectures, Ford’s new EVs won’t charge as fast as 800-volt Hyundai and Kia EVs, for example. In addition to battling physics, Ford is also fighting political headwinds that are directly contributing to a slowdown in EV sales growth.