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Ford leverages EV production head start against rivals in latest ramp

Credit: Ford

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Ford has announced a massive EV production ramp for this year, leveraging its head start compared to its traditional rivals.

Despite Ford entering the EV market significantly behind Tesla and even lagging General Motors, its vehicles have quickly overtaken its traditional rivals, making the Blue Oval the second most popular EV brand in the United States. Now Ford has announced its newest EV production ram, hoping to ensure its lead remains as more competitors enter the market in the coming years.

The latest EV production ramp aims to increase the production of Ford’s most popular models. The Ford Mustang Mach-E, the electric SUV which helped cement Ford’s EV lead after launching in 2021 and remains the brand’s most popular EV, receives the most substantial bump, while the F-150 Lightning and E-Transit subsequently receive more minor production bumps.

The production ramp of the Mustang Mach-E began last week and aims to double hourly production, with a year-end goal of an annual run rate of 210,000 vehicles. The F-150 Lightning, which will resume production on the 13th of this month, aims to triple annual production, an annual run rate of 150,000 vehicles, by the end of the year. The truck’s production ramp costs $2 billion across three Ford production facilities in Michigan, including its main production facility, the Rouge EV Center.

The E-Transit receives a more conservative production bump, aiming for an annual run rate of 38,000 vehicles at the Kansas City Assembly Plant, which manufactures the Transit and the E-Transit vans.

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Other popular models, including the Ford Maverick and the Ford Bronco Sport, are also receiving production ramps to help the Blue Oval stay ahead of demand for the popular, affordable models.

Ford’s latest electric vehicle production push is part of its larger plan to reach an annual run rate of 2 million vehicles by 2026.

The production bump follows Ford’s recently announced sales statistics for February, in which its EV sales jumped by 68%, helping the company grow its overall marketshare by 1.4%.

Ford’s aggressive EV production ramp only becomes far more apparent when compared to its big-three siblings. General Motors, who beat Ford to the EV market with the popular Chevy Bolt model, has yet to introduce competitors to Ford’s Mustang Mach-E or F-150 Lighting and expects to begin production of its Chevy Silverado EV late this year. Those looking for a mid-size electric SUV from GM, such as the Chevy Equinox EV or Blazer EV, are forced to wait even longer, with both models coming sometime in 2024.

This isn’t to say that GM doesn’t have a production ramp planned at all. General Motors CEO Mary Barra has outlined that the auto group will produce 400,000 EVs “in North America during 2022 and 2023.” However, model-specific production numbers have not yet been published.

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Stellantis brands are even further behind. RAM plans to introduce its first all-electric truck, the RAM 1500 REV, in 2025. Dodge has yet to reveal any EVs in a production-ready form. And Jeep, while recently introducing its first EV to Europe, is only slightly ahead of its sibling brands, with the first Jeep EVs coming to North America in 2025 as well.

Ford is set to remain a leader in electrification, at least compared to the other big three manufacturers, and potentially globally, and this significant EV production ramp will likely be critical to maintaining that position.

What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email at william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com!

Will is an auto enthusiast, a gear head, and an EV enthusiast above all. From racing, to industry data, to the most advanced EV tech on earth, he now covers it at Teslarati.

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Tesla Model 3 gets perfect 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating

Tesla prides itself on producing some of the safest vehicles on the road today.

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Credit: Tesla Singapore/X

Tesla prides itself on producing some of the safest vehicles on the road today. Based on recent findings from the Euro NCAP, the 2025 Model 3 sedan continues this tradition, with the vehicle earning a 5-star overall safety rating from the agency.

Standout Safety Features

As could be seen on the Euro NCAP’s official website, the 2025 Model 3 achieved an overall score of 90% for Adult Occupants, 93% for Child Occupants, 89% for Vulnerable Road Users, and 87% for Safety Assist. This rating, as per the Euro NCAP, applies to the Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive, Long Range Rear Wheel Drive, Long Range All Wheel Drive, and Performance All Wheel Drive.

The Euro NCAP highlighted a number of the Model 3’s safety features, such as its Active Hood, which automatically lifts during collisions to mitigate injury risks to vulnerable road users, and Automatic Emergency Braking System, which now detects motorcycles through an upgraded algorithm. The Euro NCAP also mentioned the Model 3’s feature that prevents initial door opening if someone is approaching the vehicle’s blind spot.

Standout Safety Features

In a post on its official Tesla Europe & Middle East account, Tesla noted that the company is also introducing new features that make the Model 3 even safer than it is today. These include functions like head-on collision avoidance and crossing traffic AEB, as well as Child Left Alone Detection, among other safety features.

“We also introduced new features to improve Safety Assist functionality even further – like head-on collision avoidance & crossing traffic AEB – to detect & respond to potential hazards faster, helping avoid accidents in the first place. 

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“Lastly, we released Child Left Alone Detection – if an unattended child is detected, the vehicle will turn on HVAC & alert caregivers via phone app & the vehicle itself (flashing lights/audible alert). Because we’re using novel in-cabin radar sensing, your Tesla is able to distinguish between adult vs child – reduced annoyance to adults, yet critical safety feature for kids,” Tesla wrote in its post on X.

Below is the Euro NCAP’s safety report on the 2025 Tesla Model 3 sedan.

Euroncap 2025 Tesla Model 3 Datasheet by Simon Alvarez on Scribd

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USDOT Secretary visits Tesla Giga Texas, hints at national autonomous vehicle standards

The Transportation Secretary also toured the factory’s production lines and spoke with CEO Elon Musk.

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Credit: Elon Musk/X

United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Sean Duffy recently visited Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas complex, where he toured the factory’s production lines and spoke with CEO Elon Musk. In a video posted following his Giga Texas visit, Duffy noted that he believes there should be a national standard for autonomous vehicles in the United States.

Duffy’s Giga Texas Visit

As could be seen in videos of his Giga Texas visit, the Transportation Secretary seemed to appreciate the work Tesla has been doing to put the United States in the forefront of innovation. “Tesla is one of the many companies helping our country reach new heights. USDOT will be right there all the way to make sure Americans stay safe,” Duffy wrote in a post on X. 

He also praised Tesla for its autonomous vehicle program, highlighting that “We need American companies to keep innovating so we can outcompete the rest of the world.”

National Standard

While speaking with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the Transportation Secretary stated that other autonomous ride-hailing companies have been lobbying for a national standard for self-driving cars. Musk shared the sentiment, stating that “It’d be wonderful for the United States to have a national set of rules for autonomous driving as opposed to 50 independent sets of rules on a state-by-state rules basis.”

Duffy agreed with the CEO’s point, stating that, “You can’t have 50 different rules for 50 different states. You need one standard.” He also noted that the Transportation Department has asked autonomous vehicle companies to submit data. By doing so, the USDOT could develop a standard for the entire United States, allowing self-driving cars to operate in a manner that is natural and safe.

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Tesla posts Optimus’ most impressive video demonstration yet

The humanoid robot was able to complete all the tasks through a single neural network.

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Credit: Tesla Optimus/X

When Elon Musk spoke with CNBC’s David Faber in an interview at Giga Texas, he reiterated the idea that Optimus will be one of Tesla’s biggest products. Seemingly to highlight the CEO’s point, the official Tesla Optimus account on social media platform X shared what could very well be the most impressive demonstration of the humanoid robot’s capabilities to date.

Optimus’ Newest Demonstration

In its recent video demonstration, the Tesla Optimus team featured the humanoid robot performing a variety of tasks. These include household chores such as throwing the trash, using a broom and a vacuum cleaner, tearing a paper towel, stirring a pot of food, opening a cabinet, and closing a curtain, among others. The video also featured Optimus picking up a Model X fore link and placing it on a dolly.

What was most notable in the Tesla Optimus team’s demonstration was the fact that the humanoid robot was able to complete all the tasks through a single neural network. The robot’s actions were also learned directly from Optimus being fed data from first-person videos of humans performing similar tasks. This system should pave the way for Optimus to learn and refine new skills quickly and reliably.

Tesla VP for Optimus Shares Insight

In a follow-up post on X, Tesla Vice President of Optimus (Tesla Bot) Milan Kovac stated that one of the team’s goals is to have Optimus learn straight from internet videos of humans performing tasks, including footage captured in third person or by random cameras.

“We recently had a significant breakthrough along that journey, and can now transfer a big chunk of the learning directly from human videos to the bots (1st person views for now). This allows us to bootstrap new tasks much faster compared to teleoperated bot data alone (heavier operationally).

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“Many new skills are emerging through this process, are called for via natural language (voice/text), and are run by a single neural network on the bot (multi-tasking). Next: expand to 3rd person video transfer (aka random internet), and push reliability via self-play (RL) in the real-, and/or synthetic- (sim / world models) world,” Kovac wrote in his post on X.

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