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When it comes to EVs, a bigger battery isnt always better. Ford Motor Company is making that bet as part of its effort to manufacture a new suite of more affordable electric vehiclesbeginning with a $30,000-starting-price mid-size electric truck set to launch in 2027. To get more out of a smaller battery, Ford has had to reimagine every step of its manufacturing process. It has scrapped the typical assembly line process in favor of what the automaker calls its Ford Universal EV Platform, and simplified every part of its EV, from the miles of wiring inside the electric system to the number of parts that make up its frame. And its had to rethink the battery itself, to make it both more efficient and less expensive to produce. Ford credits many of those innovations to the team from Auto Motive Power, an EV charging startup Ford acquired back in 2023. [Photo: Ford] Ford Bounties to increase efficiency Batteries are a massive challenge to designing affordable, efficient EVs. The battery makes up at least 25% of an EVs total weight and around 40% of its total cost. In recent years, EV batteries have kept getting bigger. A bigger battery can add miles to an EVs range, but that also means adding more weight, which makes an EV less efficient, and potentially more difficult to handle. It also means more production costs, which could make that EV more expensive. To make more affordable EVs, then, Ford has rethought every part of its EV in service of that battery. Every engineer, whether working on the vehicles aerodynamics or its interior ergonomics, uses metrics that Ford calls bounties to weigh design tradeoffs in terms of how they affect the vehicles range and battery costs. Alan Clarke [Photo: Ford] That has led to a system-level optimization that the team has done to turn over every rock to find dollars of cost and watts of efficiency, says Alan Clarke, executive director of Fords Advanced EV Development department. Ford removed 4,000 feet of wiring from its Universal EV Platform, for example, shaving off 22 pounds compared to the wiring used in Fords first-gen electric SUV. While the Ford Maverick has 146 structural parts in its frame, Fords forthcoming midsized EV will have just two parts, thanks to a lighter and simpler “unicasting” process. [Photo: Ford] A more efficient battery Besides the design tradeoffs it made, Ford also redesigned its battery to make it both smaller and more efficient. That can translate to a better range and charging experience for customers, too. The pipe of electrons coming out of the wall is always the same for every customer, Clarke says. But how many miles that translates into is directly defined by efficiency of the power electronics and efficiency of the vehicle. [Photo: Ford] In its forthcoming midsized EV, Ford will use lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, batteries. With no nickel or cobalt, these batterieswhich are common in Chinese EVsuse less expensive chemical ingredients than lithium ion and other battery types. How efficient an EV battery is depends largely on its software, and thats where the team from Auto Motive Power comes in. An EV battery pack is composed of multiple cells, and “the performance of that battery pack is limited by your worst cell,” Clarke explains. Battery cells are sensitive to temperature, voltage, and other conditions around them. “You want to buy [an EV] from whatever company understands their batteries the best, thermally manages them the best from a software standpoint, can measure where they are and balance them and charge them at the rates that don’t deteriorate them,” he adds. The E-box is a single module that controls power distribution, battery management, and provides AC power back to your home during an outage. [Photo: Ford] Algorithms can monitor a batterys voltage, temperature, and regenerative braking in order to maximize the vehicles energy use. Software controls how an EV takes energy out of its battery and puts it into the vehicle’s drive unit. And it also allows the automaker to optimize a battery in real time, responding to the drivers behaviors and real-world data to reduce battery degradation and protect its lifespan. Each customer has different ways of utilizing batteries, explains Anil Paryani, formerly the CEO of Auto Motive Power and now an executive director of engineering at Ford. In Arizona, they might have different heat challenges . . . so we have user-optimized controls to minimize those trade offs, he says. Sometimes customers just have different charging behaviors. For example, Paryani says that his mom lives in a condo, and so she almost exclusively uses fast chargers, which can negatively impact an EVs battery life. What do we have to do to avoid [battery] deterioration? he says. We are addressing that with our software. Ford is making its battery cells at its BlueOval Battery Park in Michigan. Akshaya Srinivasan leads vehicle efficiency and performance for the Universal EV Platform team, helping develop bounties. [Photo: Ford] Staying a startup inside Ford Auto Motive Power was founded in 2017, and was previously a supplier to Ford before it was acquired by the automaker in 2023. At the time, the team was still operating as a very scrappy startup, Paryani says. Becoming part of a $56 billion automaker could have drastically changed that, but they were able to maintain that startup energy. Executives decided to keep the team walled off, Paryani says, so that we can take design risks that I don’t think traditional auto companies would ever think of taking. [Photo: Ford] Big companies like Ford can often get caught up in analysis paralysis, Clarke admits, while startups are known for failing fast. Paryani and his team held on to that ethos, while taking advantage of Fords resources, like access to its EV development center. [Through] all of the different things that Anil’s team have tried, we’ve learned so much about different materials, interaction between different devices, that we wouldn’t have, Clarke says. “Or in order to learn it, we probably would have spent two years building models and realizing it wasn’t a good idea.” Paryanis team, instead, tried out multiple ideas quickly through prototypes. This work is crucial to developing better EVs, which are ultimately still an early technology. “Internal combustion engine vehicles have had 120 years of maturation, of engineering work, of optimization, of innovation, that have gone into them,” Clarke says. EVs, by contrast, are in “inning oneor maybe inning two.”
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Anderson Cooper, who has reported for CBS’ “60 Minutes” for the past two decades in addition to hosting a weeknight news program on CNN, said Monday that he’s leaving the CBS broadcast to spend more time with his family.His decision comes at a time of turmoil at “60 Minutes.” Cooper appeared on the show Sunday night, introducing a brief piece on filmmaker Ken Burns. It’s not likely to be his last time on the show; he’s expected to finish the current broadcast season, which ends in May.“Being a correspondent at ’60 Minutes’ has been one of the great honors of my career,” Cooper said in a statement. “I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors and camera crew in the business. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been able to balance my jobs and CNN and CBS, but I have little kids now and I want to spend as much time with them as possible, while they still want to spend time with me.”Cooper’s exit from what remains the most prestigious show in television news is sure to raise questions about whether it had anything to do with the leadership of Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News since last fall. Cooper’s spokesperson said Monday he had no additional comment.He has contributed stories to “60 Minutes” since the 2006-2007 television season in a unique job-sharing arrangement with CNN. His prime-time cable news show, “Anderson Cooper 360,” has aired since 2003.In a statement, CBS News praised Cooper for his two decades of work.“We’re grateful to him for dedicating so much of his life to this broadcast, and understand the importance of spending more time with family,” CBS said. “’60 Minutes’ will be here if he ever wants to return.”His exit comes at a time of unease at the Sunday night newsmagazine known for its ticking stopwatch. At Weiss’ direction, the show in December held off at the last minute showing a report from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi about the Trump administration’s immigration policy. She said a greater effort was needed to get an interview with administration officials, while Alfonsi complained privately that the decision was political in nature. The story aired a month later with additional administration comments, but no on-camera interviews.President Donald Trump sued “60 Minutes” for how it handled an interview with his 2024 election opponent, Kamala Harris. Much to the consternation of many at the broadcast, CBS’s parent company Paramount Global settled with Trump out-of-court.Cooper’s exit from CBS was first reported by the online news site Breaker. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social. David Bauder, AP Media Writer
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Today marks the start of the Year of the Fire Horse, which in Chinese tradition is all about action, boldness, and taking on new challenges. And what better way to celebrate a year that should be full of red hot, blazing energy than with a hand-crafted cowboy hat from Stetson? The color? Red, of course. The company, started by John Batterson Stetson in 1865, invented the cowboy hat. Today, it’s still known for embracing the spirit of the West with its quality hats, boots, and outerwear. And to mark the year of intensity, which hasn’t happened in 60 years, the brand is partnering with Gold House to turn an iconic cultural itemthe cowboy hatinto a modern-day crown fit for 2026. A good year to celebrate and support Asian-Pacific founders The partnership is all for a good cause, too. The one-of-a-kind hat, handcrafted in Texas, will be auctioned off (specific details about the auction are forthcoming), with all funds going directly to the Gold House Foundation in order to further the nonprofit’s work in supporting Asian-Pacific culture and entrepreneurs. Celebrating while redefining our most storied beliefs, symbols, and rituals is core to Gold House,” Bing Chen, CEO of Gold House, said in a statement shared with Fast Company. We are honored to partner with Stetsonan originatorto re-honor who created and who gets to wear the United States most pronounced crownthe cowboy hatfor the Year of the Fire Horse. Given that this year is also America’s 250th birthday, celebrating Asian-Pacific culture makes sense. While history often fails to mention it, America’s pivotal Transcontinental Railroad was primarily built by Chinese laborers. Its construction inevitably led to the Gold Rush of the late 1840s and early 1850s that kick-started America’s economic boom. The Stetson-Gold House hat is mostly bright red, but it features a gold horse and gold trim meant to honor those contributions. While cowboy culture and fashion will forever be relevant in America, this partnership is a timely reminder that it’s also ever-important to revisit our country’s true history, especially the pieces and people who are far too often left out of history books. Hats off to that.
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