Android Automotive OS and Google Maps have been adopted by a number of automakers, but Apple is fighting back with a MapKit for Automotive SDK. It promises to provide a “beautiful and easy-to-use navigation experience powered by Apple Maps directly to the vehicle’s displays.”

The technology will be integrated into Ford’s Universal Electric Vehicle Platform, which will underpin their highly anticipated $30,000 pickup as well as an assortment of other affordable EVs. Furthermore, Ford will use “road-level information from Apple Maps as part of the development of its next-generation BlueCruise” semi-autonomous driving system. The automaker said this will result in a more seamless hands-free driving experience.

More: Ford’s $30K Electric Truck Looks Tiny Next To Expedition In New Spy Photos

The companies didn’t release pictures or many details, but said drivers can expect natural language turn-by-turn directions as well as real-time traffic and incident information. Users can also look forward to an intuitive search feature with “detailed place cards.” There will also be multiple “routing options to help users easily find the best route to their destination.”

While the automaker and tech giant didn’t elaborate, there’s little doubt the routing options will factor in recharging stops for long distance trips. This functionality is already built into Apple Maps as it monitors the battery and analyzes elevation changes as well as other factors along your route to identify appropriate charging stations along the way. It can also provide real-time charging station availability and help to find the nearest compatible charging station when the battery gets extremely low.

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Aside from already existing features, Ford confirmed the new integration will have a battery preconditioning function. This likely means that when drivers navigate towards a charging station, the battery will precondition itself for optimal charging when it arrives.

Ford CEO Jim Farley remarked, “Our new midsize electric vehicle will be priced around $30,000 and redefines what advanced technology can be – simple, useful, and truly attainable for more customers. We’re proud to embed Apple Maps’ navigation and mapping technology directly into our Universal Electric Vehicle Platform, giving customers the ultimate navigation experience alongside our Ford app, a full suite of software, and next-generation BlueCruise, all enabled by a new zonal architecture.”

Apple’s senior vice president of Services and Health, Eddy Cue, added “With our new MapKit for Automotive SDK, we’re bringing Maps further into drivers’ daily lives, giving them an incredibly accurate and easy-to-use navigation system that is seamlessly integrated into Ford vehicles.”

Apple CarPlay

Last year, Ford pulled the plug on the F-150 Lightning. The move came after years of disappointing sales and a decision to embrace range-extended powertrains for full-size trucks and SUVs.

Now, nearly eight months later, inventories are almost sold out. A quick search reveals dealers only have around 100 new units left in stock and they’re being offered with generous discounts.

More: GM’s EV Trucks Bombed, So Dealers Are Offering Huge Discounts

One of the biggest deals is at Brinson Ford in Corsicana, Texas. Their F-150 Lightning XLT has been marked down by $20,471, which means the $65,940 MSRP has been slashed to $45,469. That’s 31% below sticker price and the model is now cheaper than the gas-powered F-150 XLT Crew Cab before discounts.

If you’re in the Midwest, Sam Leman Ford of Bloomington, Illinois has knocked $18,000 off their F-150 Lightning Flash. This lowers the cost of entry from $71,990 to $53,990.

Sheehy Ford of Springfield, Virginia isn’t quite as generous, but their F-150 Lightning XLT has been marked down from $66,190 to $49,900. This means buyers can save $16,290 on a four-wheel drive truck with 240 miles (386 km) of range. The latter is pretty stingy and it’s easy to see why the truck didn’t set the sales chart ablaze.

If you need more range, Flood Ford of Rhode Island has a 2025 F-150 Lightning Flash that can travel 300 miles (483 km) on a single charge. However, it costs $58,435 after a $15,000 discount.

Those are just a few examples, but the deals likely won’t last much longer as there’s only a handful of trucks left. That being said, General Motors is also struggling to sell their electric trucks, so there are plenty of options to be had.

It might come as a bit of a shock to those who have just woken from a coma that lasted the past couple of years, but Ford is recalling more cars today. This time it’s issued not one but two new campaigns affecting over 110,000 vehicles. Both apply to Mustangs, though the faults, and frankly the cars, couldn’t be much more different.

Gasoline pony car owners could have wipers that fail to clear the windshield, while EV owners might face drivetrain trouble that could strand them. Here’s the breakdown on each.

When The Wipers Quit In The Cold

According to documents filed with the NHTSA, the larger of the two actions covers 67,842 examples of the 2024-2026 Mustang, including the limited-production $325,000 Mustang GTD. The issue traces back to a semiconductor programming error inside the front windshield wiper motor. In temperatures at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), the motor can lose communication with the steering column control module.

More: Ford Admits Thousands Of Dashboards Can Still Go Blank Seven Years After The Fix

In cases where that happens, the wipers might only work at their highest speed and the windshield washer system might fail altogether. Ford says the defect stems from a supplier programming a 16-kilobyte chip using settings intended for a 32-kilobyte chip. The automaker is aware of 35 warranty claims but says it has received no reports of crashes or injuries. Dealers will inspect the wiper motor and replace it if necessary.

A Broken Shaft On The Mach-E

The second recall affects 42,784 rear-wheel-drive 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E crossovers. In those vehicles, the rear differential pinion shaft can fracture due to bending fatigue. If it does, drivers could lose propulsion or, in some situations, experience unintended vehicle movement after shifting into Park if the parking brake isn’t applied.

Ford’s investigation found consistent evidence of bending fatigue in failed components, although engineers say the underlying root cause remains under investigation. The company has noted 62 warranty claims, 14 quality reports, four customer reports, and two European field alerts related to the issue but says it knows of no crashes, injuries, or fires. Owners will need to go to the dealership for inspection.

Dealers will repair or replace the differential as needed. The updated assembly uses a pinion shaft designed to better withstand bending fatigue. Owners of both types of Mustang will get notification letters later this month though replacement parts for the wiper issue won’t be available until 2027.

Ford’s highly anticipated, affordable electric truck is still working through development testing ahead of its debut next year, and our spy photographers have sent over fresh shots from Dearborn that put the compact pickup right next to a full-size SUV for scale. The result tells you a lot about how small this thing really is, especially when compared to the Blue Oval’s other truck offerings.

More: Jim Farley Says It Took Ford Four Years To Finally Get Its Quality Issues Under Control

The camouflaged prototype got a brief escort from a Ford Expedition Max, and the pairing does the truck no favors. At 221.9 inches (5,636 mm) long and 78 inches (1,981 mm) tall, the giant SUV makes the pickup look like a car with a bed bolted on. The EV’s low roofline barely clears the Expedition’s shoulder line. There’s a good reason for that.

A Roofline Shaped by the Spreadsheet

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Ford’s designers poured their attention into aerodynamic efficiency, chasing every bit of range so the truck can get away with a smaller, lighter battery. In an earlier video, the company walked through the math, noting that adding 1 mm (0.04 inches) to the roof height would cost $1.30 more in battery or trim 0.055 miles off the range, which explains why the roofline sits where it does.

Beyond the low roof, the model has a steeply raked windshield, smaller mirrors, low-resistance Michelin E Primacy tires, an integrated roof spoiler, and cross-shaped aero wheel covers measuring 19 inches across. All of it adds up to what Ford claims is 15% better aerodynamics than “any other pickup truck on the market today,” including the similarly sized Maverick.

Retro Cues Hiding Under Playful Camouflage

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Ford’s engineers have stuck chunks of camouflage onto the front end to disguise its shape, and the production version is expected to wear a lower, more rounded nose than what the prototype shows.

More: Ford Asked AI To Build Better Cars, Then Rehired Humans To Fix What AI Broke

The droopy headlights sit low enough to suggest Ford might be dusting off the design language of the second-gen F-Series from the 1950s, a look it already leaned on for the mid-2000s and early-2010s Mustangs. Then again, these might be placeholder units, since earlier teaser sketches pointed toward a more futuristic take on the lighting signature.

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The spy shots also give us a glimpse inside the cabin, where a large free-standing infotainment display dominates the dash. The new camouflage wrap comes into view too, scattered with graphics of a dog, a sailboat, a soccer ball, a heart, a flower, a motorcycle, and plenty more.

A Clean-Sheet Architecture

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Underneath, the pickup rides on Ford’s new Universal EV platform, developed in-house by a dedicated skunkworks team. The architecture leans on large aluminum unicastings for a 27% weight advantage over rivals, and it cuts parts by 20%, fasteners by 25%, and factory workstations by 40%. It also runs a simplified 48-volt low-voltage system with a wiring harness that comes in 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) shorter and 10 kg (22 lbs) lighter than the harnesses in Ford’s first-generation EVs.

More: Ford CEO Suddenly Reopens The Door To A New Falcon Ute

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Ford hasn’t said anything yet about the electric motors or the battery pack. What we do know is that the truck will use a cost-effective Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery, which is how Ford plans to hold the starting price near the $30,000 mark.

More details should surface over the coming months as the 2027 debut draws closer. Earlier reports suggest the model could revive the historic Ranchero nameplate, though Ford hasn’t confirmed anything on that front.

Ford

Ford brought back employee pricing for everyone on May 1^st and the offer is set to expire on July 6^th. However, don’t be surprised if it gets extended as sales have been dreadful.

In the second quarter, group sales fell 10.3% to 549,200 units. That’s a decline of 62,895 vehicles and the automaker is down 9.6% year-to-date.

More: Ford Sales Plummet Nearly 14% Even With Employee Pricing For Everyone

Those are brutal numbers and hybrids didn’t even help. Despite sky high gas prices, Ford’s hybrid sales dropped 20% in the second quarter. That stands in stark contrast to rivals as sales of Kia hybrids soared 187% in June and were up 115% for the first half of the year.

The automaker didn’t get help from electric vehicles either as sales plummeted 40.7% in Q2. The Mustang Mach-E fell 30.9%, while the discontinued F-150 Lightning was down 58.6% to a mere 2,421 units.

To put those numbers into perspective, the gas-powered Mustang outsold the EV by more than 2:1. This is also echoed in year-to-date sales, where the ICE-powered model is leading 28,725 to 11,632.

As we’ve pointed out numerous times in the past, the decision to eliminate the Escape is costing the automaker an insane number of sales. In the first-half of 2025, Ford moved 82,589 units. This year, they’ve only managed to sell 24,112 Escapes, which is a difference of 58,477. Dealers still have around 3,000 units remaining in inventory, but they’ll be gone soon enough.

It’s also worth noting Escape customers aren’t embracing the Bronco Sport as sales of that model were down 6.7% in Q2 as well as 1.3% year-to-date. However, Ford has been pushing some buyers to the Explorer and it was up 13.8% for the quarter and 21% for the year.

Truck sales were down across the board in Q2 as the F-Series was off 11%, while the Ranger fell 9.8%. Even the Maverick, which offers a popular hybrid variant, was down 0.4%.

Despite a sea of bad news, Ford noted the Bronco set a second quarter sales record of 45,739 and a first-half record of 76,936. More importantly, it outsold the Jeep Wrangler for the quarter. That off-roader was down 12% to 41,793 units.

Overall, Ford brand sales were down 10% to 522,811 vehicles. The Blue Oval is also down 9.6% for the year.

While the automaker didn’t have much to celebrate, they said customer demand for the F-Series remains strong, but it’s still feeling the impacts of last year’s aluminum supply shortages. They also noted the elimination of the Escape and Corsair was bound to put a damper on sales.

Lincoln Sales

That pain was clearly felt at the luxury brand, where sales fell 15.8% in the second quarter. This was largely due to 4,200 less Corsairs being sold. However, that wasn’t the only problem as the Navigator was down 17.4% while the Aviator was off 1.4%.

The only bright spot was the Nautilus, which had a record-setting Q2 thanks to 10,505 sales. Of course, that could all come to an end soon as the Chinese-built crossover needs special approval to continue being sold in the United States. This same process doomed Polestar in America, but it seems likely that Lincoln will get the green light.

2026 Lincoln Q2 US Sales

2026 Ford Q2 US Sales

Could Ford’s new Universal EV platform spell the end of the Mustang Mach-E? Recent comments from the automaker suggest it’s a real possibility, even if the company isn’t prepared to commit one way or the other right now.

With the F-150 Lightning gone, the Mustang Mach-E stands as the only EV Ford still sells in the United States. The current car will hang around through at least 2027, and a report from last year indicated the model might not see any meaningful upgrades until sometime after 2030. However, even this does not seem guaranteed.

Read: Ford’s $30K Electric Truck Looks So Tiny It Makes A Maverick Seem Grown Up

As part of a campaign to promote the new Universal EV platform, Ford answered a series of questions from its fans. One of them got straight to the point and asked whether the new architecture would underpin a future Mustang Mach-E. The answer was clear.

“No, it will not be used for the Mustang Mach-E,” Ford responded. “This platform was built from a clean sheet to maximize vehicle efficiency.”

First-Gen Wasn’t Good Enough

As noted by Ford Authority, Ford boss Jim Farley has said the car manufacturer went about creating its first generation of EVs, including the Mustang Mach-E, in the “wrong way.” The new Universal EV platform will first be used by a compact pickup truck, recently spied up close in the United States. The platform will then be used by several other Ford models.

Had Ford been committed to keeping the Mustang Mach-E for a long time and building it through to a second generation, using this new platform would have been an obvious choice. Now, if it decides to keep selling the Mach-E until 2030, or well beyond that date, it could quickly start to feel outdated compared to Ford’s second-generation EVs. What’s more, it’s reported that the Ford Escape will be revived in all-electric form towards the end of the decade using the UEV architecture, likely further limiting the appeal of the Mach-E.

Just days after Ford’s long-awaited baby electric pickup was caught under camouflage in the United States, Ford has gone ahead and launched a website for it, kicking off its own teaser campaign for the truck.

The disguised prototypes each carry a scannable QR code that points to a dedicated Ford site, which congratulates visitors for “spotting a unicorn” and adds three videos that show the truck being put through its paces.

Ford, like many of its rivals, has pulled back hard on new EV investment as demand softens and US policy keeps changing. This truck is the exception and so is the Universal EV platform underneath it, which the company is still betting on.

Read: Ford’s $30K Electric Truck Looks So Tiny It Makes A Maverick Seem Grown Up

In the first of the clips, the new baby electric pickup from Ford is shown at a dedicated testing center, before it cuts to a pair of shots showing it being driven around in the snow. The video then offers us a brief look at the manufacturing plant where the truck is coming to life, as well as how its simplified platform is assembled.

In another video, Ford senior vehicle software specialist Chris Kirkland shows more of the truck’s winter testing in Northern Michigan. This video provides an excellent look at the model, which appears to be similar in size to the old Ford Ranger from the 1990s, albeit with four doors.

What About The Design And Price?

The truck’s design is quite interesting and, due to the electric powertrain, it can get away with a very short hood. In addition, it has a steeply raked windshield to aid in aerodynamics. Key elements of the EV being perfected in the snow include the stability and traction control systems, and the truck’s electronic power-assisted steering (EPAS).

Ford has also confirmed what we had suspected, that the baby electric pickup will launch next year. Key specifications and pricing won’t be known until we get closer to its unveiling, but it’s expected to launch from around $30,000 and will come fitted with a lithium-iron phosphate battery pack.