The end of the Ford F-150 Lightning was also the start of a new era for the automaker. After failing to capture the market with the electric version of its popular F-Series truck, Ford is going back to the drawing board with its Universal Electric Vehicle Platform.

The first offering will be a $30,000 electric truck, engineered for efficiency and also — perhaps most importantly — profitability. The truck will be revealed in 2027, but Ford plans on building a whole family of low-cost electric vehicles at its Kentucky assembly plant. The heavily camouflaged truck has already been spotted out in the wild, with observers noting that it seems even smaller than the Maverick.

Success isn’t guaranteed. Ford has struggled to make profitable EVs, forcing the company to take a staggering $19.5 billion hit on its EV investments in 2025. But Ford still sees EVs as the future — just not oversize ones with “no path to profitability,” as executives say.

• Emojis as camouflage.
• Ford’s $30K electric truck could be smaller than a Maverick.
• Inside the lab where Ford is trying to crack the code on cheap EVs
• Ford’s EV and software chief Doug Field is leaving the company
• Ford is fighting against physics to build affordable EVs
• Ford’s big bet on EVs didn’t pan out — now it’s pivoting to hybrids and energy storage
• Ford CEO Jim Farley on China, tariffs, and the quest for a $30,000 EV
• Ford reveals breakthrough process for lower priced EVs

Are we living through a small car renaissance? There’s the Slate Truck, Amble’s dune buggy, and the Fiat Topolino, as well as a whole galaxy of kei cars and trucks from Japan that have their own built-in fan base. While microcar sales in the US are still as tiny as the vehicles themselves, there are some signs that Americans might not be as closed off to the idea of downsizing as you might think.

The latest example is the launch of Chip Motors, a Miami-based startup with an adorably boxy, open-air electric vehicle that defies easy categorization. Is it a golf cart? A Jeep Wrangler that got hit with a shrink ray? A bit of both?

The company calls Chip a “life utility vehicle,” or LUV for short, but a more accurate acronym would be LSV for “low speed vehicle,” similar to neighborhood electric vehicles from companies like Gem and Wink. It’s top speed of 25mph means it’s only legal on roads with 35mph speed limits or below. It’s intended as a second vehicle for short trips to the grocery store or for kid pickups. There’s a roll bar and a flat battery pack along the floor to protect occupants. And an LED screen on the front bumper acts as Chip’s digital “face” as it smiles and responds to verbal commands. And it even parks itself using teleoperation, with the goal of eventually getting to Level 4, fully autonomous driving.

In terms of the hardware, Chip runs on in-wheel motors and a 15 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery that can recharge overnight on a standard 110-volt household outlet, or in 4 hours using a Level 2/240-volt charger via a NACS charge port — though on its website, the company notes that charge times are “illustrative,” pending final specs. The LFP provides an estimated 100 miles of range, but that’s just an estimate as well. Chip comes in four- and six-seat configurations, with the former starting at $15,000 and the latter at $18,000. You can reserve one today for $250, and the company says it will start deliveries in 2027.

Microcars may be a dead end in the US, but sales of golf carts have been growing steadily since the pandemic, said Chip Motors CEO Jameson Detweiler. But Chip is more than just a gussied up golf cart. He says the tiny EV is designed to capture the feeling of freedom associated with scooters and bicycles while removing much of the “mental overhead” that comes with owning a traditional automobile.

“It’s not small, —it’s light,” Detweiler said. “And it’s designed to be, like, hyper functional. And then also, like, it’s cool!”

A serial entrepreneur, Detweiler sold his camera tech company to one of the largest e-scooter operators in Europe in 2022 before fully pivoting to Chip, which he says he’s been working on for nearly 15 years. The idea was born from conversations he had while living in a hacker house in San Francisco around trends shaping cities and transportation. From there, Detweiler said he developed a belief that using large, heavy, expensive vehicles for short local trips is inherently inefficient. And as autonomous technology develops, he argued, transportation systems will become more efficient by matching the vehicle to the task.

The pandemic allowed golf carts to “escape the golf communities,” he said, noting that the biggest driver in sales are young families in warm weather markets who are using them as second vehicles for short trips. This sparked Detweiler’s curiosity: Where were the compelling electric versions?

Of course, small cars exist. There’s your Nissan Versas, your Mini Coopers, and your Honda Fits — all of which can be driven on surface roads and highways, aren’t speed limited, and typically sell for around the same price that Chip is selling its EV. Detweiler argues that many compact European-style vehicles aren’t built for the American market because they’re not designed to coexist safely with large pickup trucks and SUVs. Chip, by contrast, is engineered specifically for US conditions.

Beyond that, Chip is designed to have emotional appeal. Detweiler said he wants the vehicle to be unique and expressive rather than just affordable. But the lower cost of ownership, from zero dollars spent on gas to lower insurance premiums, could make Chip a better choice for a variety of consumers.

And then there’s the self-driving aspect — or, to start, a remote driving feature called “Chip Go!” The pitch is that owners will be able to summon their Chip EVs with the tap of an app, or even a vocal command. Likewise, they can tell it to park itself or send it out to run errands without anyone behind the wheel.

Detweiler’s philosophy is that driving can be enjoyable, but parking almost never is. Speaking from his own experience living in Miami with two young children, he says the worst part of any outing is navigating parking garages, unloading children and strollers, and making multiple trips between the car and destination. Chip will eventually get to Level 4 autonomy, he predicts, but for now will require remote operators to power these features.

In terms of latency concerns, Detweiler explained that the cellular networks are already well-versed at mitigating latency spikes by intelligently managing their connections. Also because Chip’s vehicles travel below 25 mph on neighborhood streets, teleoperation becomes substantially easier than managing high-speed highway driving, he argued. But he declined to provide more specifics about the teleoperation system, noting that the company intends to continue developing it over time. That said, Chip intends to take legal responsibility for its vehicles while they’re being remotely operated.

Chip’s launch video portrays a whimsical scenario in which the EV responds to conversational commands and makes funny quips. Detweiler said that wasn’t Hollywood magic, describing a system in which Chip participates in the family’s group chat, connects to calendars, monitors traffic conditions, and proactively reminds owners when they should leave earlier than planned.

“I believe that we are going to be the first mass market American robot,” he said. “It’s just not gonna be on two legs in the kitchen chopping tomatoes, which is a little bit terrifying to me. It’s gonna be out there rolling around in a form factor that we’re all used to.”

But the question remains: Is America ready for a microcar revolution? Detweiler thinks so, pointing to the company’s own research into imports and sales that he says shows the segment has grown roughly 15 percent annually since 2021. Still, Chip has broader ambitions, looking into more weatherproofed vehicles for colder climates and more highway-capable versions.

Unlike many modern EVs, getting to 60 mph might take “a few minutes,” Detweiler joked — he later clarified it was possible in just 8 seconds — but this future vehicle will be highly capable in autonomy and everyday usability. Today, it might be the ideal second car. But with Waymo and other robotaxis possibly changing transportation patterns in the future, it may end up being the only car you’ll ever need to own.

Images by Chip Motors

Lucid Motors found itself in a tough bind this week, fending off bankruptcy rumors and watching its stock price plunge as a result. The company quickly denied the report, calling it “completely false” and pointing to its available free cash flow as evidence that it has enough runway to operate into next year.

But despite the swift response, the damage was widespread. The panic immediately bled into competing automakers, pulling down shares of Rivian and Polestar as investors speculated about the long-term survival of EV-only companies in the face of slowing consumer demand and whiplash policy shifts. And it cast a harsh light on the precarity of all three companies and the future of electric vehicles.

The trouble started on Tuesday, when EV trade publication EV reported that restructuring firm AlixPartners had advised Lucid’s board to consider Chapter 11 bankruptcy or a take-private deal. The report also said AlixPartners had encouraged the board to further restructure in the US and Europe and to focus on the Gravity SUV. But while the rest of the media has since reported on Lucid’s denial, no other publication has confirmed EV’s scoop. (For what its worth, EV’s URL is “eletric-vehicle.com,” enshrining the incorrect spelling in its address.)

Lucid confirmed that it had hired AlixPartners, but denied that the firm had made any such recommendations to its board. Instead, AlixPartners would provide advice on “improving execution, strengthening operations and positioning Lucid to realize the full potential of its technology, products and innovation,” Lucid chief communications officer Nick Twork said.

Lucid went a step further, filing a cease and desist order against EV, claiming that the site’s report directly led to the stock crash. “In short, your actions caused serious injury to a number of investors,” Lucid’s chief legal officer and general counsel, Brian Tomkiel, said in the letter. “And they injured, and continue to injure, Lucid directly.”

Still, the timing was terrible. Lucid is genuinely not in good shape, having lost over $1 billion in the first quarter of the year. The company has also gone through two rounds of layoffs in 2026, having cut 12 percent of staff in February and then 18 percent in June. The company also reduced production at its factory in Arizona in a bid to counteract its high inventory and save money. And there’s been leadership turmoil, with COO Marc Winterhoff departing the company and his position being eliminated entirely in an effort to flatten the structure.

The report sent the stock into freefall, plummeting as much as 50 percent in one of the worst single-day drops in Lucid’s history. And with Polestar and Rivian also catching strays, it’s generally been a glum time for companies not named Tesla trying make a go of exclusively building electric vehicles. Wall Street is panicking because the rumors are aligning with the bad news coming out of these companies’ earnings reports. EV sales are stabilizing, but recovery is still a distant promise. The all-electric future seems further away than ever.

Whether or not Lucid is actually weighing Chapter 11, it’s a sure sign of more turbulent waters ahead. Polestar getting strong-armed out of the US over its Chinese ties has left a lot of EV owners and dealers scratching their heads. Rivian is in an increasingly precarious position thanks to its huge, expensive bet on becoming a mass-market car company with the production of the R2.

All of these companies are increasingly reliant on big stakeholders — Lucid with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Polestar with Geely, and Rivian with Volkswagen — for their future survival. If any of these big backers get cold feet, the future could get really dark really fast.