By Richard Truesdell
On December 5 Tesla shared its 48 volt architecture documents with other major automakers, prompting Ford CEO Jim Farley to post on X (Twitter), thanking Tesla’s Elon Musk. Farley said the open sharing of Tesla’s 48 volt information was “Great for the industry!”
This raised a lot of eyebrows in the press. And then Farley wrote on December 7, “Great to read the document and realize that our next-gen team has been on a similar path. Let’s work together to help the supply base move into the 48V future as well.”
In the hyper-competitive global automotive market it is truly unusual for competitors to openly praise one another. For Farley to congratulate Musk for sharing proprietary information and state that Ford is on a similar path, is ground-breaking
So, will Ford be the first mainstream OEM manufacturer to start rolling out 48 volt architecture across all its platforms? Will we have a 48 volt F-150? I think Ford will make the switch when it launches its next F-Series platform in the 2026 time frame. Why?
The next F-150 will be designed from the ground up to be powered by both ICE drivetrains or battery-electric systems. By starting from scratch (unlike the current F-150 Lightning EV), Ford now has the opportunity to move to the new 48volt platform.
Secondly, there is much incentive to go to 48 volts. The wiring harness weighs significantly less with the communications bus reacting faster, increasing efficiency in many functions. This improves charging time, range, and enables new features such as drive-by-wire (where the system moves away from mechanical steering to fully electric steering systems that enable a Cybertruck basically turn on a dime).
In this YouTube video, industry teardown guru Sandy Munro explains why the move to 48-volt is so significant. (The link goes directly to Munro’s 48-volt discussion, but the entire video is well worth watching).
Combined with 480 volt and higher electrical charging systems coming on-stream, the 48-volt low voltage system brings the Tesla Cybertruck rapid charge time down 30 minutes or less (to go from a 20 percent charge to 80 percent) compared to two hours previously. Rapid charging is key to removing one of the main roadblocks to EV adoption.
Takeaway: I think Ford will bring 48 volts to its most popular vehicle line in the next few years. This is a good thing for the auto industry, but it remains to be seen if the other global leaders–Volkswagen, Toyota, Stellantis, Nissan, and the up-and-coming Chinese manufacturers like BYD–will do as well.
See also earlier CEoutlook story on 48 volts here.
Rich Truesdell
Rich is an industry veteran and longtime automotive photojournalist He has served as an installer, a 12 volt retail store owner, and a car audio and automotive journalist.
Truesdell founded Kartunes Mobile Electronics in New Jersey in 1976 with a retail storefront from 1980 to 1992. He’s contributed to publications including Motor Trend and has been a full-time automotive journalist since 2000 to more than 30 magazines around the world. He is also the co-author of three books with collaborator Mark Fletcher; Hurst Equipped (2012), 1970 Maximum Muscle (2021), and Hemi Under Glass (2021). Truesdell even appeared on Jay Leno’s Garage!
Truesdell welcomes questions from readers and he hopes to connect with colleagues from his many years in the car audio industry at [email protected]
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I remember talking about 48 volt systems about 25 years ago and that the future would be 500 watt amps the size of a single DIN radio. This was before Class D so imagine what that will be like today.
GREAT STUFF… If I recall correctly… One of the Audiobahn brands developed and actually imported a coupla hundred 48volt amplifiers… Perhaps they were just slightly ahead of their time :).
Ray, I don’t recall that but it gives me an excuse to reach out to Rick Anderson. I have his number somewhere.
There’s a lot of reading between the lines on this. Amy wants shorter blogs to keep the reader’s attention. But all indications are that all new platforms will be 48-volt. There are so many advantages in doing so. And from all indications, the next F-150 was due in the 2026 model year, which makes sense meaning that it would hit the market in mid-2025. But with the new UAW contract and slow RV sales, Ford is slowing down or delaying everything that is capital-intensive.
But I think that Ford is ahead of GM with their future product introductions.