Ford's new EV development center is in Long Beach, California. Here's why

Chief Financial Officer John Lawler has compared the skunkworks approach to EV development to that of the Chinese and how quickly manufacturers there can launch new models. It emphasizes systems engineering over integrating others' contributions and is an "agile" process that differs from a traditional "waterfall" procedure.

That describes development where everything is designed to hit a certain deadline for production to start or cascade altogether, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst at market research firm Guidehouse Inc. The new way of thinking involves new features with regular frequency. Thanks to over-the-air updates, connected vehicles on the road can receive upgrades to their software and new services. But Chinese EV brands even are updating their vehicle hardware much sooner — every 18 to 24 months compared to every four or five years for traditional vehicle refreshes.

"You make changes as soon as they're ready to reduce costs and create more component integration," Abuelsamid said. "When Ford developed the Mach-E, it wanted to get to market quickly, so it used off-the-shelf components from other vehicles."

That, he said, helped speed the process but as a result, the Mach-E that hit dealerships more than three years ago doesn't have the most cost-efficient design.

"It was able to get to market quickly, but it's a little more complex, there are more components, and it’s also a little heavier," Abuelsamid said. "It's a little bit more costly."

Transformational thinking is something that could benefit Ford and help to reduce the approximately $17,000 cost difference between the average U.S. EV and Teslas, said John Murphy, Bank of America Corp. analyst. The challenge with the skunkworks goal, though, he said, is that most Americans prefer larger SUVs and trucks over a smaller vehicle likely to be offered on a platform as low as $25,000.

"The general direction of that makes sense," Murphy said last week during an Automotive Press Association event. "That will be a vehicle that may be much more appropriate for emerging markets and international markets as opposed to the U.S. However, the lessons learned from that and sort of the lessons from that may actually help with mid- and larger vehicles here in the U.S."