Ford on track to complete $2B factory overhaul for Fathom EV truck

福特斥资 20 亿美元改造工厂，旨在生产 Fathom 电动皮卡

Ford made a $2 billion bet two years ago when it closed its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky and scrapped the assembly line system it had used for more than a century. Its goal was to transform the factory into one capable of making a new generation of affordable EVs. 两年前，福特汽车公司押注 20 亿美元，关闭了位于肯塔基州的路易斯维尔装配厂，并废弃了其沿用一个多世纪的流水线生产系统。其目标是将该工厂转型为能够生产新一代经济型电动汽车的基地。

The auto giant provided an update on Thursday, stating that its factory overhaul is on track and in 2027 will be ready to start producing the Fathom, an all-electric midsize truck that costs less than $30,000 and is the first EV built on its new universal platform. Ford said it expects to begin prototype builds of the Fathom in the first quarter of 2027, with customer vehicles to follow later in the year. The U.S. automaker is already testing production-level tooling ahead of the prototypes. 这家汽车巨头周四发布了最新进展，称工厂改造工作进展顺利，预计将于 2027 年开始生产 Fathom。这是一款全电动中型皮卡，售价低于 3 万美元，也是首款基于福特全新通用平台打造的电动汽车。福特表示，预计将于 2027 年第一季度开始 Fathom 的原型车制造，并于同年晚些时候交付客户车辆。目前，这家美国车企已经在原型车制造前对生产级模具进行测试。

The stakes for Ford are high. The company’s previous EV efforts were a drag on its profitability, while Chinese competitors and Tesla leapt ahead with vehicles that sell at volume and with a profit margin. To catch up, Ford ditched the moving assembly line system that its founder Henry Ford launched and turned to a system developed by its skunkworks team led by former Tesla executive Alan Clarke. 福特此举面临巨大压力。该公司之前的电动汽车业务拖累了盈利能力，而中国竞争对手和特斯拉则凭借高销量和高利润率的车型遥遥领先。为了追赶，福特放弃了其创始人亨利·福特（Henry Ford）开创的移动流水线系统，转而采用由前特斯拉高管艾伦·克拉克（Alan Clarke）领导的“臭鼬工厂”团队所开发的系统。

This “universal production system,” as Ford calls it, uses a three-branched assembly tree. Ford will use large single-piece aluminum unicastings that use far fewer parts — a technique that Tesla has popularized — and that will allow the front and rear of the vehicle to be assembled separately on two of the branches. The third branch is where the structural battery will be assembled with seats, consoles, and carpeting. The three components will come together at the end of the line to form the vehicle. 福特将这种系统称为“通用生产系统”，它采用三分支装配树结构。福特将使用特斯拉推广的大型一体化压铸铝件，这能大幅减少零部件数量，并允许车辆的前部和后部在两条分支上分别进行组装。第三条分支则用于组装结构化电池组、座椅、中控台和地毯。这三个部分将在生产线末端汇合，最终组装成整车。

As part of the factory rebuild, Ford has also nearly tripled the Wi-Fi coverage density in the factory to 1,080 access points to the kind of high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity required for software quality checks. Ford said it will be able to assemble the Fathom a net 15% faster than the former vehicles that were built at the Louisville plant. The company said some employees have already spent months training on the new system at its New Models Program Development Center in Allen Park, Michigan. 作为工厂重建的一部分，福特还将工厂内的 Wi-Fi 覆盖密度提高了近三倍，达到 1080 个接入点，以满足软件质量检查所需的高带宽、低延迟连接。福特表示，与此前在路易斯维尔工厂生产的车型相比，组装 Fathom 的效率将提高 15%。该公司称，一些员工已经在位于密歇根州艾伦帕克的新车型项目开发中心接受了数月的新系统培训。