Ford's budget electric ute to use Apple Maps

The upcoming affordable electric ute being developed by Ford will use Apple Maps for its built-in navigation system.

Due to go into production in 2027, the new ute, widely tipped to revive the Ranchero name, will be one of the first vehicles to have Apple Maps built in. Indeed, all cars based on the ute's Universal Electric Vehicle (UEV) platform will feature Apple Maps.

Ford says UEV models will employ Apple Maps for turn-by-turn directions, real-time traffic and incident information, location searching, and EV-friendly routing that includes battery preconditioning.

The company is also using road-level information from Apple Maps for the next generation of its BlueCruise hands-free autonomous driving system for highways in North America, which is being developed by the company's LatitudeAI division. The system is set to debut as an option in the new electric ute in 2028.

It will be interesting to see if other manufacturers jump on board and adopt Apple Maps for their navigation systems.

A significant number of manufacturers base their infotainment systems on the Android Automotive operating system, and many of these come with Google Maps built in and have access to third-party apps through the Google Play Store.

The new Ranchero, or whatever it will be christened, could be revealed later this year. Set to be priced from US$30,000 (A$43,000), it will be one of the cheapest vehicles in Ford's American lineup.

At present the Blue Oval's US range kicks off with the Maverick dual-cab hybrid, which begins at US$28,145 (A$40,200).

A prototype of the ute was spotted in California in June, and it looks to have fairly traditional pickup truck design, apart from the steeply raked windscreen. 

The new ute will be the first vehicle based on the UEV architecture that's being developed by a skunkworks team.

New production techniques, including gigacasting, as well as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries and cost-effective electric motors, are said to help bring the price down and make it competitive with petrol-powered cars.

Ford is planning a number of other models based on the Universal EV platform, including two- and three-row SUVs, small and mid-size sedans, and a van. It's unknown when these other models will debut.

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