Ford Motor Company is trying to solve the EV cost problem by doing something legacy manufacturers rarely enjoy doing: Starting over. A Ford program led by Silicon Valley engineers is reportedly focused on stripping cost and complexity out of EV manufacturing. That means fewer parts, simpler wiring, large castings, modular builds, and a redesigned assembly process built to reduce labor and complexity. The friction is predictable. Fast-moving, risk-tolerant tech culture does not naturally mesh with cautious, process-heavy legacy manufacturing culture. One side wants to delete the code base. The other side knows why the code base exists. But that tension might be the whole point. If Ford wants to build EVs profitably at scale, it cannot just improve the old process around the edges. It has to question the assumptions underneath it. The real story is not “Silicon Valley engineers versus Ford engineers.” It is whether a legacy automaker can move fast enough to rebuild itself without...