Apple and Ford announced today that Apple Maps will serve as the built-in navigation system for Ford’s upcoming Universal Electric Vehicle Platform. The integration runs through a new software development kit from Apple called MapKit for Automotive, and it arrives in 2027, when the first vehicles built on the platform reach customers.
The agreement ties Apple’s mapping software to the vehicle program Ford is counting on to make electric vehicles affordable at scale. The Universal EV Platform will underpin a family of lower-priced models, beginning with a small electric pickup that Ford says will start around $30,000 when production begins at Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky in 2027. For buyers, the practical result is that Ford’s least expensive EVs will ship with the same mapping service millions of people already use on the iPhone, running natively on the vehicle’s displays instead of through a connected phone.
“Our new midsize electric vehicle will be priced around $30,000 and redefines what advanced technology can be: simple, useful, and truly attainable for more customers,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley. “We’re proud to embed Apple Maps’ navigation and mapping technology directly into our Universal Electric Vehicle Platform, giving customers the ultimate navigation experience alongside our Ford app, a full suite of software, and next-generation BlueCruise, all enabled by a new zonal architecture.”
What drivers will get
Ford says drivers on the Universal EV Platform will get turn-by-turn directions using natural language, real-time traffic and incident information, search with detailed place cards, and routing options that help surface the best path to a destination. Because the software is embedded rather than projected, the experience is designed to match the look and feel of the vehicle itself, and it works whether or not a phone is in the car.
The integration also brings intelligent EV routing, including battery preconditioning. EV routing plans charging stops along a trip based on the state of the battery, while preconditioning heats or cools the pack ahead of a planned DC fast charging stop so it can accept higher charging speeds when the driver plugs in. Apple Maps already offers EV routing through CarPlay on current models such as the Mustang Mach-E, but an embedded system gives the software direct access to the vehicle’s battery data without relying on a phone connection.
A new software kit for automakers
MapKit for Automotive is the piece that makes the arrangement possible. The new SDK lets automakers embed and customize Apple Maps within their own vehicle software, so the resulting navigation experience stays consistent with the design language of the vehicle rather than copying the look of the iPhone app. The kit also provides road-level map information that automakers can use in developing hands-free driving systems.
Apple says the SDK follows the same privacy principles as the Apple Maps app. The company does not collect a user’s location details or activity on the vehicle’s map in a way that can be tied back to the individual.
“Apple Maps delivers the best map experience in the world, and we’re excited to bring the power of Maps’ navigation technology to Ford’s innovative Universal Electric Vehicle Platform,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services and Health. “With our new MapKit for Automotive SDK, we’re bringing Maps further into drivers’ daily lives, giving them an incredibly accurate and easy-to-use navigation system that is seamlessly integrated into Ford vehicles.”
The SDK marks a deeper push into the car for Apple, which canceled its own vehicle program in 2024 and has since concentrated on supplying software to automakers. CarPlay Ultra, the expanded projection system that takes over a vehicle’s instrument cluster in addition to the center screen, debuted in Aston Martin models in 2025. Embedding Apple Maps natively in another automaker’s operating system goes a step beyond projection, and Farley said Ford is honored to be among the first automakers to embed it directly into a vehicle.
Road-level data for the next BlueCruise
The mapping deal reaches past navigation and into driver assistance. Ford will use road-level information from Apple Maps in the development of its next-generation BlueCruise hands-free highway system, with the goal of a seamless on-ramp-to-off-ramp experience. That work belongs to Latitude AI, the automated driving subsidiary Ford established in 2023. Today’s BlueCruise permits hands-free operation on prequalified sections of divided highways in North America, and more detailed map data is one of the ingredients required to broaden where systems like it can operate.
Hands-free driving has become one of the most active competitive fronts among mainstream automakers. General Motors continues to expand Super Cruise across its lineup, and Stellantis is working with Wayve on a system it says will deliver hands-free door-to-door driving in 2028. Pairing BlueCruise development with Apple’s road-level data gives Ford another resource in that contest.
The platform underneath
The Universal EV Platform anchors a roughly $5 billion program, split between a nearly $2 billion conversion of Louisville Assembly Plant and $3 billion for BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, where Ford will build the platform’s lithium iron phosphate batteries. The prismatic LFP packs are structural and form the floor of the vehicle, and the platform relies on large aluminum unicastings and a manufacturing approach Ford calls the assembly tree, which replaces a single conveyor line with three sub-assembly lines that converge. Ford shared more details on the platform and its $30,000 truck earlier this year.
The zonal electrical architecture Farley referenced is central to the software side of the program. A zonal design consolidates dozens of separate control modules into a small number of zone controllers, which cuts wiring, simplifies manufacturing, and makes over-the-air updates easier to deliver. That structure is what allows Ford to embed third-party software such as Apple Maps deeply in the vehicle and keep it current over time. Development of the platform has been led by Doug Field, the former Apple executive who now oversees Ford’s EV and digital work.
CarPlay is staying put
The embedded system does not displace CarPlay. Apple and Ford confirmed that CarPlay will continue to be available on Ford vehicles, so iPhone owners can still project their phone onto the screen alongside the native software. The approach contrasts with General Motors, which removed CarPlay from its electric vehicles in favor of its own built-in software, a decision that has kept questions about CarPlay’s place in the industry alive. Ford is betting the two can coexist: a native Apple Maps experience for every driver, plus phone projection for those who want it.
Several questions remain open. Neither company has said whether embedded Apple Maps will spread to Ford vehicles outside the Universal EV Platform, how deeply Ford can customize the interface, or which other automakers plan to adopt MapKit for Automotive. What is clear is the direction. When the platform’s first pickup arrives in 2027, one of the most familiar names in consumer software will be built into one of the most affordable electric vehicles on the market.
