Doug Field, Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer at Ford, is leaving the company. Ford Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short. The Downshift brings you the biggest automotive industry headlines from around the globe every morning in quick summaries so you can get up to speed and on with your day. Each item contains a link you can follow for more information. Grab a cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage and let’s hit it. ⚡ Doug Field, who led Ford’s EV efforts after roles at Tesla and Apple, has decided to leave the automaker, the company announced Wednesday afternoon. “I believe Ford now has a winning technology strategy and plan,” Field said in a statement. “The first breakthrough product off the Universal EV platform—a mid-size pickup—is on its way to production. We have clearly defined hardware, software, and electrification plans across our full product line.” A new division, called Product Creation and Industrialization that includes the group formerly led by Field, will be headed by COO Kumar Galhotra, while Alan Clarke will run the Advanced Development Projects team that created the Universal platform. 🫴 The U.S. Custom and Border Protection agency announced that it will begin accepting applications on April 20 for refunds for President Trump’s tariffs that the U.S. Supreme Court declared were unconstitutional back in February. Some 3,000 businesses have filed lawsuits seeking recompense, Automotive News reported, many of them car manufacturers. ⏬ New EV registrations in the U.S. fell 37 percent in February compared to the same month a year prior, according to Auto News. 🚀 SpaceX reportedly accounted for 18% of all Tesla Cybertrucks sold in the fourth quarter, Bloomberg has reported citing data from S&P Global Mobility. 🤝 Stellantis and Microsoft have signed a five-year agreement “to co-develop artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and engineering capabilities,” per Reuters. 🏭 Stellantis’ Brampton, Ontario assembly plant is still idle after a plan to assemble Chinese EVs from Leapmotor at the site was shot down by officials and organized labor, per Auto News. 📋 The FIA and ACO have announced that they will no longer be publishing balance-of-performance data for World Endurance Championship racing teams, in an effort to diminish public “misunderstanding,” Motorsport.com has reported. BOP, as it’s referred to, is the mandated scaling of the relative performance of different cars to promote closer competition.