Ford has been apprehensive to commit to a fully electric F-150 in the past, but the automaker appears to have had a change of heart.
Speaking at the recent Deutsche Bank Global Automotive Conference in Detroit, Ford president of global markets Jim Farley announced the automaker’s intentions to build a battery electric version of the world’s best-selling pickup truck.
“We’re going to be electrifying the F-Series — battery electric and hybrid,” Farley said plainly at the investor’s meeting.
The fully electric F-150 will be sold alongside the previously announced F-150 plug-in hybrid. Together, the two electrified pickups will “futureproof” the familiar F-150 nameplate, Farley said, and ensure it remains the success that it is today for years to come.
Ford has sidelined $15 billion to put toward the development of electric and autonomous vehicles. The only other electric vehicle the automaker has alluded to in an official sense is the so-called Mustang-inspired EV crossover. The EV was originally going to adopt the storied Mach 1 name, but Ford changed its mind after consumer backlash. ‘Mach E’ is now thought to be in the running as a potential name for the production vehicle, which isn’t due until 2021.
Ford Mach 1 concept teaser
Ford may have been inspired to go ahead with the fully electric F-150 after seeing competition from start-up manufacturers like Rivian and Workhorse. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed an interest in developing a fully electric pickup one day as well. In addition, Tesla has already shown a working prototype for a fully electric semi-truck – another product Ford might want to set to work on considering its large commercial vehicles business.
In addition to the F-150, most or all Ford crossovers and SUVs will be offered with electrified or fully electric powertrains going forward. The automaker is hoping to be a leader in electrified trucks and SUVs, with ninety percent of it capital currently allocated toward those two vehicle types.
It’s not clear when the electric F-150 may debut or go on sale.
(source: The Detroit Free Press)
Comments
That is long expected! Ford can electrify ALL of its models, having many technologies and patents to cover them since 2004. What took them so long to proceed?
That electric F-150 must support local 120 VAC power generation (for power tools at remote sites), and become a new gem in Ford’s line up.
All of this news is completely depressing. Electric this electric that. Honestly, if they’re going to electrify stuff, they should kill off all of the names of the iconic legends first, Retire the mustang, camaro, challenger, charger, corvette, Durango, Bronco, Silverado, F150, Ram series pickups and never use those names on anything electric. It’s completely disrespectful to their heritage and everything they stand for. These names are meant for Legends, American Icons who shaped the world with V8 engines, not some bullshit electric tesla crap wannabes electric vehicles are not cars, they are appliances! Don’t get me wrong I’m all for advancements in technology and fueling but AMERICAN CAR’S TRUCKS AND MOTORCYCLES should all be powered by INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES!!! THE WAY IT’S BEEN DONE FOR THE LAST 100+ YEARS!!!! American car companies need to stop this foolishness and continue on with advancing the American V8 engine. It is the perfect engine and the only engine needed in any vehicle. The perfect vehicle is a vehicle on a rear wheel drive platform, AWD or 4×4 is acceptable with a sub 6-Liter V8. It is more efficient than any 4 or 6 cylinder (hence why everything wants to have V8-like performance) without having to add turbos or fake out emissions testings or anything like that. They’re also cheaper to own because they have lower maintenance costs because they don’t have all of the add on stuff that hybrids have. No extra batteries, no extra anything. Just straight forward parts and power. You try going mudding or stump pulling in a tesla and watch everything fail. Now go do it a Chevy Truck with a 454 V8 or a Ford F150 with a 460 V8 swap and you’ll be driving it home happy and muddy while the other guy in his electric BS is sitting there stuck in a mud pile with his electric systems fried! You can’t roll coal in an electric vehicle, nor can you cruise down the highway listening to the tune of your well put together hot rod and tunes of your music in an electric car or anything. Only thing you can do in an electric car is sit in traffic enjoying your Starbucks organic latte and your skinny water and your vegan salad smoothie, connect to your preferred social media source (which is actual extremely anti-social) and accept whatever nonsense the rainbow brigade or the anti 2nd amendment crowd feeds your minds. Don’t get me wrong, I like the thought of an efficient “well oiled” machine that can do stuff. I commend Ford on their new 10-speed and 10-speed hybrid drivetrain, the new 7-speed DCT in the GT500, and even on some of their ecoboost stuff. I would love to see a V8 Hybrid or even a V8 ecoboost down the line, especially on the promising CD6 platform. But the naturally aspirated V8 needs to remain, as do loud exhausts, Diesel trucks, V-Twin motorcycles, bacon, beef, beer, burgers, fried chicken, cheesy & greasy fast food, Soda, civilian gun rights, heterosexual relationships and an ass kicking US Military. If running out of fossil fuels is what everyone is worried about, convert all homes, businesses and buildings to solar energy and wind energy, if it’s near a large source of water convert it over to hydro-electric power. Focus fleet vehicles, police vehicles and military vehicles to electric. If you want to add more electric to trucks that great, have hybrid electric generators that store and make power off the internal combustion engine, that would be awesome and honestly a great idea. Hybrid electric vehicles are cool. Even if some vehicles were to be electric that would be fine. They have their place but not everything should be electric. We need to find ways to further the advancement of algae sourced Bio-fuels and Ethanol fuels for internal combustion and still keep them clean. We throw away tons of food a year both plant and animal matter. With ethanol coming from corn we could easily calculate how much we throw away in just corn alone and divert that funding into corn that we use for fuel. E85 Hybrid vehicles were all the rage at GM a few years ago. Taking all that we’ve learned from hyrbid and electric vehicles with things such as regenerative braking, Ford’s new 10-speed hybrid powertrain, the Ecoboost platform, and all of that could be combined with Ford’s Coyote engine, even with less displacement (289ci or 4.7L) or even all the way down to 260ci V8 and up to 351ci (5.8L) in different combinations and everything would be fine. Long story short, electrifying everything is a bad idea!
an outdated article from 2019 really ?!