Nair: Ford Hard At Work On F-150 Hybrid

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Losing 700 pounds may not be enough in the fuel economy for the 2015 Ford F-150, as plans are being made to add hybridization to the mix.

Detroit Free Press reports global product development boss Raj Nair stated the automaker was “working very hard” on the hybrid system for the F-150, but that it was too soon to go into detail on when it would hit showrooms or how the system functioned.

Regarding diesel, Nair said that fuel prices — already falling below $2/gallon in a few spots in the United States — are making such a thing tough to bring about, that even a hybrid system would pay for itself long before a diesel F-150 could. That said, if the demand is there, Nair believes Ford could tap into its diesel portfolio to make that model happen.

Speaking of fuel prices, truck marketing chief Doug Scott said he didn’t think sales of EcoBoost models would be dampened by cheap fuel, citing customers’ choice to buy an EcoBoost F-150 for the performance as well as fuel economy.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Big Al from Oz Big Al from Oz on Dec 05, 2014

    Ford has realised the new 2015 isn't a big a hit as it thought. Ram just bettered it (marginally) in the Motor Trend review and the Colorado received the Truck of the Year Award. Ford marketing will be hard at work delivering snippets of informantion to test the consumer and to ward off any perception that Ford has stopped developing the "lacklustre" aluminium pickup. I wonder if they will revise anything with the new aluminium HDs that are coming?

    • 95_SC 95_SC on Dec 05, 2014

      Wow...failure before it even hits the market. And in 1980 the Citation was car of the year so I'm not sure how much weight motor trend actually carries.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Dec 05, 2014

    The last time GM tried the hybrid truck thing, it got 20/20/20 mpg, and sales were rather underwhelming. I wonder how Ford thinks they can do better.

    • See 3 previous
    • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Dec 08, 2014

      @Hummer Well you have to keep in mind that since the GM hybrids were introduced the landscape has changed dramatically thanks to the CAFE standards that are looming. Ford really doesn't have an option but to offer a hybrid pickup, sooner or later. Ford realizes that the F series is their cash cow and they would rather get out head of the game rather than wait until the last minute. The other ting to consider is that the GM hybrids came out when the average consumer didn't care too much about MPG and they did not have a payback period thanks to the steep premium they charged for it and the mediocre mpg improvement, like all of GM's hybrids to date. .

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Dec 07, 2014

    "even a hybrid system would pay for itself long before a diesel F-150 could" There's something wrong with this.

    • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Dec 08, 2014

      Why Hybrids, at least the good one have a payback period while modern diesels do not have one.

  • Scoutdude Scoutdude on Dec 08, 2014

    No surprise here, Ford said they were working on it years ago they even had explored a partnership with Toyota to do so. However it turned out that there wasn't any real value in it to Ford since they would have had to foot most of the bill and they are doing quite well in the development of hybrid tech. It would have just turned out to be a gift to Toyota since they can't afford to go there with tier minimal full size truck volume in the US the only place there would be any market for it.

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