#PickupTrucks
First Look: 2023 Ford F-Series Super Duty
Since roughly the dawn of time (or at least the dawn of manufacturing in Detroit), pickup truck makers have enjoyed beating each other over the head in a perpetual game of one-upmanship. Torque, towing, interior appointments – it’s rare for any stone to be left unturned when one brand decides to move the goalposts.
After the Bowtie Brigade showed off a refreshed Silverado HD last night in Michigan, you just knew the Blue Oval Brutes would clap back in short order with a new take on their Super Duty workhorse. Ed. note: Arguably, Chevy crashed Ford's party. Though this story was assigned to Mr. Guy, yours truly saw an embargoed briefing held by Ford the day after the Detroit Auto Show. So perhaps Chevrolet caught wind and decided to be an interloper.
GMC Redesigns Canyon for 2023, Adds AT4X Trim
With the Chevrolet Colorado being revealed a couple of weeks ago, you knew it wouldn’t be long before the crew at GMC rolled out their variation on a similar theme. Re-upping for 2023 in the once-again competitive midsize truck segment, the Canyon will apparently be focusing on its high-level (and high profit) trims.
Tremor Time: Ford Adds Another Trim to Maverick
It’s not unusual for an automaker to begin mining a successful sub-brand for every shred of credibility it has managed to accrue. Witness the rapid expansion of the Denali line at GMC, for example. Across town, Ford has seen the Tremor trim on its pickup trucks secure a decent take rate in this wonky market, so they’ve decided to hurl it at the little Maverick as well.
The Most Toys: Ford Unleashes 700 Horsepower Raptor R
Don’t let anyone tell you that, even on the eve of mass electrification, we’re not living in the golden age of horsepower. After the loons at Ram launched their psychotic TRX, off-road gearheads knew the Blue Oval would be feverishly working on a direct rival – if they weren’t already.
Introducing the 2023 Raptor R – a V8-powered off-road pickup truck with a GT500 engine shoved up its nose. ‘Murica, indeed.
GMC Introduces Sierra 1500 AT4X AEV, Uses Up Nation's Supply of Acronyms
The crew at GMC has decided to launch yet another off-road special of its Sierra 1500 pickup truck, continuing GM’s collaboration with aftermarket outfit American Expedition Vehicles. The AT4X AEV is a hotted-up AT4X, which is itself a hotted-up AT4.
This brings up a question – is GM slicing its off-road pie into vanishingly small segments?
Ford Ranger Raptor Appears on Build-And-Price Site in Oz
Bent on turning its Raptor trim into a wide-reaching line of off-road-ready rigs, Ford will be applying the name to not just its F-150 but also upcoming variants of the Bronco and Ranger. While this isn’t new information – after all, Jim Farley himself tweeted about the Ranger Raptor earlier this year and the Bronco Raptor is currently being driven in California – it is neat to learn the truck has shown up on the company’s build-and-price tool Down Under.
Ford Continues Selling Rivian Stake
Ford Motor Co. has decided to continue offloading Rivian stock, with the burgeoning electric vehicle manufacturer at roughly $24 per share. After divesting itself of 8 million shares earlier this month, Blue Oval sold another 7 million ahead of the weekend — leaving itself holding about 9.7 percent of the company.
With 86.9 million shares leftover from the sale, Ford remains a relevant stakeholder. However, investors are growing worried that the legacy manufacturer will continue dumping Rivian as a way of salvaging future losses. Ford, which previously owned some 102 million shares in Rivian, endured a massive $3.1-billion loss in its first quarter as the value of its investment in the company slumped. Worse still, investors are souring on tech and EV stocks in general.
Charging Ahead: The Myriad of Ways an F-150 Lightning Can Power Your Home - and Other Things
Yesterday, we (and the rest of the Internet) brought you our drive impressions of the all-electric F-150 Lightning, putting it through its paces in a variety of typically trucky situations and finding it to be a largely familiar experience behind the wheel – albeit one powered solely by electricity. If part of the challenge in getting truck customers to make the jump to electric is convincing them the experience will not be totally alien, Ford’s approach with the Lightning will pay dividends.
Here’s the thing about most electric vehicles: That enormous battery deep within its frame can, with some creativity, be used for more than just shoving a 6,000+ pound pickup down the freeway. Ford has a few ideas – some of them slickly integrated into the truck and others costing thousands in expenditure to implement. Let’s dig in.
VW Rumored to Revive Scout Nameplate
Volkswagen Group is reportedly considering reviving the Scout name for North America. Following the merger of trucking subsidiary Traton and Navistar in 2020, VW found itself in possession of the farm-focused International Harvester. While the brand technically hasn’t existed since 1985, the German company effectively owns its intellectual property — including the Scout name — and is keen to leverage some of its nostalgia for an alleged sub-brand specializing in sport utility vehicles.
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning First Drive - Ready for Duty
The words ‘all-new’ and ‘seismic shift’ are too frequently hurled around by those who peck their way around a keyboard between visits to shrimp-laden buffet tables. Still, when the country’s best-selling vehicle – the image of which is so closely tied to America that it might as well have a baseball hat and an apple pie in its glovebox – is fitted with an entirely new method of powering its way down the freeway and around job sites, even the j-j-jaded TTAC team will sit up and take interest.
Compared to other efforts in the electric pickup truck space, such as ridiculously angular examples loudly and annoyingly defended by fanbois jihads groups of rabid admirers, the Ford F-150 Lightning actually exists in vast numbers and is actively being cranked out of a factory near Detroit. There’s no shortage of vaporware in the EV truck segment, with numerous Barnum-like companies making grandiose promises amounting to naught, taking the hopes and cash of others down along with them.
With the F-150 Lightning, Ford is definitely *not* peddling vaporware. It’s here, it’s real, and we drove several examples last week in – where else? – Texas.
A Lesson in Stonks: Rivian Nosedives as Ford Unloads Shares
The fortunes of many are won and lost on America’s stock markets – or even on reports of share sales. Markets reacted this morning to a news report alleging Ford Motor Company is divesting itself of 8 million shares in Rivian, the latter being an EV startup with designs on producing the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV.
In premarket trading, Rivian’s stock fell over 10 percent to just $25 per share, well off its 52-week high of nearly 180 bucks. Yeesh.
Ford Lightning Getting Company in Tennessee
The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning has officially started production at the company’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan and will apparently be getting some company at the Blue Oval City campus in Tennessee. On Tuesday, CEO Jim Farley said that the upcoming plant had been selected to produce a new model during a press event covering the official launch of the all-electric F-Series.
“It’s another truck,” he explained. “This is not our only truck. We said very clearly we want to be the leader in electric pickup trucks.”
Ram Jolts Ford a Day Before Lightning Launch
The perpetual cycle of one-upmanship in the pickup truck game seems to be continuing at a breakneck pace into the electric era. The in-yer-face Ram brand, never one to shy away from bold or poke-the-bear marketing, let fly with a Twitter post touting their upcoming Ram EV – one day before the scheduled launch of the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning.
Pickup Shake-Up: Supply Chain Headaches Stir the Pot
To say the first quarter of 2022 was a strange period for car sales would be to sorely understate the situation, akin to saying Vesuvius just barely covered Pompeii. Toyota kept its crown in America, models long out of production recorded sales, and GM beat Ford over the head in trucks.
Wait, what?
GM's Oshawa Plant Increasing Truck Production, CAMI Getting Electric Vans
On Monday, General Motors’ added a second shift for Heavy Duty variants of the Chevrolet Silverado at Oshawa Assembly to ensure the automaker can meet demand. There are also plans to launch a third shift to spur production of light-duty pickups after GM spent the last two years struggling to deliver vehicles in a timely manner.
GM Canada recently representatives from the Canadian federal government, eager to show that its $2 billion investment into Ontario manufacturing (specifically at Oshawa and CAMI Assembly) had already borne fruit. While this is said to eventually include the production of BrightDrop’s all-electric and perpetually connected Zevo vans, GM is presently focused on swelling production on some of its most valuable products.
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