Ford confirms all-electric F-Series pickup truck coming - Sensationalist Headlines

Ford CEO Jim Hackett made the announcement at the Deutsche Bank Global Auto Industry Conference today: “We are going to electrifying the F-Series with battery electric and hybrid and we are doing the same for Transit. We launched a PHEV version of Transit and that will be on a journey of electrifying Transit globally.” It sounds like the previously announced hybrid version of the F150 is still planned for production, but it will be followed by an all-electric version of at least one pickup truck in the F-Series. He didn’t confirm a timeline nor which pickup truck in the F-Series – though the F150 is a likely option. https://electrek.co/2019/01/16/ford-all-electric-f150-pickup-truck/

Be interested to see what this looks like, as american pickup trucks are styled around the massive grille on the front end, which electric cars obviously don't need

I'm actually surprised at how long this took. If anything trucks are prime candidates for electric motors as torque is pretty much instant with them, which is a big deal if your hauling a trailer. The question is how's the mileage going to be with it pulling a trailer, I would hope they would put a sufficient battery pack in to handle that and maybe give you extended range when not pulling.

Ford doesn't exactly have the best track record for reliable electronics on their newer cars.

Great time to start improving.

They might stick with the same design to save money on making a whole new vehicle design (keep costs down). They might also just reuse it to cool the motors (they won't get as hot as an engine, but if it's towing something - a radiator may help keep the motors cool under really heavy load).

They probably saw that the mule for Rivian was an F-150 and someone said "hey why can't we do this? We're already making a hybrid!" Just add it to the list of EV trucks that have been talked about lately. Tesla's yet unknown truck, the Rivian r1t, and the Atlis XT which smells like vaporware. I'm looking forward to Ford swinging it's dick into the market since they're the unchallenged king of Trucks in the US. should be a good fight between them, Tesla, and Rivian.

They'll just have a grill on it anyway.

no need to change it

At work We have a 2016 Ford utility van and the damn thing keeps blowing a fuse where the locks for back and side doors won't open. And the Ford guys can't figure it out. Plus, the gas cap is crap.

american pickup trucks already don't need the massive grills

electric cars still need a radiator and somewhere to put all their other ancillary stuff. Tesla just crams it all away which gives a premium look but adds lots of complexity whereas others just use the traditional engine bay to put that stuff.

Tesla aren't the only company with a grilleless design though. Tesla also use the engine bay for stuff quite extensively, there's just less to it. Model 3 with the frunk liner removed: https://insideevs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Want-to-know-what-it-really-looks-like-under-the-hood-Imgur.jpg

Theres no way Ford is going to design an electric f150 into its own thing, they will just build it on top of the already existing gas/diesel models. GM is already doing the same thing with the 1500s, even though the electric drivetrain isnt available yet.

I don’t really believe they are prime candidates. Eg they could make one with 400km range, which would be absolutely amazing for an EV, but as you imply, that range will fall sharply as soon as they are used to haul anything heavy around. Compare that to eg your average Mitsubishi Triton or Toyota Hilux which often have a range of around 1,000km. And even if they do haul weight around, there’s still plenty of range. Refuelling is a breeze as long as Diesel fuel is around, as opposed to leaving an EV on charge for even half an hour, let alone hours for a full charge. And really, most users don’t need anymore than 400-500Nm of torque - which most four-cylinder turbodiesels in utilities can reliably put out from the factory these days. I imagine that even if Ford made an affordable, EV truck and sold it here, most tradies here would still go for the turbodiesels. EV development should be focused more towards average passenger vehicles and especially city cars - eg cars the size of the VW Up.

They are a terrible candidate. F-150 trucks are all about excess. They are about half again as large as they should be to serve as an every day truck. The size needs to be reduced, the weight needs to be cut. The entire truck needs to be redone to better account for the massive engine being gone. The weight distribution is going to go from normal garbage (inherent to truck design) to deluxe garbage.

people commute to work in trucks. Ford has built themselves into a corner in that they've convinced everybody to buy trucks. CAFE gives you quite the discount for every all electric vehicle you sell, but with them axing the cmax and the focus they have no electric vehicles to sell.

I was specifically referring to them failing to actually generate a new body for the vehicle, which would result in weight problems. You make an excellent point though about the inherent benefits for trucks in particular for EV designs similar to how Tesla does it. That fat battery pack at low center mass with electric motors sitting on the front and rear axle make for a much better truck design.

ford's done more than most to slim down their monster trucks using plastics and aluminum its just without changing the form they can't do much more because its a vehicle with its frame, heavy drivetrain components, and the weight of the bed with liner.