Photo: Ford Motor Company
Ford will be offering a hybrid pickup truck by the end of the decade. The company's CEO, Mark Fields, has confirmed this - and other interesting things - during an interview on NPR.
Although a strange proposition, a hybrid truck is not a new proposition. Chevrolet kept hitting and missing with its Silverado 1500 Hybrid from 2005 up until 2013 when they finally decided to put it out of its misery. Fun fact: the Silverado was GM's first ever hybrid model.
Toyota, mother to the hybrid that everybody loves to hate, has also been considering a hybrid truck for some years now. A lot of years, actually. So far, just a concept, the A-BAT, has been shown to the public. In 2007! Somewhere around 2012, it was rumored that Toyota would develop a hybrid truck along with Ford.
However, the upcoming F-150 Hybrid will use Ford's own hybrid technology. According to Mark Fields, it will have a rear-wheel drive configuration and it will not be a plug-in hybrid. Instead, it will be using a more conventional gas-electric setup.
Given the failure of GM's Silverado Hybrid and the fact that there are no other hybrid trucks on the market at the moment, Ford's move is quite bold. The F-Series has been the best-selling truck in the United States for nearly four decades while Ford's plug-in vehicle sales are very low. Fields admits it will be a challenge getting people to buy a hybrid truck, but Ford is committed to the project and to electrification in general.
"Part of our job as a company and as an automotive manufacturer and now as a mobility company, is to think of what the world is going to look like five, 10 and even 15 years from now. And our view, very simply, is that over time, oil is a nonrenewable resource," said Fields.
The CEO also revealed Ford's plans to enter the ridesharing market, which is connected to its plans for launching 13 new electrified models by 2020.
Toyota, mother to the hybrid that everybody loves to hate, has also been considering a hybrid truck for some years now. A lot of years, actually. So far, just a concept, the A-BAT, has been shown to the public. In 2007! Somewhere around 2012, it was rumored that Toyota would develop a hybrid truck along with Ford.
However, the upcoming F-150 Hybrid will use Ford's own hybrid technology. According to Mark Fields, it will have a rear-wheel drive configuration and it will not be a plug-in hybrid. Instead, it will be using a more conventional gas-electric setup.
Given the failure of GM's Silverado Hybrid and the fact that there are no other hybrid trucks on the market at the moment, Ford's move is quite bold. The F-Series has been the best-selling truck in the United States for nearly four decades while Ford's plug-in vehicle sales are very low. Fields admits it will be a challenge getting people to buy a hybrid truck, but Ford is committed to the project and to electrification in general.
"Part of our job as a company and as an automotive manufacturer and now as a mobility company, is to think of what the world is going to look like five, 10 and even 15 years from now. And our view, very simply, is that over time, oil is a nonrenewable resource," said Fields.
The CEO also revealed Ford's plans to enter the ridesharing market, which is connected to its plans for launching 13 new electrified models by 2020.
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