As always, the first half-year sales reports focusing on the full-size pickup truck sector in the US automotive market showed Ford was duking it out with General Motors for the hotly contested first place.
If you look at the overall tally, GM – the largest of the Big Three automakers in Detroit – delivered a whisper more full-size pickups than Ford. But they do combine the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra for that. So perhaps it's not black and white when you separate the brands and tally the Ford F-Series against one or the other GM nameplates.
Anyway, the stark reality is that while GM and Ford are fighting at the top, Ram is comfortably ranking third, and all the others (in essence, Toyota's Tundra and the Nissan Titan series) can only dream of one day catching up to the American establishment. As such, no wonder the Blue Oval company is only focused on one thing, and one thing alone – making the prized F-150 series even better.
And with the fourteenth generation having arrived in late 2020 for the 2021 model year, the rumor mill is pretty sure indeed that a mid-cycle update is coming along just nicely. That and the numerous spied prototypes – some of which do not even wear camouflage anymore – have attested quite nicely to this whisper.
Of course, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators has been adamant about showcasing the hypothetical looks ahead of time. And the good folks over at the AutoYa info channel on YouTube have (again) imagined the CGI looks of the upcoming F-150 facelift. After the previous Lariat dream, they now have full-size flagship pickup truck fantasies of the supercharged V8 Raptor R variety.
Well, given the potentially subtle exterior update and mild interior upgrades (everyone's thinking about an F-150 Lightning-inspired portrait-mode infotainment system), it wasn't hard for the channel's resident pixel master to imagine the unofficial looks of the 2024 model year Ford F-150 Raptor R. Luckily, he didn't just throw into the CGI aether a digital impersonation and called it an excellent virtual day.
Instead, the expert resorted to a traditional reel of unofficial color combinations plus showcased the digital Raptor R next to the current, real-world, high-performance pickup truck for a bit of Old versus New shenanigans. So, what is your take on the CGI matters – do we give it our hall pass, or should we send them into detention for screwing up the F-Series projections?
Anyway, it's going to be interesting to see if the Blue Oval can hold the tidal wave-style assault from GM's full-size truck representatives and finish this year on top of the charts – or is General Motors going to rule over the historical string of delivery crowns and interrupt it unceremoniously?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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