Ford's Truck Onslaught Is Gas-Fired
Ford is shipping new 2024 F-150 trucks with internal combustion engines, with Lightnings to resume deliveries this month.
Trucks still rule at Ford, and the automaker has all guns blazing with new versions of all three of its traditional pickups now in production and most are finally being shipped to customers. They all still utilize internal combustion engines, to appeal to customers who like the tried-and-true. Since last spring, Ford has introduced new versions of the Super Duty, the F-150 full-size pickup, and the Ranger. Together they make up 90 percent of Ford’s pickup volume; the hot new compact Ford Maverick accounts for the rest.
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The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup has garnered most of the headlines but its sales were falling off and shipments stopped Feb. 9 for a number of undisclosed issues. Ford continued to build them and park them as the automaker worked on a fix, one of which appeared to be a headlight issue. Kumar Galhotra, Ford chief operating officer, tells us that the Lightning will begin shipping again later this month.
Falling demand has led Ford to scale back production of the electric truck in Dearborn and prices were cut again earlier this month by as much as $5,500. Galhotra says capitalism's laws of supply and demand will take time to determine the right amount of inventory and the right pricing for EVs once early adopters have made their purchases.
The next-generation electric truck, which may not continue to use the Lightning name, will be produced at the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center assembly plant at the new BlueOval City complex. But production has been pushed back from late 2025 to some time in 2026.
Meanwhile, demand for traditional trucks continues to grow. Ford is now shipping the 144,000 F-150s and Rangers it has built in the first quarter which were being held for quality control before being released. They include the new 2024 Ranger as well as the Ranger Raptor which is available in North America for the first time. And there are all the variants of the 2024 F-150 including the Raptor and hybrid.
Ford has never had so many new trucks hitting the market at once, says Andrew Frick, president of Ford Blue. Industry-wide, truck sales increased 4.5 percent in the U.S. last year and show no signs of slowing. The automaker assembles a new truck in the U.S. every 33 seconds.
While the appetite for pure EVs has lessened, hybrid demand continues to grow and Ford vehicles represent 72 percent of the hybrid truck market, led by the Maverick. But a new F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid is coming and Ford is doubling the production rate of the larger hybrid to 20 percent of all F-150s built this year. It can be increased further if demand warrants, Galhotra says. European commercial customers will be able to get a plug-in hybrid version of the Ranger by the end of the year for their fleets.
Ford continues to work to improve its quality issues. Data from pre-production 2024 F-150s showed some modules were not shutting off at night and thus consuming more power than they should. The software was updated before any production trucks left the plant. The issue has been resolved, and Ford is now shipping Rangers and F-150s that were held for quality control reasons. The 2024 F-150 has an updated design inside and out, as well as a new 2.7-liter turbocharged V-6 base engine and available BlueCruise hands-free driving.
At the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, a new truck starts life every 53 seconds and continues from the body shop to the body decker area where the box and cab are united and then attached to the frame. It is all automated. When the truck is completely assembled and deemed done, the Blue Oval is attached, fluids are added, and the truck is ready for final inspection and delivery. One new game changer for assembly is the use of 3D printing for parts. The four printers at the truck plant are used to replicate tools from other vendors and convert them to 3D printed parts so they can be made in-house. A second use is printing newly designed parts. A third scenario is to take pre-made Ford parts and print new and updated versions of them. It is quick, substantially cheaper, and the parts are significantly lighter. A worker on the line can make a suggestion and a tool can be ready to test the next day, said engineer Greg Foresi. Cost savings are about $30,000 so far and it is seen as an area with huge growth potential.
Alisa Priddle joined MotorTrend in 2016 as the Detroit Editor. A Canadian, she received her Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, and has been a reporter for 40 years, most of it covering the auto industry because there is no more fascinating arena to cover. It has it all: the vehicles, the people, the plants, the competition, the drama. Alisa has had a wonderfully varied work history as a reporter for four daily newspapers including the Detroit Free Press where she was auto editor, and the Detroit News where she covered the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, as well as auto trade publication Wards, and two enthusiast magazines: Car & Driver and now MotorTrend. At MotorTrend Alisa is a judge for the MotorTrend Car, Truck, SUV and Person of the Year. She loves seeing a new model for the first time, driving it for the first time, and grilling executives for the stories behind them. In her spare time, she loves to swim, boat, sauna, and then jump into a cold lake or pile of snow.
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