Ford says aluminum-bodied F-150's fuel economy rises up to 29%

[AF News Desk]

Ford Motor Co. said its aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup will get as much as 29 percent better fuel economy than its mostly steel predecessor as the automaker gambles with a new design for its top-selling and most profitable model. When equipped with a 2.7-liter EcoBoost engine, the truck has an estimated fuel economy of 26 mpg on the highway and 19 in the city, said Raj Nair, Ford’s product-development chief. Production of the model began earlier this month at Ford’s Rouge factory and it’s scheduled to arrive in showrooms by the end of this year.
Bruce Hettle, head of Ford North American manufacturing, also announced today that Ford has approved the first production trucks for shipment and has begun loading them on transports.
“Trucks are being released to the distribution system and dealers will see trucks in the coming weeks’” he said.
Nair said it will actually “be a matter of days” before dealers begin seeing the F-150, which is Ford’s biggest selling vehicle.
CEO Mark Fields has said that efficiency is the most important feature for buyers of the company’s pickups. The truck sheds as much as 700 pounds (318 kilograms) to improve fuel economy, mostly by using aluminum instead of steel in its body. General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s Ram pickups are mostly steel.
The best fuel economy for a Chevy Silverado is 24 mpg on the highway with a 4.3-liter V-6 engine, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The Ram pickup has a maximum fuel economy with a gasoline engine of 25 mpg with the 3.6-liter V-6 engine.
Ford raised prices on the new truck by 1.5 percent, or $395, on the base model XL, which starts at $26,615, to 7.9 percent, or $3,615, on the high-end King Ranch version that starts at $49,460.
To install new factory tools for the truck, Ford shut down its two F-150 plants for 13 weeks this year -- costing the automaker production of 90,000 of the profitable model. It will lose more production next year as it takes six weeks to convert its F-150 factory near Kansas City, Mo.
Ford also listed fuel economy numbers for other engine configurations:
• For the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6, which accounts for about 40 percent of Ford’s F-150 engine mix, Ford announced it will get 17 mpg city/24 mpg highway/20 mpg combined.
• The base naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V-6 Ti-VCT engine gets 18 mpg city/25mpg highway/20 mpg combined.
• The 5.0-liter Ti-VCT V-8, will get an estimated 15 mpg city/22 mpg highway/18 mpg combined.
In 2013, Ford’s F-series was the top-selling vehicle line in the U.S. for the 32nd consecutive year, with sales rising 18 percent to 763,402. That helped drive Ford’s North American pretax profit to a record $8.78 billion last year.
Ford told investors on Sept. 29 that pretax profits this year will fall to $6 billion, short of its goal of $7 billion to $8 billion.


http://www.autonews.com/article/2014...rises-up-to-29