In the grapevine I hear Ford has a hybrid F-150 in the works ,for the not to distant future ,I must admit ,its an intriguing concept ,if done correctly.All dissing aside ,if you were Ford and was going to do this ,how would you go about it ?I have my ideas .
What would I do . . .
Take a close look at the GM 42V parallel hybrid trucks from a few years ago
And do thinks DIFFERENTLY
Because those trucks were a flop
Maybe something like the 2.7L Ecoboost. It might get 24/24 city/highway instead of 18/24. Chevrolet sold a hybrid Tahoe until 2013 that used a 6L V8 that got 20/23 instead of 15/21 from a 5.3L non-hybrid. GM used mild hybrids to avoid the royalty fee to the patent holder. Toyota and I think Ford pay the royalty. Ford chose to and Toyota was convinced by the court to do so. It’s certainly worth a try. The manufacturers need to try anything and everything to meet the new CAFE requirements as they are phased in.
I’d make it an over-all smaller truck. There’s a market I think for trucks the size of those older Toyotas and Nissans, you know from the 1970’s and 80’s, the size that is easy to step into, easy to park since the footprint is about the same as an econobox sedan, and would be perfect for helping a college student move from one apartment to another say, or hauling a load of garden compost, but not robust enough for hauling heavy stuff like bricks and cement blocks or towing trailers.
Big truck means big batteries means big$$. Diesel would be a better option
We are in the middle of versioning to new technologies, if I had to choose now I would stay with old school technology, 3 to 5 years from now a different story.
“versioning”…is that even a real word?..
;-]
This is Shakespeare’s 400th birthday week I think, so inventing words is just being respectful of the master… 
If I were making the decisions for Ford, I’d use internal hybrid technology for a smaller pickup format and use the aluminum technology they’ve developed for the F150. Granted, Ford isn’t known for its leadership in the hybrid technology area, but to the best of my knowledge they aren’t aligned with any manufacturer that is, and I’m not sure the partnerships I’m seeing happen are going to be the best approach in the long run. Historically car manufacturers that use the powertrains or platforms of others, and there have been many including Lotus (one of my favorite cars) have spent their histories struggling to survive. Don’t confuse partnerships with acquisitions. Toyota now owns a substantial portion of Subaru, and I’d expect that one to work out, but even Tesla had serious partnership problems.
In short, I think Ford will be better off in the long run to develop their own hybrid platform and do it to power a small truck with an aluminum body/chassis. IMHO the best combination would be gas/electric. I don’t think a sufficient infrastructure will exist in the foreseeable future to support any other hybrid technologies.
Kevin, what ideas did YOU have in mind?
Well, there have been some rumors that the Ranger nameplate (and size) was going to make a comeback. Perhaps a hybrid in a Ranger sized truck might be in the offing?
From what I can find Ford is looking to offer a hybrid F150 for 2020, they were partnered at one time with Toyota (Toyota would offer a Tundra Hybrid as well) but that deal is off.
It’s an interesting idea but it depends on how much of a mileage gain you really get
What I would do would be to use the small ecoboost engine integrate the battery structure into the bed ,make it AWD no driveshaft or transfer case to the back,have a plug in option for 40 miles,have regen braking,reasonable payload ,1200-1500 ,shorten the blasted thing up a bit.
Believe me it wouldnt lack for pulling power and really not have a 4 dr version ,I am not trying to capture the market ,allI want is to restore a bit of sanity to what is availible,some of these 4 dr pickups are really crazy looking with the silly little bed(some even have a topper installed (why not get a van anyway) gas is going up fellows ,there are a couple of other things maybe a pnuematic suspension,solid tires ,the surface is just being scratched ,a composite bed structure(I get so tired of rust ) ,etc .Thanks for the replys .electric drive is fine ,two electric motors move a 250 ton payload just fine in a mining truck.There are many reasons Diesels are not going to happen in a big way ,believe me there are other restrictions coming on line,the heavier pickups are doing pretty good now with Diesels (I have heard some require a monthly visit to the dealers ) and there seems to be a problem with keeping quiet exhaust systems on the diesel cummins (most sound like an old Tampo roller I used to run,around 110 dbs it seems.
But in the new diesels favor ,the adblue system ha them cleaned up pretty well ,if I wanted a diesel that wouldnt stop me from getting one ,now when they figyre out what to do with the nanoparticles ,we may see a resurgance in the compression ignition engine ,despite Europe phasing them out in the major metro areas ,
Pick up beds sit on top of the frame and that leaves a lot of room under the bed for batteries with no changes to the bed size or shape. Ford will likely go with the newest battery technology available which means more power from less bulk and weight.
Motors on the wheels (a BMW setup) could provide plenty of torque. I’d expect equivalent towing and hauling capacities. To make it viable Ford needs some very good mpg numbers in the 35 city and 35 hwy range.
I’d be shocked (ha!) if Ford got 30 mpg city.
AWD with the IC engine driving rear wheels. Electric motor up front to gain the largest amount of re-gen. No wheel motors, they take up precious room for the disk brake, don’t apply that much torque and they are very heavy (BIG unsprung weight!). Torque is a function of motor diameter. It’s better to package a smaller diameter, longer stack, single motor in the middle driving a gear ratio and differential for torque.
Batteries opposite the fuel tank inside the frame rail. 2.7 V6 turbo Eco-boost engine. The overall product will be heavy! Batteries, copper and iron for the electric drive aren’t light. Should be possible to get 30 mpg city/ 30 highway and still haul and tow.
The GM pickup of a few years back was a quickie development job to take advantage of the hybrid craze in a time of high gas prices. All GM was after was the word HYBRID on the side of the truck. A friend bought one, a leftover at a tremendous discount, and it was basically a truck where the motor stop after a few seconds of idling and restart when you pressed down on the gas. Otherwise not much fuel savings and he got the typical pickup mpg in rural PA.
Ford can go a lot of different ways and should be able to use the most up to date technology. They already are ahead of the game in reducing weight. There are several good motors for the gas part of it. New high tech batteries maybe expensive now but with mass production those costs per battery will drop. Ford has already had licensing agreements with Toyota, but they are pretty good with their own hybrid engineering. Ford might not need Toyota’s help on this one.
The low gas prices currently mean the market for a hybrid PU will be soft. Kudo’s to Ford for going ahead with this project. When fuel prices rise, and with the crazy stuff in the mid-east they could, Ford will have a fuel efficient PU ready to roll.
It seems the car companies are a’changin.
GM use a mild hybrid to avoid the royalties, as I mentioned earlier. The trucks got marginally better city mileage and about the same highway mileage. I imagine that had something to do with low sales. I also wouldn’t expect people that could afford Taho, Suburban, Yukon or Escalade to be too concerned about fuel mileage. They were all very expensive trucks between 2008 and 2013, and I doubt the savings in gas paid for the difference in purchase cost.
Gas up about a dime today. Exxon credit rating downgraded, Saudis looking for cash, Venezuela in shambles-here we go.
Software versioning is the process of assigning either unique version names or unique version numbers to unique states of computer software
We may be surprised about what can come down the pike ,the only certainty is the rise of gas prices.