Ford has taken the wraps off its new F-150 bakkie, which is now offered with a fresh 3,5-litre V6 “PowerBoost” hybrid powertrain.
While earlier rumours suggested this new-generation F-150 would also be built in right-hand-drive form (and thus be offered in markets outside North America), Ford’s press material makes no mention of this.
While the new version of the Blue Oval brand’s popular pickup looks fairly similar to its predecessor, Ford claims “every panel” of the Ranger’s big brother has been redesigned. In addition, there are now 11 grille options available across the range.
Ford claims the new F-150 is the “most aerodynamic” version of the big bakkie yet, complete with active grille shutters, a new automatically deploying active air dam and new cab and tailgate geometry.
The cabin, meanwhile, has also been “completely redesigned”, featuring “enhanced” materials, new colour choices and more storage options. Furthermore, there’s a fresh 12-inch touchscreen (and an eight-inch item on lower-spec models) running Sync 4 and a new digital instrument cluster of the same diameter.
So, what about that latest powertrain? Well, Ford’s petrol-powered V6 gains instant electric torque from a 35 kW motor integrated into the 10-speed automatic transmission. The electric motor captures energy from regenerative braking to recharge the 1,5 kWh lithium-ion battery packaged underneath the vehicle.
The company has yet to announce final peak power and torque figures for this new powertrain, nor the other listed engines (a naturally aspirated 3,3-litre V6, a 2,7-litre EcoBoost V6, a naturally aspirated 5,0-litre V8, a 3,5-litre EcoBoost V6 and a 3,0-litre Power Stroke turbodiesel V6).
