It is perhaps the greatest single risk a major automaker has taken since Henry Ford decided to pay his assembly line workers a living wage (so they could afford to buy the car they built!). Tesla’s gamble on electric cars seems picayune in comparison; much of the capital at risk was the government’s and, besides, it’s always easier to risk all when you’ve got nothing to lose than to play roulette with an established, profitable company. Ditto for Toyota and its Prius. It may have invented the hybrid segment back in 1997, but it wasn’t risking an entire range of established products to do so.
Ford, however, is doing just that. Its F-series of pickups has been the biggest selling single model in the United States for some 32 years running. The Blue Oval regularly sells three-quarters of a million F-150s a year, about a third of all its U.S. sales. More importantly, according to some sources, pick-me-ups account for more than 90% of all Ford’s global profits.
And yet the company has risked all on an unproven — in the traditional world of truck sales, at least — technology. As you have no doubt read, Ford will soon clothe all its pickups in a thoroughly modern aluminum body suit. Industry veterans, an anxious competition and, almost assuredly, an equally anxious Ford await the consuming public’s reaction to an upgraded product that, from a profit and loss viewpoint at least, needed no upgrading.
Members of the media look over the Ford F-150 pickup truck after its introduction at the North American International Auto Show.
Scott Olson, Getty Images
Ford unveils new aluminum F-150 pickup
The reason that Ford took such a radical step is simple. Replacing steel body panels with aluminum sheet metal reduced the weight of the average F-150 by as much as 318 kilograms (700 pounds). Less weight means less mass for the engine to move and, in this world of virtuous technological circles, the ability to further reduce engine size — the new F-150 will offer an even smaller 2.7-litre Ecoboost V6 when it goes on sale in 2015. That means better fuel economy, both in official estimates and in real world driving as well.
The risks are manifold and have been well documented. Truck buyers are a hoary, traditional lot and they might not flock to the new lighter-than-steel F-truck, especially if the body proves less durable than its steel counterparts. Repairs may prove more difficult, raising the price of bodywork on a vehicle that is, as one can imagine, more prone to incidental damage than most. For this reason, many experts posit that insurance rates for the F-150 may increase and residual values decrease. And, though Ford has yet to release pricing on its newly svelte pickup, it will be difficult to match the current model’s incredibly low starting price of $19,999.
Why is Ford taking such a huge risk? Actually, the real question could just as easily be why aren’t other truck manufacturers also trumpeting aluminum as the pickup’s saviour. Truth be told, in some not-so-distant future, all trucks may have to be similarly constructed. The Obama administration has decreed that, by 2025, automakers’ fleets must average 54.5 miles per gallon (or 4.31 litres per 100 km). Even if that lofty number is exaggerated compared to the EPA figures commonly used (because of different measuring systems and certain “incentives,” most experts contend the U.S. government’s 54.5 mpg figure is actually equivalent to 40 EPA miles per gallon), having a third of your fleet average just 17 mpg makes meeting said targets problematic.
2015 Ford F-150 interior.
Handout, Ford
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Indeed, the extra three miles per gallon the new, lighter F-150 will achieve, according to Ford, will probably be the biggest boon to fuel economy improvement and emissions reduction in the last decade. As unsexy as a slightly more fuel efficient pick-me-up may sound compared with the media hype surrounding hybrids and electric cars, the F-150′s improvement will have a larger effect on overall fuel consumption than if Tesla replaced every Porsche, Corvette and Ferrari sold in the USA with one of its emission-less Model S vehicles.
So the move is (almost certainly) necessary. The big question is whether Ford will benefit. Will its rush to innovate reward corporate coffers as the truck-driving hoi polloi embrace the future? Or will they play the part of sacrificial lamb with General Motors and Ram biding their time and releasing aluminum pickups after Ford has paved the way for the inevitable advancement? (This last is hardly far-fetched; while under Ford’s guidance, Jaguar was roundly ridiculed for releasing the all-wheel-drive X-Type in 2001; 13 short years later, you can’t sell a luxury car north of the Mason Dixon line without AWD.)
And who knows the cost of this metallurgical switch-up might be. Ford’s anticipated message of lower total cost of ownership could indeed offset the anticipated rise in the F-150′s base price. On the other hand, contractors, field hands and delivery people could reject the proposed long-term economies in favour of saving a few thousand dollars in the here and now.
The rewards for leadership are great. The risks, if you’re going all-in on your most prolific moneymaker, can be even greater. Ford is betting the farm on a fuel-conscious future. And the entire automotive world wonders what its hole card is.
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