All Entries Tagged With: "2015 F150"

Ford’s Aluminum Body 2015 F150: Is 30mpg Worth The Risks?

I feel sorry for the decision-makers at Ford. I’m not bagging on Ford (for the record, I think they deserve a hell of a lot of credit for being so bold), but their decision to use aluminum extensively in the upcoming F150 is the result of a terrible choice.

Ford’s Atlas concept, a preview of the aluminum F150 set to debut early next week.

By my reckoning, Ford had only two options when it came to designing the next-gen F150:

Option #1 – Keep building the same great tried-and-true steel truck while using an increasing variety of tricks and fancy systems to squeeze out a few more MPG’s, or;

Option #2 – Take a big risk and be the first automaker to make a truck that extensively uses light-weight materials.

While option #2 is the most logical – weight loss is the best way to improve fuel economy and meet government-mandated fuel economy requirements – it’s easily the worst best choice available. I have no doubt that the first generation of aluminum F150s will be universally disliked by truck owners in the decades to come. This is not a commentary on Ford’s engineering talent. This is the inexorable conclusion I’ve been lead to based on all the available data. If you keep reading, I expect you’ll come to the same conclusion.