Why the new Ford 150 has an aluminum body
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:03 pm
The bottom line is that Ford is going over to aluminum chiefly to make it politically feasible to continue building a mass-market full-size truck. As I have ranted about previously, the “driver” is not market demand so much as government mandate. A little more than a year from now (in 2016) the government has decreed that all vehicles (including trucks, which used to be subject to a more forgiving standard) shall average 35.5 MPG – or else. The “or else” being monetary penalties rained down on any recalcitrant manufacturer, which will then be passed on to you, dear consumer. These penalties are figured on the basis of “fleet averages” – and Ford sells a fleet of F-trucks. Hundreds of thousands of them each year. A 4 MPG uptick matters hugely – as far as the government’s “fleet average” calculations – when the model in question is Ford’s best-selling/highest-volume model.
Ford – any automaker – can “get away” with selling a low-volume/specialty vehicle that doesn’t quite make the MPG cut. Because its contributions (its substractions) to the automaker’s “fleet average” MPG numbers are negligible. But not a half-a-million-each-year seller like the F-truck. Which is why that 4 MPG uptick matters so much. Which is the real reason why the new F-truck has an aluminum-body. And a twice-turbo’d V-6.
Just so you know.
http://ericpetersautos.com/2014/11/13/alloy-ally/
Ford – any automaker – can “get away” with selling a low-volume/specialty vehicle that doesn’t quite make the MPG cut. Because its contributions (its substractions) to the automaker’s “fleet average” MPG numbers are negligible. But not a half-a-million-each-year seller like the F-truck. Which is why that 4 MPG uptick matters so much. Which is the real reason why the new F-truck has an aluminum-body. And a twice-turbo’d V-6.
Just so you know.
http://ericpetersautos.com/2014/11/13/alloy-ally/