Aluminum-body 2015 Ford F-150 pickup sheds 700 pounds, adds a ton of driver ... - ExtremeTech
The 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck is on target to shed 700 pounds thanks to aluminum body panels and will get as much as 30 mpg in highway driving, Ford says. It will also add get virtually every driver assist Ford offers on passenger cars: blind spot detection, lane departure warning, surround-view cameras, adaptive cruise control, collision warning, LED headlamps, and automated parallel parking. Despite being the oldest, most dated pickup sold by a US-headquartered automaker, Ford sold 763,402 F-Series pickups in 2013, making it again the best-selling car, SUV or light truck in the US. One of every 20 vehicles sold in the US last year was... Ford is gambling that pickup drivers will embrace new technology if it means their pickups are cheaper to run. Atlas shrugs off the weight The F-150 and its heavier duty siblings F-250 and F-350 are so important to Ford that the F-Series was introduced at both the 2013 Detroit auto show and now again a year later. In 2013, it was called the Atlas prototype (photo) but it was clear this was Ford’s next-generation pickup. Pickups are generally the most profitable vehicles in the line and the F-Series alone sells more vehicles than all six Ford SUV models combined (681,802) and almost as many as all eight Ford passenger cars (793,279). Analysts say Ford makes a profit. Source: www.extremetech.com
