Who cares if this is one of the worst pickup markets in decades, with high gas prices, dueling housing and credit crises, and a sour mood pushing sales down 25%?
The pickup wars are still on. They’re just moving in a new direction.
Ford Motor Co., which is gearing up to launch the all-new version of its best-selling F-150, announced Thursday that it would offer an SFE, or superior fuel economy, edition in its new lineup, which goes on sale in October.
News of Ford’s optional truck package follows General Motors Corp.’s announcement in August of a Chevrolet Silverado XFE, which stands for extra fuel economy.
The special fuel-sensitive editions of the Silverado and F-150 — longtime truck rivals — will both get 15 m.p.g. in the city and 21 m.p.g. on the highway.
But Ford’s engineers and marketers, who are under intense pressure to maintain the F-Series’ 31 years of truck leadership, boasted during a media event at Ford’s test labs in Allen Park that their SFE would get its fuel economy “while still providing 7,500 pounds of towing capability.”
For those who are keeping track, that’s more than the Chevy XFE, which will tow 7,000 pounds.
“In the past, there was a trade-off — more fuel economy meant less capability and vice-versa,” said Matt O’Leary, the F-150’s chief engineer. “With the new F-150, we didn’t accept tradeoffs.”
Ford used the announcement of the SFE as an opportunity to promote its overall fuel-economy story with the new F-150 lineup, which Ford says has improved 8% compared with the outgoing model, and to start building anticipation and marketing for the new F-150, which Ford delayed by 11 weeks because of the slumping truck market.
While Ford’s Kansas City assembly plant has already started building the truck, the Dearborn Truck Plant is to begin production next week, after being on temporary layoff because of slumping truck sales. The plants together employ nearly 8,000 workers.
The price of the new F-150, which Ford also announced Thursday, starts at $21,320 for the base XL model, while the top-of-the-line Platinum luxury model starts at $41,415.
The STX, XLT, XF4, Lariat, and King Ranch versions of the F-150 are priced between the XL and Platinum.
The SFE package, meanwhile, is available only on the 4×2 versions of the XL and XLT models. The SFE package will be a no-cost option on the XLT SuperCrew pickups with the chrome package, but it will cost $1,095 when ordered on XL SuperCrew pickups with the décor package.
Doug Scott, Ford’s truck group marketing manager, said the take-rate on the new SFE package could be as high as 20% in some markets. But he emphasized that the fuel-economy on the new F-150 lineup is a strong improvement on its own, with improvements reaching as high as 12% over the outgoing model, depending on the configuration.
At the same time, the new F-150 delivers class-leading towing capability of 11,300 pounds and hauling capacity, or payload, of 3,030 pounds. “A combination,” Ford says, “no other competitor can match.”
O’Leary said Ford was highly focused on improving the fuel-economy of the new truck, long before gas prices spiked beyond $4 earlier this year and consumers started dumping their trucks for small cars.
“How did we do it?” O’Leary asked. “It’s hundreds of little actions that get you there.”
That included more attention than ever to aerodynamics and new lightweight ultra-high-strength steel.
What’s more, Ford’s new six-speed transmission, open-valve injection engines and deceleration fuel shut-off system also help regulate gas consumption and improve power.
George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst, said the company has been intensely studying the changing market during the delay of the F-150, the best-selling model in the lineup.
Ford now intends to market its new pickup more squarely at the drivers that need them for work in the months ahead — and less on the drivers who just like big, luxurious substitutes for cars. That includes farmers, contractors and people who tow a boat or trailer.
Ford will stick to its “Built Ford Tough” message, which has been the F-Series tagline for decades, and also promote its trucks as the best value in the marketplace.
Pipas called Ford’s decision to delay the F-150 launch, and focus on selling down the outgoing model, “the right thing to do” in the tough market.
He said Ford plans to cut inventory of F-Series trucks by another 40,000 units before the launch of the new F-150, and the company seems cautiously optimistic that full-sized pickup sales bounced back to 13.6% of the market in August, after hitting 8.6% in May.
But nobody at Ford seems disillusioned about the tough market the new F-150 faces. With pickup sales bobbing up and down dramatically this year, Pipas confessed: “We don’t know where the future’s going to go.”
Source : Freep.com
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