The Grand Tour-Season 2, Episode 8: The Ford F-150 Hybrid

There was a segment of Conversation Street when discussing the upcoming Ford F-150 hybrid where Jeremy mentions that the marketing point for the battery would be portable power. Rather than market it as a hybrid vehicle in order to improve fuel consumption, we all laughed along as Jeremy read off reasons like keeping your beers cool.

Only it wasn’t a joke. It turns out that Ford is indeed marketing the hybrid F-150 as a normal truck with a massive portable power supply. Evidently, we’re all so concerned about our image here in the States that you can’t even make a car that gets considerably better mileage than the normal version.

The hybrid F-150 is planned to hit the roads by 2020, and will attempt to meet the industry-wide target of 54.5 MPG average, though with the current administration, that figure could be moot. With that in mind, how can Ford market a hybrid pickup to a population that simply doesn’t care?

Portable power. The battery won’t just power the electric motor, it will be able to power pretty much anything you plug in. Jeremy joked about a miter saw and beer cooler, but that’s exactly the sort of thing it would work on.

Then you have the most important factor: you won’t have to admit to buying a hybrid because you’re worried about fuel consumption. You can laugh at your friends when they can’t operate an entire workshop from their cars. Manhood still intact.

Autoweek

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