Ford’s best-selling vehicle, and the best-selling vehicle in the United States, is the F-150 pickup truck. The company says they have now sold over 500,000 of the trucks with the new V6 EcoBoost engine, about three years after the engine became available as an option.
In that 38 months, Ford says, F-150 EcoBoost owners have saved about 56.8 million gallons of gas annually. About 57 percent of all F-150 trucks are now sold with V6 engines and about half of those are EcoBoost engines.
Over the last three years, retail registrations of light-duty pickups powered by V6 engines grew more than 600 percent, with F-150 directly responsible for 91 percent of that growth, based on Ford analysis of Polk retail registration data.
“We expect those numbers to hold for the rest of the year,” said Doug Scott, Ford truck group marketing manager. “It really is amazing when you consider we are doing that with just two V6 engine choices – the 3.5-liter EcoBoost and the 3.5-liter Ti-VCT engine. When we come out with the new 2015 F-150, we will offer three different V6 engines, so there is potential for further growth.”
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Wait a minute. So, 57 percent of F-150 owners buy a V-6 and half of those buy an EcoBoost. That means the EcoBoost actually only accounts for around a little more than 1/4 of their sales. With all the marketing they do, I would expect that number to be higher.
Given the truck buyer’s general disdain for V6 vs V8 in full-sized trucks and the aftermarket’s lower resale and trade-in values for V6, it’s not a surprise at all. The fact that more than half of their trucks are V6s is a real surprise to me, but factor in the cost difference between the standard and the EcoBoost and I can see why most of those who opt for a V6 are going the cheaper route as that was probably their primary reason for buying a V6 in the first place.
In the 2014 model year, the XL body style in more or less base configuration costs about $24.7K with the V6. That jumps to $27.1k with the EcoBoost. The 5.0L V8 is actually $1k cheaper than that. It’s pretty obvious why they don’t sell as many as you’d think.
This statement seems to conflict the story. “Ford 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine represents 45 percent of F-150 pickup truck sales in 2014, the best-selling engine in the lineup”
That statement comes from..?
Ford’s official press release.
Tim needs to start a truck forum.