Indianapolis, Ind. – Ford Motor Co. says its next generation of medium duty trucks, due out early next year, will get delivered to customers more quickly, be easier to service, and may even be a bit cheaper.
The 2016 F-650 and F-750 trucks, half-finished vehicles that become dump trucks, beverage haulers, and many other commercial trucks, will be Fords from bumper to bumper with Ford engines, Ford transmissions, and Ford-built bodies. The company’s existing medium-duty trucks come out of the Blue Diamond joint venture between Ford and Navistar. Those trucks use Cummins engines and Allison Transmissions.
“Bringing it all in house is a huge advantage for us,” says John Davis, Ford’s commercial truck engineering chief, at the NTEA’s Work Truck Show 2014 where Ford publicly showed the vehicles for the first time. “Manufacturing it in house, leveraging our high-volume applications, helps our value proposition.”
The new truck line will feature either the 6.7L V-8 diesel engine or 6.8L V-10 gasoline engine already used in Ford’s F-250, F-350, F-450, and F-550 lighter-duty trucks. Both diesel and gasoline options will come mated to the automaker’s six-speed commercial truck transmission.
Davis says because the new trucks will be using the same powertrains used in higher-volume vehicles, the company should be able to keep costs low.
John Ruppert, general manager of marketing and sales for Ford’s commercial vehicles, says the company’s dealers are especially excited by the use of all Ford technology. Many dealers don’t have service crews certified to work on Cummins or Allison equipment and often have to send those vehicles outside for basic service.
“We think the simplification of the product offering will be very welcome in the market,” Ruppert says.
Davis said Ford designed the new truck line to make it easier for upfitters to add cherry pickers, cement-mixing equipment, and other work-truck bodies. For example, the diesel emissions fluid tanks are contained under the cab, leaving frame rails behind the seats open for upfitter use.
Rob Stevens, a former Ford executive who recently became vice president of strategy for propane-vehicle upfitter Roush CleanTech, says keeping the rails open should make it easier for companies such as his to add propane or other fuel tanks or add complex vehicle bodies.
“These tend to be low-volume vehicles,” Stevens says, adding that Roush tends to engineer each model to fit specific orders. Building vehicles with open space on the rails “makes it really flexible for us. We have lots of room to fit our equipment.”
The vehicles go into production early next year at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant west of Cleveland. The plant now makes the E-Series (also known as Econoline) vans, but production of those will phase out through the rest of 2014 as Ford ramps up production of the new Transit van line in Kansas City. Ohio Assembly will continue to make some commercial variants of the E-Series used in delivery trucks and motor homes.
Davis says the Ohio plant will have capacity to increase output of Ford commercial trucks if orders are there.
“We always are looking for ways of increasing our volumes wherever we can,” Davis says. “We build to demand, but this gives us the freedom to build more if demand is there.”
Production of the new trucks begins as the Blue Diamond joint venture ends production in Mexico. The JV will continue to exist but will only offer parts to support existing vehicles.
Source: Ford Motor Co.