DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. does not intend to build all-electric Super Duty pickup trucks, a top Ford executive told industry analysts Monday.
"At the moment, we do not have any plans to go into heavy duty with battery-electric vehicles," said Kumar Galhotra, president, Americas and International Markets Group, during a forum hosted by Dan Levy of Credit Suisse.
The bestselling Ford F-Series, which refers to the F-150 and its Super Duty siblings, is a lucrative revenue stream for the company, reaching $42 billion in 2019. For perspective, in that one year the Ford F-Series generated more revenue than the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League combined — which was just $40 billion.
A light duty pickup has a gross vehicle weight of 8,500 pounds or fewer while a so-called heavy duty truck — a series referred to as Super Duty in the Ford lineup — exceeds 8,500 pounds.
Ford has discussed publicly its ambitious plan to build an all-electric Ford F-150 and all-electric Transit van in addition to the all-electric 2021 Mustang Mach-E SUV. But this latest morsel of information followed a question from the Credit Suisse analyst.
"Our goal is to build a profitable electric vehicle portfolio," John Lawler, Ford chief financial officer, explained during the forum. "To do that, we need to leverage our strengths and the scale that we have. We're being very strategic about the platforms that we choose."
The Mach-E has its own dedicated platform, and it's designed "from the ground up" to be a battery-electric vehicle, he said. When it comes to Ford trucks and commercial vehicles, those will be built on platforms they'll share with their ICE (internal combustion engine) models, "so you get the benefit of some scale there."
Meanwhile, a "strategic alliance" with Volkswagen in Europe affects Ford plans related to battery-electric commercial vehicles there, Lawler said. "We'll benefit from their scale."
Ford CEO Jim Farley told the Free Press previously, "Our electric future is here. We're changing as a society."
The all-electric 2022 F-150 will be built at the Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Mich.; the 2021 Mustang Mach-E is being built in Mexico. The site for the 2022 all-electric Transit Van has not been announced.
