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Things are about to get interesting in the full-size pickup market. Ford’s mighty F-150 will be on sale in Australia by mid-2023, raising the prospect of the Blue Oval’s big pickup also hitting NZ roads.
Ford Australia has engaged RMA Automotive to convert new F150s to right hand drive. The trucks will be sold in Ford’s top-end Lariat and XLT trim specifications and will be powered by the company’s EcoBoost 3.5-litre V6 engine.
The F-150 is America’s top-selling vehicle, with 726,400 units sold in 2020. Andrew Birkic, President and CEO, Ford Australia and New Zealand, says the F-series is built to work hard and play harder.
“We’ve listened hard to fans and dealers and found a way to bring F-150 to Australia. As the pinnacle of ‘Built Ford Tough’, it will give our customers even more choice when they’re in the market for a pickup.”
“F-150 has been part of F-Series, America’s best-selling vehicle line, for the past 40 years, with more than 40 million F-Series Trucks produced to date. With such a local fan base, and with full-size truck sales in Australia tripling in recent years, we just knew we had to find a way to bring it back to Australia.”
Leading the only Ford programme of its kind globally, Ford Australia has engaged engineering specialist RMA Automotive to remanufacture Australian-delivered F-150s to right-hand drive, meeting all applicable Australian Design Rules and safety regulations. F-150 will be available alongside the full Ford vehicle range throughout Ford’s nationwide dealer network.
The F-Series has led the full-size truck class for more than four decades in the US.
With Ranger’s position as Australia’s best-selling 4x4, Ford’s strength in commercial vehicles is clear, but customers over there and in New Zealand have been vocal about their desire to see the F-150 in local dealerships. It was this feedback, and the growth of the full-size truck segment in Australia, that has led to the return of F-150 to the Australian market.
“Whenever I speak to our dealers, they tell me that customers consistently ask about F-150, ask when it is coming.”
Local engineering expertise
Ford Australia’s product development team (which developed the ‘Next-Generation’ Ranger and Everest) has played a key role in bringing the F-150 to Australia.
Mr Birkic says Ford Australia’s engineers will collaborate with RMA Automotive to ensure a seamless conversion, “with the quality and reliability that has come to be expected of Ford’s commercial vehicles.”
Type approval for Australia is unlikely to be an issue. RMA Automotive has more than 30 years of engineering expertise, and is considered one of the world’s leading suppliers of modified vehicles, with over 100,000 modified Ford vehicles delivered globally to date. The company has been a Ford Qualified Vehicle Modifier (QVM) and its relationship with Ford’s dates back to 1997, with projects in markets from Europe and North America, to Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.
Brains and brawn
Australian F-150s will be offered with the popular Crew Cab body and will use Ford’s 3.5L EcoBoost V6 engine and 10-speed transmission, delivering 298kW of power and 678Nm of torque.
Ford reckons it’s not about a V8 these days. It says more US customers choose the EcoBoost V6 than any other F-150 engine, and that powertrain will make F-150 one of the most powerful, and most capable, full-size pickups available in Australia.
With a 4.5 tonne braked towing capacity, the F150 lines up squarely against rival offerings from Ram and Chevrolet.
Further specifications and pricing will be confirmed closer to launch in mid-2023.
So how about New Zealand? Tom Clancy, a spokesman for Ford NZ, says the F150 is not confirmed for New Zealand. Other sources NZ4WD spoke to (off the record) say the same, ‘under evaluation’, but reckon it will happen.
What Ford must also weigh up is the likelihood for near-new RHD F150s to arrive in New Zealand as private imports and what the implications of that would be for factory warrantees – not to mention missed sales opportunities.
“We have always had a small but steady stream of customer queries for the F-150 in New Zealand, especially for its towing capacity.
