With fuel economy and power ratings ever-improving, Ford says sales of its V6 engines are outpacing sales of V8 models; a trend they expect to continue.
Ford says more than 57 percent of its F-150 retail sales this year were powered by V6 engines – the highest six-cylinder engine mix in the industry since 1967.
“We expect those numbers to hold for the rest of the year,” said Doug Scott, Ford Truck marketing manager. “It really is amazing when you consider we are doing that with just two V6 engine choices – the 3.5-liter V6 Ecoboost and the 3.7-liter Ti-VCT V6 engine. When we come out with the new 2015 F-150, we will offer three different V6 engines, so the potential is there to go even higher.”
Over the last three years, retail registrations of light duty pickups powered by V6 engines grew more than 600 percent, with 91 percent of that growth coming from the F-150. Last year, Ford accounted for 78 percent of all V6-powered half-ton pickups, according to data from Polk.
“There is a new truck buyer out there who doesn’t hold to the old notion that a truck must be powered by a V8 engine,” Scott says. “Just five years ago, you would have had a hard time making a case for V6 truck engines. Not today. It’s all about fuel effectiveness. It’s the combination of city and highway mileage, horsepower, torque, towing capacity, payload and value. What is the most efficient package for the work I’m trying to do? That’s the key question.”
February’s engine mix numbers come on the heels of a very strong demand for Ford’s V6 truck engines in 2013. Of all the trucks Ford sold in the calendar year, more than 48 percent of them were powered by a V6 engine.
The new 2015 Ford F-150 will offer a new 2.7-liter Ecoboost engine, to be made in Lima, Ohio, in addition to the 3.7-liter Ti-VCT V6 and 3.5-liter EcoBoost engines.
