What’s next for the Ford Raptor off-road trucks and SUVs? How will the Ford F-150 Raptor compete against the new Ram RHO and the 2027 Ram TRX? According to a report, Jim Farley and Will Ford say that hybrid powertrains are coming to Raptor off-road vehicles and it may also be a V8 hybrid. Let’d dig in!
This report comes to us thanks to our friends at the Car Expert Australia. They conducted several interviews with the Ford executives during this year’s Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
Here is a quote from the Ford CEO, Jim Farley “Our best-selling F-150 is the EcoBoost hybrid. You can expect [in our performance off-road vehicles] more and more hybridization, but more on the performance side. We have accelerated the investment in hybrids across our lineup – and that will include off-road.”
Ford Racing executive, Will Ford added “It’s pretty clear that hybrid is the performance drivetrain of the future. We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves and do something that customers don’t want, but we absolutely need to make sure that we continue to push Raptor in every way to make it maintain its position as the most off-road capable vehicle. That’s the nice thing about hybrid is it might allow us to keep the V8 alive a little longer – hopefully a lot longer.“
These statements do no commit Ford to producing and selling a V8-hybrid F-150 Raptor or Raptor R. Still, the message is pretty clear. Ford is seeing high demand for the current F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid twin-turbo V6 trucks. Ford sees hybrid technology as the future for their vehicles, including off-roaders. They are also not shying away from V8 engines. They just unveiled a 5.2L Supercharged V8 Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC. They are also developing new V8-powered race cars for the Le Mans World Endurance Championship series.
What do you think? Is a V8-hybrid Ford Raptor truck the right strategy for Ford to compete against the 777-hp Supercharged V8-powered Ram TRX? Let us know in the comments below.
Personally, I think it makes a lot of sense. I have been calling for a gas/electric hybrid powertrain Raptor truck since 2017.
