The 2021 Ford F-150 Is A Smart Refinement Of What Already Worked

Within the walls of Ford Motor Company, the Mustang is widely considered to the heart and soul of the brand. It’s what gets people excited about Ford. But when it comes to keeping the lights on, it’s the F-150 that is the brain and wallet of Ford. For more than four decades, the F-series has been the top selling vehicle of any kind in the U.S. market, so when the time comes for an update, Ford can’t afford to mess it up. New 2021 F-150s have been rolling off assembly lines for about a month now and we’ve had a chance to drive it and find out if hits the mark again. 

Compared to the last generational change of the F-150 in 2014, this is a comparatively conservative update. Six years ago, we saw the F-150 go from a steel to aluminum body and bed, a very controversial change designed to save hundreds of pounds of mass. While there were concerns about durability and repair costs, most have been largely unfounded. F-150 and later the Super Duty sales have been on a tear and haven’t let up. 

This year, the F-150 retains the basic architecture of the last generation, and despite a strong resemblance, all the sheet metal is new. Even most of the powertrains are effectively carried over. One notable change is that the 10-speed automatic transmission is now standard across the board with no six-speeds left. The naturally aspirated 3.3-liter V6 and 5.0-liter V8 along with the 2.7-liter and 3.5-liter Ecoboost V6 engines have received some slight calibration tweaks but nothing you’re likely to actually notice if you drove a 2020 and 2021 model back to back. The same is true for the 3.0-liter diesel V6. 

There is however a new addition to the lineup this year, the 3.5-liter Powerboost hybrid. In 2011, Ford and Toyota announced that they would collaborate to develop a hybrid system for big trucks. Two years later, they opted to go it alone. Ford did partake in a separate partnership with GM that led to the development of a 10-speed automatic transmission that is used across rear-wheel drive platforms from both automakers now. 

Ford took its version of the 10-speed and modified it to create its modular hybrid transmission (MHT). The guts of the transmission are largely unchanged, but an electric motor is now sandwiched between the engine and the torque converter. This layout allows Ford to adapt the system to different applications by simply using different sized motors. When the MHT debuted in 2019 on the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, the Ford got a 35-kW motor and the MHT was paired with a 3.3-liter naturally aspirated V6. The plug-in hybrid Lincoln got a 75-kW paired with a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6. 

For the F-150, the 35-kW motor is retained in combination with the 3.5-liter Ecoboost. The result, dubbed the Powerboost is the most powerful F-150 yet with 430-hp and 570 lb-ft of torque. This isn’t the first hybrid full-size truck. In 2008, GM launched the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon with a hybrid system and added the Silverado and Sierra the following year. That hybrid system was much more complex than the MHT, offered only 332-hp and 367 lb-ft and only half of the towing capacity of the new F-150. 

In designing the Powerboost F-150, Ford sought to make sure that no capability was sacrificed for those customers that used their trucks for their intended purpose. In fact they enhanced the capability as a work truck by adding a standard feature called ProPower onboard. Many commercial truck users need electrical power on a job site so they haul along a portable generator. Those are noisy, typically not very fuel efficient and they take up space in the bed. Ford decided to leverage that 35-kW motor and 1.5-kWh lithium ion battery. Every hybrid F-150 has three 120V AC outlets in the left rear corner of the bed with a total output of 2.4-kW. There is also an optional upgrade to 7.2-kW that adds a 240V outlet. 

While the basic shape of the F-150 hasn’t changed, the details are all revised. Since this is a truck capable of working, the designers chose a C-clamp motif that repeats all around the vehicle from the running lamps surrounding the headlamps to the fender vents to the taillights. The F-150 doesn’t have the slickness of the latest Ram 1500 but it does have a purposefulness that Ford fans will appreciate. 

The more prominent rethink is in the interior. Over the past two decades Ford, GM and Ram have all been rethinking the truck cabs as the way many users work has changed. Center console bins big enough to swallow 15-inch laptops have been de rigueur for years. Ford has taken things another step forward this year with its work surface. All but the base XL models have console shifters (the XL retains a column shift and bench seat). To the left of the shifter is a button which when pressed causes the shifter to automatically fold forward leaving it flush with the surroundings. At this point, the center armrest can also be unfolded forward leaving a large flat work area for laptops, clipboards or just your lunch. It’s a very slick solution that professionals will appreciate. 

One complaint of previous F-150s has been a somewhat cheap looking interior compared the near luxury finish of the Ram. Ford has been listening here as well. While the XL and XLT still have predominantly hard plastics, the texturing has been upgraded and at least look a lot better. The King Ranch hybrid is by far the best feeling F-150 I’ve ever sat in. It features lots of leather with wood and aluminum accents and a big 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster display. Even the XLT with cloth seats has nice touches like the trim panels on the door with a map of Detroit printed on them. 

The King Ranch had the available max recline seats which don’t go back quite flat, but certainly close enough that you can comfortably take a nap on them. As you recline them the seat cushion actually lifts up a bit to get the whole surface closer to flat. The max recline seats are only available in the crew cab and you have to fold up the rear seats first to get the full recline, otherwise the seat is limited to about 30 degrees above horizontal. The seats themselves are comfortable while driving although they are wide and a bit flat when it comes to lateral support. 

The F-150 and the Mustang Mach-E will be the first models to offer Ford’s new hands-free active drive assist system which includes an infrared camera driver monitor system to make sure you keep eyes on the road. Unlike GM’s Super Cruise which has a single camera mounted on the steering column, the F-150 has two mounted at angles to minimize the risk of both getting blinded by sunlight as was a problem with the first generation GM system at certain sun angles. On the F-150, the sensors are mounted near the driver’s side mirror and to the upper left of the center touch screen. Since the software will be released via an over the air update next summer, we couldn’t actually try this feature. 

All 2021 F-150s now get a central touchscreen with Sync 4 as standard equipment. The XL and XLT get an 8-inch display while the XLT high series and all trims get a 12-inch display. Unlike the portrait orientation 10-inch display in the Explorer that really feels like an afterthought, this one is much better integrated and the software works much better. Sync 4 is responsive and the interface is easy to use. Thankfully Ford chose not to integrate the climate controls into the touch interface as Ram did with the 12-inch display in its trucks, but instead retains physical knobs and switches just below the screen. 

A nice detail that Ford added on the outside of the cab is an upgrade to the power running boards. These have been available in the past but they only extended to the rear edge of the cab. They now extend all the way to the rear wheel arch so you can step up to load or unload items from the bed. On Ford and Lincoln vehicles with the power running boards they extend automatically when you approach the vehicle with the key fob on you. However, for the 2021 F-150, Ford also added a switch at the rear end. You can tap the switch with your toe to extend the running board even without the key for bed access. 

On the road, I spent the most time with the King Ranch hybrid and despite the extra 550-pounds compared to regular 3.5-liter Ecoboost, it certainly feels like the most powerful version of this truck. The turbo V6s have always had impressive low-end torque response and that is further enhanced by the instant response of the electric motor. A decade ago, those GM hybrids certainly weren’t lacking in power, but they always seemed a bit reluctant to really respond when you stepped on the accelerator. That certainly isn’t the case here despite the 5,500-lb curb weight of the four-wheel drive crew cab. 

The 2.7-liter Ecoboost in the XLT I drove has always been an impressive machine, feeling far stronger than you might expect for an engine of that size in a big truck. Despite my fondness for V8s, Ford’s Nano V6 engine family is probably my favorite of their mainstream offerings and it’s no wonder the 2.7 is the best selling F-150 engine. 

For the past decade, ever since Ram adopted a coil spring rear suspension for its light duty pickups, they have been unchallenged in driving dynamics. They offer an excellent combination comfort and control, even with an empty bed. It’s hard to do a direct comparison without a back to back drive, but in a couple of hours in the F-150, it certainly felt improved over the prior generation. On rough Michigan roads, with or without pavement, the control was better and head toss was reduced. There wasn’t much to speak of in terms of steering feedback and it was overboosted for my taste, but it probably wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me. 

Back at Ford’s Romeo, Mich. Proving Ground, we had the opportunity to do some off-road running and with suitable all-terrain tires, the F-150 is very capable of handling most surfaces. Given its size, being able to keep the surround cameras on at speeds up to about 20 mph was a huge help, especially to be able to see what was ahead when approaching the crest of a hill on the trails. Unlike the days of my youth when we had to get out to manual lock the front wheel hubs for four-wheel drive, getting to 4-low mode just requires putting the truck in neutral for a moment and turning a knob. 

Every time a new truck comes out, maximum tow ratings seem to get ratcheted up again. Another of the downsides of the old GM hybrid trucks was the 6,000-lb towing limit. The new Powerboost hybrid can haul up to 12,700-lbs and the maximum tow rating with the non-hybrid 3.5 is now up to 14,000-lbs. The downside of towing with one of these models is that fuel economy plummets under such loads. I didn’t try towing with the F-150 hybrid but when I did with the Explorer hybrid last year, mileage dropped to about 11 mpg. If you are only towing occasionally, that’s probably acceptable. However, if you tow frequently, the diesel is likely to be your best option as compression ignition engines suffer much less under heavy loads. I used a diesel to tow a 7,200-lb on the proving grounds hill route and it frankly didn’t even feel like it was working hard. 

The 2021 Ford F-150 isn’t a breakthrough new truck as the 2015 model was, but it is a notable improvement in almost every way. There are plenty of cool little details that truck buyers will appreciate from the lockable storage under the rear seat to the foot switch for the running boards to ProPower and work surface on the tailgate. The hybrid is rated at a combined 24 mpg and gives up nothing in capability. The base F-150 XL work truck starts at around $29,000 while the King Ranch hybrid I drove was $75,740 delivered. As always with these big trucks, there is a buildable variant for just about anyone that needs a truck.