The Ford F-150 is coming to Australia: Everything we know so far!

CarExpert

It's official - the big Ford F-150 is coming to Australia in mid-2023! We have all the news on the impending arrival of the big pickup truck that is a best seller in the US. Paul Maric fills you in on everything we know so far.  More Ford content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford More Ford F-150 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford/f-150  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 00:25 Australian Development 02:36 Trim Levels and Powertrain 03:34 Equipment 05:13 Final thoughts  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #ford #f150 #australia

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. If you've seen our channel before, you'll know that Australians love

00:04 dual cabutes, backies, pickup trucks, whatever you want to call them. Ford has just announced

00:09 that they will be remanufacturing the F-150 pickup truck to right-hand drive for the Australian

00:15 market. This news is very fresh, so I'm going to take you through everything that we know so far

00:19 before the F-150 officially goes on sale in Australia in mid-2023. Now, before we get started,

00:26 I've got to apologise for the echo. We're in our chalet here out on a shoot and we've decided to

00:31 quickly put this video together. Now, what is the story with this? So, F-150, they sell about a

00:36 million of these in the States. It's the most popular vehicle in the US and the most popular

00:40 pickup truck as well. To put that million into perspective, Australia's new car market is about

00:46 a million units in total and Ford sells that in just one vehicle, which is pretty incredible.

00:51 Now, why wouldn't they just make a right-hand drive version of the F-150 out of the States? Well,

00:56 their production capacity runs pretty much 100%, so they are completely chock-a-block. They also

01:01 have the Lightning electric vehicle now as well and they don't have any capacity to produce right-hand

01:06 drive because there are really just limited markets around the world for right-hand drive.

01:10 So instead, what Ford's doing is they've decided to convert the F-150 to right-hand drive here in

01:15 Australia. So, they'll import left-hand drive vehicles and convert them to right-hand drive.

01:19 Now, this isn't something new. We've seen other brands doing this. Chevy with the Silverado,

01:23 they all do these conversions here in Australia. And then you have other firms outside of the

01:27 manufacturers that also do the conversions and you've seen our TRX review with OzMV,

01:32 they do the same thing here in Australia. This one will be an official Ford conversion,

01:35 which means it will have a Ford warranty, five-year unlimited kilometre. You'll be able

01:40 to service it at Ford dealers and they will back all of the accessories that they sell with the

01:43 F-150 as well. How are they tracking with it? Well, they've engaged the services of a Thai firm

01:49 called RMA Automotive. These guys specialise in remanufacturing vehicles. Now, when I say

01:55 remanufacturing, this isn't just a case of moving the steering wheel and using like a

01:59 chain-driven system to make it work. This will be a bespoke product that will work completely

02:05 in right-hand drive that will be approved by Ford. And that's the important part. These guys

02:09 will have CAD drawings and all the information they need to make sure this conversion is done

02:14 properly and that it feels, looks and drives just like a right-hand drive version of the F-150 out

02:20 of the factory would. Ford is at the stage now where they have a prototype version of a right-hand

02:25 drive vehicle roaming the streets. They are in a position where they think they will have all of

02:29 this ready by mid-2023. So there's still a little bit of time to go, but it is a promising sign in

02:35 terms of what customers can expect. Now, it all comes down to two variants for the Australian

02:39 market. They will import the XLT and the Lariat. So these sit about mid-spec in terms of the F-150

02:45 range. They're both very good sellers in the States in terms of volume, which is why they've

02:49 chosen them. And they'll both be fitted with the EcoBoost petrol V6 engine. It's just under

02:54 300 kilowatts of power, close to 700 newton metres of torque. And that's all made it to a

02:58 10-speed automatic transmission. That is the most popular seller in the States. And it really sort

03:03 of blends power, torque and efficiency. So it really sort of ticks all of those boxes. You've

03:09 got to remember that the F-150, even though it looks like quite a big truck, it weighs around

03:13 the same as something like a Ford Ranger Raptor, and that's due to its aluminium construction. So

03:17 a punchy V6 EcoBoost petrol engine is going to go really well in this, especially for the Australian

03:22 market. These things can tow over 4,000 kilograms. And depending on how they certify it for the

03:27 Australian market, it means that you can actually use this as a workhorse and a daily work vehicle

03:32 for towing and all that kind of thing. We don't know what they're going to fit with the XLT and

03:35 the Lariat in terms of standard equipment, but we do know that you can get a number of different

03:40 options in the US market. And they'll probably tick a few of those boxes when it does finally

03:44 arrive in Australia. Earlier this year, we had the chance to drive an F-150 in the States, and it was

03:48 a Platinum Hybrid version. And it had two features that I really loved. One was a fold-out workbench.

03:54 It would fold the gear stick down out of the way, and then the centre console will fold into a

03:59 workbench. That means you can set up a laptop and do stuff on your work break. And then in addition

04:03 to that, you had lay-flat seats, so you could have a kip in your F-150 and then not have to worry

04:11 about finding a hotel for the night. Kind of similar to the Lexus LX that we had a look at

04:16 recently. So these are some of the great features that we expect to see. For work-related features,

04:21 we're talking about things like the ability to configure the tray's scale. And what it does is,

04:26 using the infotainment screen inside the car, it will tell you how loaded you are in terms of

04:30 payload. It can even use the taillights to give you an indication of when you are reaching maximum

04:35 payload. Then in addition to that, you have a number of different options for powering things

04:39 out of the tray. You can power up to 7 kW worth of power using the engine as a generator. So this is

04:45 a proper work truck, and if you are looking for something that is great for the weekend and

04:50 comfortable as a cruiser, but can also do your workday duties, this really will fit all of those

04:56 boxes. In terms of technology inside the car, you can get it with two versions of the SYNC 4

05:00 infotainment system, including the bigger 12-inch screen that we're going to see fitted to the new

05:04 Ranger. So this is a tech powerhouse, it is a very modern vehicle, and it is nothing like the

05:10 utes that we currently have on sale in Australia. How much is it going to cost? I know what you're

05:15 all asking. Look, I'm not going to lie, this is going to be expensive. Even though the XLT starts

05:19 in the States at around that $35,000 mark, by the time you make it a dual cab, you kit it up with a

05:24 few bells and whistles, and you do the conversion job, which they're going to have to do here in

05:28 Australia, tooling up for it, paying off the R&D cost, it's probably going to cost close to $100,000

05:33 if not over. So this is worth keeping in mind, this isn't going to be like a $60,000 ute, this will be

05:38 properly expensive, but when you drive one of these, you'll understand why it is worth paying

05:43 significantly more than what we're paying for dual cab utes here in Australia right now. So it is an

05:48 exciting time for the dual cab market in Australia. Some of you may think these are way too big for

05:53 Australian roads, and look, that might be true for some of those inner-city Sydney car parks that I

05:57 struggle to get a Ford Fiesta into, but look, at the end of the day, people are going to buy these

06:01 because they're using them for work, and potentially for country driving and towing, and that kind of

06:06 thing. So I'm excited about this. We don't really know any more details outside of what we have

06:11 today. We will keep you posted on the channel as more information comes to hand, when we do finally

06:16 get our hands on the first right-hand drive test vehicle. Now let me know what you think about this

06:21 announcement. Are you as excited as I am for the F-150 coming to Australia? This will be the first

06:25 time that Ford has done a factory-backed right-hand drive conversion program for the Australian market,

06:31 so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Ford hasn't ruled out doing the Lightning, the

06:35 electric version of the F-150, or other vehicles in the Ford stable, such as Bronco, for the Australian

06:40 market. So if this does well when it is finally released in mid-2023, I think we can expect to

06:46 see more of these coming to the Australian market, which makes me a very happy camper. So let me know

06:50 your thoughts in the comments section below. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you

06:54 share it with your mates, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press

06:58 the bell icon. But until next time, take it easy.

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