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Ford F-150 PowerBoost: Enough AC Outlets to Fuel a Monster Tailgating Party
This hybrid truck features a Pro Power Onboard system that feeds a panel of outlets in the cargo bed—and it’s amazing, writes Dan Neil
January 22, 2021
I DON’T HAVE to keep pecking away at this keyboard, you know. I have practical skills. I could get my contractor’s license and build houses, like my brother. I always wanted to farm oysters down at the coast and sell them on the side of the road at ridiculous prices. With a little practice, I’m sure I could be the worst welder in town.
Any of these alternative professions will call for a pickup truck, the entrepreneur’s friend. And it would be very helpful if said truck had AC power outlets in the bed. Because versatility.
Among the PowerBoost’s marquee features is the Pro Power Onboard system, supplying AC current to a panel of outlets in the cargo bed sidewall. The standard PPO comes with a 2.4-kW inverter—more than enough, Ford notes, to light up a tailgating party, including heater, TV, mini-fridge and blender. Remember football games?
Our test vehicle was fitted with the optional 7,200-watt inverter, supplying four 120V outlets (20 amps each) and one NEMA L14-30R outlet (240V, 30 amps). Aimed primarily at commercial customers with job-site needs, this tailgate Prometheus discharges 18 times more exportable power than its nearest competitor, says Ford—enough to run a plasma cutter, a TIG welder, chop saw, compressor, angle grinder and a worklight, simultaneously. Richard Serra, your pickup has arrived.
The PPO draws from the hybrid’s 1.5 kilowatt-hour battery as long as possible before waking up the engine to turn the generator. That means you don’t have to keep the engine running at a campsite. With a full tank of gas the maximum run time is 32 hours. As compared to your typical campsite generator, the Ford’s per-kW emissions are about a zillion times cleaner.
Do you and the boys have a little rock ’n’ roll combo? By my calculations, the Ford will energize a stack of Marshall cabinets 67 feet high. It will power a 7,000 gallon-per-day reverse osmosis water purifier, should you want to set up a microbrewery in situ. Narco traffickers could illuminate a jungle runway the size of LaGuardia. But it would be wrong.
Speaking of Nixon: It seems appropriate that my first review during the Biden administration considers Ford’s hybrid pickup. To a rough approximation, this truck’s relative gains in efficiency might have been expected of all light-duty pickups had Mr. Trump not been elected president. Early in 2017, the Trump administration moved to set aside scheduled increases in Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards that targeted a nominal 54.5 mpg by 2025; and signaled its intention to litigate California’s power to set higher tailpipe standards, per its waiver of the Clean Air Act of 1970.
Here we are four years later with Ford’s roundly excellent hybrid system a pricey exception rather than the rule. The system is only available paired with the 3.5-liter turbocharged V6—why the hell is that? The engineering overhead is modest. Integrated into the 10-speed transmission is a torque-rich 35-kW starter/motor/generator, handling the regenerative braking and engine starting duties, as well as surprisingly robust all-electric propulsion. The SMG discharges and charges the 1.5 kWh lithium battery under the cargo bed. Tickety-boo.
Hybridizing only makes the product better. Around town the PowerBoost often and easily slips into its gliding, all-electric mode. Any time the throttle demand subsides, the big white numbers in the tach display go to 0.0 x1,000 rpm. The power-flow animation in the touch screen shows the electrons racing back to the battery under regenerative braking. An eerie ambient tone, a frigid electronic chord, seems to come from nowhere in the cabin. When the V6 engages, it underlays a low-frequency thrum, a spontaneous resonance felt in the steering wheel. With what is effectively a 47-hp starter motor, the V6 doesn’t even have a chance to shake during stop/start cycling. Nicely done.
The machinery works like a charm—experientially refined and spoiling, in the manner of many modern luxo-trucks. Fast as hell, great gobs of torque? Yeah, I like. I especially enjoy the low-speed EV mode in parking decks, an elephant in crepe-soled shoes. Moreover, the hybridizing yields a step-change in fuel efficiency, on the order of 20% higher mpg than the non-hybrid equivalent.
Our test truck did have an issue with transmission harshness—a proper clunk and lurch, off and on power—at moderate speeds when it seemed some clutchplate or solenoid was closing just a bit too aggressively, causing a behavior known in all seriousness as driveline snatch. The fix is easily update-able, I’m sure.
It’s frustrating to me that such a light kiss of hybridization results in so many functional and experiential benefits. What took so long? And why does it have to cost so much? Why isn’t hybridization the standard and common-sense way of building IC cars, allowing them to, at a minimum, recapture some part of the energy lost to heat?
Oh, right. I remember.
This hybrid truck features a Pro Power Onboard system that feeds a panel of outlets in the cargo bed—and it’s amazing, writes Dan Neil
January 22, 2021
I DON’T HAVE to keep pecking away at this keyboard, you know. I have practical skills. I could get my contractor’s license and build houses, like my brother. I always wanted to farm oysters down at the coast and sell them on the side of the road at ridiculous prices. With a little practice, I’m sure I could be the worst welder in town.
Any of these alternative professions will call for a pickup truck, the entrepreneur’s friend. And it would be very helpful if said truck had AC power outlets in the bed. Because versatility.
Among the PowerBoost’s marquee features is the Pro Power Onboard system, supplying AC current to a panel of outlets in the cargo bed sidewall. The standard PPO comes with a 2.4-kW inverter—more than enough, Ford notes, to light up a tailgating party, including heater, TV, mini-fridge and blender. Remember football games?
Our test vehicle was fitted with the optional 7,200-watt inverter, supplying four 120V outlets (20 amps each) and one NEMA L14-30R outlet (240V, 30 amps). Aimed primarily at commercial customers with job-site needs, this tailgate Prometheus discharges 18 times more exportable power than its nearest competitor, says Ford—enough to run a plasma cutter, a TIG welder, chop saw, compressor, angle grinder and a worklight, simultaneously. Richard Serra, your pickup has arrived.
The PPO draws from the hybrid’s 1.5 kilowatt-hour battery as long as possible before waking up the engine to turn the generator. That means you don’t have to keep the engine running at a campsite. With a full tank of gas the maximum run time is 32 hours. As compared to your typical campsite generator, the Ford’s per-kW emissions are about a zillion times cleaner.
Do you and the boys have a little rock ’n’ roll combo? By my calculations, the Ford will energize a stack of Marshall cabinets 67 feet high. It will power a 7,000 gallon-per-day reverse osmosis water purifier, should you want to set up a microbrewery in situ. Narco traffickers could illuminate a jungle runway the size of LaGuardia. But it would be wrong.
Speaking of Nixon: It seems appropriate that my first review during the Biden administration considers Ford’s hybrid pickup. To a rough approximation, this truck’s relative gains in efficiency might have been expected of all light-duty pickups had Mr. Trump not been elected president. Early in 2017, the Trump administration moved to set aside scheduled increases in Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards that targeted a nominal 54.5 mpg by 2025; and signaled its intention to litigate California’s power to set higher tailpipe standards, per its waiver of the Clean Air Act of 1970.
Here we are four years later with Ford’s roundly excellent hybrid system a pricey exception rather than the rule. The system is only available paired with the 3.5-liter turbocharged V6—why the hell is that? The engineering overhead is modest. Integrated into the 10-speed transmission is a torque-rich 35-kW starter/motor/generator, handling the regenerative braking and engine starting duties, as well as surprisingly robust all-electric propulsion. The SMG discharges and charges the 1.5 kWh lithium battery under the cargo bed. Tickety-boo.
Hybridizing only makes the product better. Around town the PowerBoost often and easily slips into its gliding, all-electric mode. Any time the throttle demand subsides, the big white numbers in the tach display go to 0.0 x1,000 rpm. The power-flow animation in the touch screen shows the electrons racing back to the battery under regenerative braking. An eerie ambient tone, a frigid electronic chord, seems to come from nowhere in the cabin. When the V6 engages, it underlays a low-frequency thrum, a spontaneous resonance felt in the steering wheel. With what is effectively a 47-hp starter motor, the V6 doesn’t even have a chance to shake during stop/start cycling. Nicely done.
The machinery works like a charm—experientially refined and spoiling, in the manner of many modern luxo-trucks. Fast as hell, great gobs of torque? Yeah, I like. I especially enjoy the low-speed EV mode in parking decks, an elephant in crepe-soled shoes. Moreover, the hybridizing yields a step-change in fuel efficiency, on the order of 20% higher mpg than the non-hybrid equivalent.
Our test truck did have an issue with transmission harshness—a proper clunk and lurch, off and on power—at moderate speeds when it seemed some clutchplate or solenoid was closing just a bit too aggressively, causing a behavior known in all seriousness as driveline snatch. The fix is easily update-able, I’m sure.
It’s frustrating to me that such a light kiss of hybridization results in so many functional and experiential benefits. What took so long? And why does it have to cost so much? Why isn’t hybridization the standard and common-sense way of building IC cars, allowing them to, at a minimum, recapture some part of the energy lost to heat?
Oh, right. I remember.
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