Ford F-250 plug-in hybrid arriving at the end of 2019
While not sold through Ford, the modified Super Duty pickup truck will be available to fleet customers.
The Southern California native briefly lived in Sydney, and is proud to have developed a barely passable Aussie accent. He also serves on the board of directors of the Motor Press Guild. When not reviewing cars or nerding out on OEM premium audio, you can find manual-labor-averse Manuel doing his best to convince his closest friends to fix the very Porsche that delivered him home.
You can't buy an electrified F-Series pickup from Ford , yet, but if you manage a corporate or government fleet, by the end of 2019, you'll have a hybridized Super Duty option thanks to a company called XL Fleet Electrification. According to Trucks.com, XL just debuted its XLP Ford Super Duty F-250 at the 2019 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis.
XL has yet to provide charging times, and the truck lacks an EV-only mode, but the plug-in hybrid pickup's other efficiency numbers look promising. According to XL's preliminary testing, fleets can expect fuel economy to increase by 50 percent. As a consequence of that fuel savings, the hybridized F-250 boasts up to a 33 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
To arrive at those efficiency improvements, XL augments the Super Duty with a 15-kilowatt-hour, lithium-ion battery powering an electric motor. A regenerative braking system is also part of the package, which altogether weighs 750 pounds and can handle up to Level 2 charging. Even with all that modification, XL's system leaves the original Ford factory warranty intact. Pricing is yet to be disclosed, but according to Eric Foellmer, XL's director of marketing, "Our current projections indicate the price of our electrification system will range between $25,000 [to] $27,000, fully installed."
This isn't the first time XL -- a company founded by MIT alumni -- has modified an F-Series pickup truck. Last year, the Boston-based company launched an F-150 plug-in hybrid, and since the firm's 2009 inception, XL has sold thousands of vehicles to customers like the cities of Boston and Seattle, The Coca-Cola Company, Verizon and Yale University.
XL's hybrids have already made a significant impact. Its vehicles have managed to save about 1.7 million gallons of fuel while keeping an estimated 15,000 metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Update, March 12, 11:14 a.m. PT: Added estimated pricing quote, clarification about the lack of an EV-only mode, plus more recent environmental impact numbers.
