Why The 2015 Ford F-150 Concept Is More Important Than The Corvette [Jalopnik]

[donmateo]

Forget the new Corvette Stingray. Forget the holograms or Tesla's sweet gull-winged Model X. Forget the Chinese cars in the lobby, the BMW 4-Series concept, or any of the fancy electric or hybrid cars on display throughout the Cobo Center.

The Ford Atlas concept was far and away the most important vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show. Here's why.

It may not get as much media attention as an exciting, well-built (finally) performance car like the Corvette, but because the Atlas is more than likely the next F-150, it is a really big deal. And it is hugely important to the global auto industry and millions of people everywhere.

In the U.S. last year alone, Ford sold some 645,000 new F-Series trucks, making it the best-selling vehicle of any kind in America, a record they've held for more than 30 years. USA Today notes that the F-Series trucks "account for most of Ford's worldwide profits."

Read more: http://jalopnik.com/5976392/why-the-...n-the-corvette

[GHull3]

As with all concepts, we'll see how much of it makes it to production. The two most glaring details, albeit loose details, are the claim of a 700lb. weight reduction and "improved Ecoboost." Does this mean HP, fuel economy, both?

[SeetheUSA]

THANK YOU!! I don't understand for the life of me why we got the Silverado/GMC debut on some random date in history with little-to -no fanfare. Nobody even clapped when they came out. It was almost like it was put together last minute, and none of the big brass spoke. The Corvette gets a NAIAS launch, and 3 different execs came to the stage. I understand the vette is a big piece of GM, but they've got to make much more money off the trucks compared to the Corvette.

Ford understands how important these things are to the survival of their company. Like it or not, they're showing their truck "concept" off at the biggest show of the year. I would have unveiled both at the show- the vette on the first day, and the trucks on the last day of media only.

[goatgary]

More important in terms of profit and volume but the blatent "gottcha" move by Ford to stick the Atlas concept in the show to counter the GM twins is a fail. Interesting... but so what? Until we know what Ford is REALLY going to do with the F150 it is just talk, no walk. In the meantime, GM has real product, thoroughly tested and all but ready for prime time.

[sfdenny]

Who wrote this, Captain Obvious?

[Beau Tie]

And people thought the Silverado update was only evolutionary.

[CJH]

More important in terms of profit and volume but the blatent "gottcha" move by Ford to stick the Atlas concept in the show to counter the GM twins is a fail. Interesting... but so what? Until we know what Ford is REALLY going to do with the F150 it is just talk, no walk. In the meantime, GM has real product, thoroughly tested and all but ready for prime time.

Good for Ford, that's what they should do. GM need to get their marketing dept in shape. Their trucks should have been unveiled at the show with some hoopla and the bigwigs talking it up!

Hard to say anything is "just talk" with the F150 when they are selling as well as they are, especially considering they are at the end of their life cycle.

[Elvisuperman]

Duh?

[roy219]

To goatgary's point, the new Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks were exhibited at NAIAS as actual production vehicles, which IMO makes them more "important" than Ford's Atlas Concept.

[akbar]

I predict that GM twins will outsell or atleast catch up the Ford F series in due time.

Reuss did specifically remark while commenting on the new trucks that they have not yet tipped ther hand on efficiency of these truck.
He would not be saying that if he was not confident that GM has a significant trick up its sleeve. Also at other time he has indicated that they will be updating their truck portfolio much more frequently than in the past. So I bet that whatever advantage new 2015 F series will have in power train efficiency will be short lived.

I will not be surprised if GM springs a much improved two-mode hybrid powertrain in the next couple of years. I think that is their ace for which Ford has no answer.

[KingElvis]

THANK YOU!! I don't understand for the life of me why we got the Silverado/GMC debut on some random date in history with little-to -no fanfare. Nobody even clapped when they came out. It was almost like it was put together last minute, and none of the big brass spoke. The Corvette gets a NAIAS launch, and 3 different execs came to the stage. I understand the vette is a big piece of GM, but they've got to make much more money off the trucks compared to the Corvette.

Ford understands how important these things are to the survival of their company. Like it or not, they're showing their truck "concept" off at the biggest show of the year. I would have unveiled both at the show- the vette on the first day, and the trucks on the last day of media only.

Thought the Silvy is at the Detroit show, it's just sitting behind a glass barrier. I'm betting that it will be at the Chicago Auto Show - traditionally a truck-centric show - that you'll get all the whys and wherefores on the Silvy. So the NAIAS in Detroit is actually not really getting us any more info than we had Dec 14th

From pickuptricks.com "Jeff Luke is sitting pretty right now, finished with all the heavy lifting regarding the 2014 Chevy and GMC half-ton trucks. We tried to get the horsepower and torque numbers out of him but he was quite clear about not being ready to make those announcments yet. We also reminded him that fuel economy numbers still have to be released and he told us that those numbers are likely to pretty important to them so seeing a big deal made of it could make sense, and maybe even another press conference at a future auto show."

And not to pick nits with the great and mighty Jalop, but a real Corvette is less important than a 'concept' pickup? Concepts are a dime a dozen and this one is singularly boring at that.

[BlackGTP]

Who wrote this, Captain Obvious?

I agree, this article gets filed under "blatantly obvious". Wow, a vehicle that sells over a half a million units a year vs and extremely low volume sports car. Wow - hard hitting reporting there.

[DirtyMoney]

Unfortunately, I do not think a concept vehicle is more important than a production vehicle.

[germeezy1]

Is This Even News?

[Pisswilly]

That's Ford's latest gimmick, introduce something new just to steal GM's thunder. They did it with the 650 h.p. Mustang when the ZL1 came out and when GM announced the debut of the new trucks, Ford announced the the newF-150 concept. I hope this bites them in the arse like the ZL1 stomping all over the outdated Mustang.