It still gets back to the same old problem, besides a body and chassis rails, everything else really has to be industry standard equipment that Ford would have to buy in and add mark up on.   By the time Ford does that, they are simply supplying a “me too” generic truck that competes with all the other established truck brands…..where’s the compelling business case for that besides a few avid heavy truck fans wanting Ford to spend the money and find out?   Sorry if this sounds ill informed but I think it’s how Ford sees class 8 in a nutshell and they don’t like their odds of success when they can look elsewhere and get an easier return on on the same investment funding.

It sounds cool, but as the Maverick has shown, the bed size doesn’t really seem to matter. People who buy small trucks aren’t buying them to move big things. If you are trying to build an affordable EV, there’s no need to have features like this that increase cost when the customers would have been perfectly happy without it. There’s probably a reason GM is the only brand that offers midgates (that I know of). 

Investors? Investors should not be running a company. Every time Ford sold off a division like Philco, Farm Tractor, class 8, the stock price went down!

The bed extending into rear-seat space, with or without relocating rear window, definitely solves the problem of 4-door compact trucks having a bed that is too short to be useful for many hauling applications.  Other trucks have similar concepts, but this looks even more promising to me.  Hope it works great.

Further to this..I just checked Autocar.com   Great website and I never knew they now offered a class 7 cab over.  No clue who builds the cab but will be a market for it for sure.  Once again 6.7 Cummins power.

From the Detroit News, via Bloomberg:   https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2025/10/31/ford-to-invest-370-million-in-india-defying-trumps-local-push/87006923007/  

yes Autocar is still around.  we have a dealer here in Mass,  I think they are probably on the very high end price wise.  They have been building the cab over for quite a few years with refuse their primary market. Can't say I see a lot of the new conventional but they are selling. I have a sales sheet from the early 80's...and if I put my Mack and Ford prejudices aside, I have to say those A-Cars back then were probably the best. The fact that there are quite a few still in service-tandem and triaxle dumps- in this area is testimony to that.

They did talk about radical simplification 😂.

I think it is a Decontent Schedule:

Probably right, though it would be cool to see.  Active aerodynamic design features like spoilers and grille shutters have become more common so maybe a diffuser isn’t that out of the question.  Corolla’s low price point may not allow it for a mass-market vehicle yet, but it may not be that expensive, at least if in a scaled down production version.  Toyota knows how to manufacture stuff affordable so if anyone can do it….   I’ll look for other pictures because I can’t clearly see much detail from that angle with all the reflections and all.  Who knows, it may not even be a retractable diffuser? 😀