Yea, no surprise the big shots at Stellantis have called it a day for PHEV. Beyond all the reliability issues that Texasota and Dequidre mentioned, the whole concept of a Plug In Hybrid that's ICE dominant (which is what the Pacifica Hybrid and the Jeep 4xe models are) ain't makin' much sense to customers or to manufacturers.
For ICE dominant vehicles, pure ICE and regular hybrid are best.
For Electric motor dominant vehicles, BEV is best, EREV is an OK alternative in some cases, FCEV ain't practical for U.S. consumers
So tonight I was having dinner at an Oyster Bar watching a football game UM (my school) and Arizona... and in the commercials was some Mustang and my accountant eating with me tells me "Oh that's Mustang Bullitt"... and I'm like "Hmm before my time, tell me more" and he went on and on" hes almost 70 and I'm like "Well I HEARD that Mustang will be bringing back an icon at the auto show...., I'm wondering if this State Farm commercial with a Bullitt is a hint"....
That's sad that only a single new vehicle is being revealed at the Detroit auto show--not just a single Ford, but a single vehicle by any automaker period. I was last there in 2015 and that's when Ford had the GT, GT350R, and Raptor reveals in that liquid blue paint. I think they might have even had a Focus RS and Fusion Sport in the same paint color. And there were a lot of other reveals from other automakers. Lincoln also had a pretty large display. It was an amazing show, but that was all before social media reveals took over and ruined the autoshow experience.
I have heard nothing about a Bronco Pickup on T6 or on RSD
so I can understand your situation but perhaps in a crew cab situation,
the extra capacity means that when going on a trip, the bed can be
loaded up and still be able to tow a reasonable amount.
Ranger Super Duty is built like a horse, so if that was transferred to
a Bronco Pickup, I think the Gladiator would have a real problem
matching certain features…..best part is Bronco could have premium
pricing to cover such a vehicle.
Ads to my suspicions that Ford sees Ranger as internal competition,
it would sooner push premium prices on Broncos than lower priced
Ranger alternative (eg, big price difference between Raptors)
Americans and Aussies generally prefer squarer truckster lines
while Euros and Asian/Chinese buyers prefer sleeker designs..
Wow, if this was April 1st, then I would know it was a hoax. But is appears to be legit. Given all the problems and recalls they have had on the 4Xe models it appears they are throwing their hands up in the air and saying they can't be fixed. Feel bad for those owners.
Yes, this approach would allow a multitude of independent hardware/software modules to be eliminated. Ford would be able to own/control the software previously supplied by all the various suppliers. This should significantly reduce manufacturing costs and also enable expanded OTA updates thus reducing the costs associated with recalls for software updates. A year ago my Escape had to go to the dealer for a software update to eliminate a 12 volt battery drain. I see lots of good coming out of this. The only downside I see with it is that your car is totally dead on the side of the road if this powerful central module fails.