Mazda-Absolutely loved on various automotive forums....but nobody buys.....

Uh, no....   https://fordauthority.com/2026/02/japanese-ford-maverick-rival-not-happening-anytime-soon/   Assuming they do not want any Maverick sized Toyota truck eating into Tacoma sales....sounds like Fords excuse on why Ranger is only mildly promoted (if at all in North America)....don't want to dig too deeply into F150 sales. It only confirms the belief that Ranger is here to sell more Broncos. 

Saarlouis plant just ended Focus production last year, there’s a vacant plant that Ford could hand over to Geely and importantly it’s in Germany so far less pushback on where vehicles are manufactured in Europe. It would give Ford and Geely a walk up start to Germany, France, Italy and UK, ford’s biggest EU markets.   I know Valencia is high on th priority but announcing Bronco Sport will be built alongside Escape  kind of makes nonsense of the thought of handing over its best most efficient plant. The wolf is at the door for Ford, the last thing it needs to do is put it own neck on th block..

It just seems like all the money spent to make and sell the C2 Mondeo in China was to appease an ever diminishing audience. That same effort applied to a cost efficient blending of the CD4/CD6 to the Taurus  and Continental could have been so……..I have to stop myself…

Ford is definitely searching for the sweet spot with regards electrification and enough ICE supplied power to avoid disappointing owners that want to do occasional towing for more than say, 100 miles.   Exactly what Form that power train comes in is a real pickle for Ford and getting the balance right may end up pleasing people in the Center but ticking off the BEV purists by pulling back too much

This is good and not really arguing with you on this point as you’ll read later in this post but to Ford, A PHEV battery that’s between 25 and 80 Kw hr makes the PHEV an EREV, well at least to Ford China but I digress…..   on the subject at hand, I went back a page or so in this thread and found the confirmation by Ford that Lightning EREV will keep its electric drive motors.   So that answers the question of battery size vs adding an ICE and generator being lower cost (more profitable) to Ford than pure big battery BEV.   So now the question is what size ICE to add to the generator and how does it fit over around the front power axle? Does Ford turn the engine/generator  transverse  and incorporate it into the front axle to achieve the direct link at or above 50 mph?   Thinking like a full sized Ford truck version of BYD Shark 6 but we’ll see….  

...and the dealer says......

Adding a bigger batter to the Powerboost hybrid is a PHEV.   Adding an ICE to the Lightning is an EREV.   Ford said the next Lightning will be EREV.

Yea, that’s what I’m thinkin’ too. The old photos gave that journalist a perfect scenario to write an article comparing Jimbo to Musky Boy though

I assume that bigger battery pack you are suggesting could be charged by plugging it in resulting in a drive train very similar to a Ranger PHEV?   That seems to be the direction Volvo is going. That is, a conventional PHEV but with a higher capacity battery pack to give it an electric range of ~100 miles. The advantage of this approach for the F-150 is you don't suffer a highway efficiency penalty and the long distance towing penalty that will be the Achilles heel of EREVs. Another advantage is that you don't compromise the 4x4 off road capability that the Shark 6 suffers from.   But, Ford keeps stating that the F-150 EREV will be a serial hybrid (wheels only driven by electric motors).