Ford And Land Rover Are Working Together On The Next F-150

Sep. 20, 2016 5:00 PM ET by Jared Rosenholtz / 10 Comments

Or in other words, Ford is recruiting Land Rover to take back tech it made when it owned the British automaker.

According to a report from Car and Driver, the 2018 Ford F-150 could be getting a bigger update than just new headlights and trim levels. The biggest news is that there will likely be a new V6 diesel variant that will go up against the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, the only current half-ton pickup with a diesel option. Ford seemed like it was committed to turbocharged gasoline engines for its F-150 line, but a recent test mule was spotted with stickers that read "Diesel Fuel Only!" There is also evidence that the V6 has been sourced from Jaguar-Land Rover.

Ford

The engine in the mule was clearly the same 3.0-liter turbo-diesel V6 that is used in Land Rover TD6 models. Ford actually helped develop this model in a joint partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroen, so it seems fit that it get to use it in the F-150. In the Range Rover, this engine produces 254 horsepower and 440 lb-ft of torque, which is competitive with the Ram. The Land Rover also achieves 28 mpg, which is the same as the standard Ram EcoDiesel. Depending on how Ford tunes this engine and which transmission is used, these numbers could change slightly. If Ford could find a way to hit that magic 30 mpg number, it could put the F-150 diesel in a very good position to succeed.