Outgoing Ford F-150 Launches In New Market

Jun. 26, 2020 6:10 PM ET by Aaron Brzozowski Trucks / 9 Comments

It's a big deal that the F-150 is arriving there at all.

Through a strange, somewhat ironic twist of fate, just as the all-new fourteenth-generation Ford F-150 is about to debut in the United States, its predecessor is premiering in the Philippines. That may seem rather nonsensical, but as Motor1 reports, trucks are quite popular in that market, and the F-150 has been anticipated there for some time.

As a matter of fact, the thirteenth-generation Ford F-150 had been set for an April reveal in the Filipino market, but that date had to be pushed back as the global pandemic interrupted business operations the world over.

2018 Ford F-150 SuperCab Front View Driving

2019-2020 Ford F-150 Limited Front Angle View

It's reasonable to suspect that the Ford F-Series - the best-selling nameplate in the US for several decades - could find a home in the Philippines, which currently has ten truck nameplates on the market, according to Motor1. But so far, the market has tended toward mid-size trucks on account of its smaller roads, making the F-150 something of an outlier, although the Ram 1500 already has a presence there.

Should the thirteenth-generation Ford F-150 sell in the market, Ford might well decide to take its all-new fourteenth-generation truck there, but it could take a while for it to be federalized.

It seems as though the Filipino-market Ford F-150 will be built in Dearborn, just like the US-market version of the truck, and it's notable just how many markets Ford is passing over to sell the F-Series in the Philippines, including potentially big markets like Australia and South Africa where trucks are also notably popular.

The thirteenth-generation Ford F-150 first launched for 2015, representing a dramatic shift for the model line as the first iteration ever with an aluminum alloy body - a move that managed to cut some 700 pounds from the truck's curb weight, with a corresponding boost in efficiency. In the Philippines, as in the US, it ought to prove more than a match for the Ram 1500.

Mum's the word on whether the excellent 450-horsepower F-150 Raptor will be sold there.