V-6 engines have been hugely successful for the Ford F-150. In the last year, more than 50 percent of all F-150 sales have included either an EcoBoost 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 or the naturally aspirated 3.7-liter V-6. And it looks like that trend it will continue — Ford plans to announce Friday that it will make a $500 million investment in its Lima, Ohio, engine plant. It will produce the all-new 2.7-liter V-6 EcoBoost engine slated for the new 2015 Ford half-ton.
According to The Detroit News, the plant will add 300 new employees and will continue to produce the Duratec 3.5-liter V-6 as well. The all-new aluminum-bodied 2015 F-150 (due out later this year) will offer three V-6 engines and one V-8 variant.
According to a recent , Ford expects interest in the "fuel effective" V-6 to continue for years. In fact, in the first two months of 2014, 57 percent of Ford's F-150 sales have had V-6s under the hood, breaking down to 46 percent equipped with the EcoBoost and 11 percent with the base 3.7-liter.
According to our data, that means that more than 200,000 F-150s in 2013 had the EcoBoost engine, while more than 50,000 were equipped with the entry-level engine. We'll have a more detailed look at each truckmaker and sales data for the various pickup trucks next week, breaking down half-ton, three-quarter-ton, and one-ton sales by make and model.