We’ve known since early this year that Ford was making plans to bring the F-150 back to the land Down Under. President and CEO of Ford Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Birkic said, “With such a local fan base, and with full-size truck sales in Australia tripling in recent years, we just knew we had to find a way to bring it back to Australia.”
Unsurprisingly, since then, over 8000 Australians have registered their interest with thousands already placing prospective orders with dealers.
Durability tested Down Under
In the meantime, our very own Ford Australia has conducted extensive durability testing on the F-150, bringing us closer to a release date than ever before. Dave Burn, Performance and Customisation Chief Program Engineer at Ford Australia said it’s been put through the same local durability program as the Next-Generation Ranger and Everest which, of course, is the same program the left-hand drive F-150 went through in the States.
During the 135,000 kilometres of testing (the equivalent of driving around Australia nine times), the new F-150 had to cope with everything from -40° Celsius and +50° Celsius temperatures, trailer towing, mud, ultra-fine sand, water crossings, and corrosion tests.
“We’ve torture-tested, tuned and re-worked the right-hand drive F-150 so that Aussie customers know they’re getting the full factory F-150 experience. We’re doing everything to make sure the truck will be right at home here in Australia,” said Burn.
Some of the world’s most punishing roads were replicated in the lab at Ford Australia’s You Yangs Proving Ground with the F-150’s wheels and suspension, steering and driveline punished on a Kinematic and Compliance rig. It’s also been driven across Ford’s torturous Silver Creek Road durability track hundreds of times.
We have no doubt that the 2023 Ford F-150 will be ‘Built Ford Tough’.
What can we expect?
Expect big power! Both variants feature the top-selling 3.5L EcoBoost V6 engine and 10-speed auto. And although Ford hasn’t released final specs, the overseas models deliver 298kW power and 678Nm torque, providing the capability to tow up to 4.5 tonne. Ford has stated that the F-150 will be available in SWB and LWB for both configurations in Australia. They’ll both come standard in Oxford White but owners will need to pay a little more for prestige paint colours in Agate Black, Iconic Silver, Antimatter Blue, Carbonized Grey or Lucid Red.
We can expect the XLT and LARIAT variants to go on sale Down Under in 2023 with pricing and final specification to be announced closer to the time.
