A pickup can haul around more when it has less of itself to haul around.

In his role, Kuzak directed Ford’s R&D department to dedicate half its total resources to investigating a radical question: what would happen if the next F-150 pickup truck were made from aluminium instead of steel?

This inherent risk was duly calculated by the number-crunchers, and the conclusion was encouraging, putting Ford Motor on a course to switch its highest-volume, most profitable model to a new, more costly material. It would conceivably put Ford at a cost disadvantage with steel-based competitors, and risk alienating truck buyers wary of change.

If an aluminium F-150 proved a losing bet, the expense required to develop the new truck – not to mention to tool up and the potential income lost in transition between the 2014 and 2015 models – could significantly damage the brand’s health.

It took an executive with Kuzak’s clout, explained chief engineer Pete Reyes, to set the trajectory. “No chief engineer can call up R&D and ask them to dedicate half their resources to investigating the idea of switching the F-150 to aluminum,” he said.

All vehicles have the potential to benefit from the weight savings that come from aluminium construction. That’s because lighter vehicles are simultaneously more efficient and quicker.

More significantly, lightness begets lightness. A lighter car can use a smaller, lighter engine and smaller, lighter brakes. The weight savings snowball, and the result in the case of the F-150 is a truck that is about 500lbs lighter than the outgoing model, depending on configuration.

That would be good for any vehicle, but it is key for a pickup truck whose job has traditionally been to carry heavy payloads in its bed. No matter what manufacturers do to bolster trucks’ payload capacity, a pickup can haul around more when it has less of itself to haul around.

Kuzak’s better-known technology pet was his advocacy for Ford’s EcoBoost strategy of using smaller-displacement turbocharged engines in lieu of traditional larger engines. For the F-150, that means an optional 325-horsepower twin-turbocharged 2.7-litre V6 gasoline engine that offers the power of a V8 with the efficiency of a six-cylinder. Official fuel economy ratings have yet to be announced for any of the ’15 F-150 models, but Reyes said that the 2015 truck would be between 5% and 20% more efficient than its predecessors, depending on specification and configuration.

The author pilots the 2.7-litre F-150 SuperCrew Cab on a slalom course.

The engine was designed from the outset to be turbocharged and because of that it closely resembles a modern turbodiesel in its specifications and efficiency, but without the added expense of diesel pollution controls or the inconvenience and cost of buying diesel fuel in North America.

A day behind the wheel of various F-150s revealed that Ford is holding a straight, King high. This gamble seems shrewd, because the F-150’s combination of efficiency, capability and overall attention to detail ought to appeal to loyalists and cross-shoppers.

The current truck’s engines, a normally aspirated 3.7-litre V6, a turbocharged 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 and a 5-litre V8, carry over as available engines for 2015. Ford’s conservative initial estimate was that the new 2.7-litre engine would account for roughly a quarter of F-150 sales, but based on the reaction from dealers, media and consumers at clinics, Ford is growing more bullish on its prospects.

The question is how much customers will be willing to pay for this marvel. A representative mid-level XLT crew cab test truck, with no leather, navigation or automatic climate control, topped out at $46,775, including $1,195 destination charge. This was for the 2.7-litre engine, and it included four-wheel drive.

The range-topping Platinum edition F-150 costs more than $60,000. Not for nothing has the F-150 been Ford’s biggest profit centre in North America for three decades. Time will tell where the actual sales prices of these truck level off, but competitors likely will try to dangle a price advantage to attract customers to their wares.

That is when everyone’s cards will be on the table, and the market learns whether Kuzak’s risky bet pays off.

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