Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. Car News

Dominant 2018 Ford F-150 Power Stroke diesel scores 30 mpg EPA highway rating

By

Ford’s F series diesel engine hit the company’s fuel economy target. The 2018 Ford F-150 Power Stroke diesel scored a 30 mpg highway EPA rating, Ford Motor Company (FMC) announced today.

The best-selling truck (or car) in the United States for many years running, the 2018 Ford F-150 can now claim the highest EPA-estimated highway fuel rating bragging rights for a full-sized pickup truck.

Recommended Videos

Ford revealed the 30 mpg highway target earlier this year. At the same time, FMC proudly claimed the 2018 F-150’s 3.0-liter Power Stroke V6 turbodiesel engine in the F-150 would have bragging rights for best-in-class 250 diesel horsepower, 440 pound-feet of torque, 11,400-pound towing capacity, and 2,020 payload capacity.

Related

The EPA estimates diesel-powered 2018 Ford F-150s with rear-wheel-drive will achieve 22 mpg city, 30 mpg highway, and 25 mpg combined, according to Ford. Four-wheel drive diesel 2018 F-150’s have EPA-estimated ratings of 18 mpg city, 25 mpg highway, and 21 mpg combined, according to The Car Connection.

Ford is pumped about hitting its EPA highway mileage target.

“Even a few years ago, customers wouldn’t have imagined an EPA-estimated rating of 30 mpg highway would be possible in a full-size pickup, but our team of crazy-smart engineers rose to the challenge,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford executive vice president of product development and purchasing.

The 2018 F-150 with the Power Stroke V6 also scores best-in-class 11,400 pounds diesel towing power. The 2,020-pound highest diesel payload capacity is for fleet ordered F-150 XL and XLT configurations. Retail market diesel trucks have a 1,940-pound payload.

General Motors (GM) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) aren’t sitting back while Ford adds a diesel option to its medium-duty pickups. The manufacturers of the respectively and perennial second- and third-best-selling Chevy Silverado and RAM pickup trucks in the U.S. announced new pickup powertrains in January. The 2019 RAM and 2019 Silverado pickups have yet to be reviewed or EPA-rated.

The 2019 RAM 1500‘s carryover 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 adds eTorque, a 48-volt mild hybrid. The eTorque system will provide a small power boost, power electrical accessories, and bump up the engine’s start-stop system. The 2019 RAM 1500 Build & Price website does not currently list a diesel engine option.

Chevy is going after the diesel market with a 3.0-liter Duramax turbodiesel inline-six for the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado, but no specs are available. GM Authority reported power and torque ratings for 2019 Silverado 5.3L and 6.2L V8 engines based on order guides the blog’s writers uncovered. The 3.0L Duramax diesel mill was not included in the order guides, which were dated April 20, 2018, according to GM Authority.

Power for towing and payload are the strongest draws for diesel truck buyers. High fuel economy, historically the most compelling factor for diesel car owners, hasn’t been as big a pull for truck owners. Now, however, customers shopping for full-sized pickup trucks with the most grunt can seemingly have it all and add fuel-economy to their list of check-off boxes.

But diesel-powered F-150s will require extra coin.

Fans awaiting the Power Stroke V6 option for the 2018 Ford F-150 can expect to pay up to $4,000 extra for a truck with the diesel powerplant, the Car Connection reports. Dealers started taking orders in January for delivery starting in May.

Updated on April 22: Included additional information about 2019 Chevy Silverado and 2019 RAM 1500 engines.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown
Contributing Editor
Bruce Brown Contributing Editor   As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…
Ram 1500 TRX vs. Ford F-150 Raptor
ram trx vs ford f 150 raptor 2021 launch edition jpg image 2880

Trucks are big, powerful, and capable. But the Ram 1500 TRX and Ford F-150 Raptor are bigger, more powerful, and more capable. These aren't normal trucks. When Ram revealed the insane off-road-specced 1500 TRX, comparing it Ford's Raptor was an easy given. The F-150 Raptor has been the champion of full-size off-road trucks since its release for the 2010 model year. Ram wants that title and is using 702 horsepower to claim it. But power isn't everything for these types of trucks; they have to crawl through rocks, jump sand dunes, traverse mud pits, creep through high water, and plow through snowbanks. It takes a lot of engineering to make a 3-ton truck do that. Below, we compare both crazy trucks. Is the TRX the new champ? Decide for yourself.
Power, acceleration, and towing
Ford F-150 Raptor

Ford’s Raptor is powered by a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 engine that churns out an impressive 450 hp and 510 pound-feet of torque. A 10-speed automatic backs the engine. According to Car and Driver, the big truck will hit 60mph in 5.1 seconds on its way to a quarter-mile time of 13.9 seconds at 99mph. If you have towing or hauling duties, the Raptor can tow up to 8,000 pounds and has a payload capacity of up to 1,200 pounds. However, all that can soon change if the rumors of the upcoming Raptor getting the Mustang Shelby GT500’s supercharged V8 are true. 
Ram 1500 TRX

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more
Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs
2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

Read more