2024 Ford F-150 King Ranch
Price: $99,815 CAD
Colour: Star White Metallic Tri-Coat
The 2024 Ford F-150 King Ranch is a full-sized hybrid pickup truck. If the inclusion of the word “hybrid” in the name of a Ford pickup makes you want to spit your chewing tobacco all over your front porch in protest take a deep breath and don’t judge this thing before you get to know it. When you start throwing around terms like “hybrid” it brings to mind horrid little eco-boxes that care only about squeezing maximum mileage while saving the planet. I’m all for saving the planet but why restrict hybrid drivetrains to one segment of the market, particularly one that’s getting smaller every year? Here in the mighty North, we love our pickup trucks. We always have and likely always will. The inclusion then of hybrid options on these vehicles actually makes a lot of sense. If we can still have our massive 4×4 behemoths but get better fuel economy and improved performance where it counts, then why wouldn’t we want it?
Power & Performance
The 2024 Ford F-150 King Ranch can be optioned with the 3.5L V6 Ecoboost we all know and love or the 3.5L V6 Powerboost Full Hybrid as fitted to this test vehicle. The Ecoboost option delivers 400hp and 510 lb/ft while the Powerboost gives you 430hp and 570 lb/ft. While the numbers aren’t that different between the two the way they’re delivered is. The Powerboost gives you that instant electric torque that isn’t waiting for the turbos to spool up and it makes a noticeable difference right away. The real-world fuel economy during my test was a combined 11.5L/100 kms and featured a mix of highway and city. The Ecoboost has delivered around 14L/100kms in previous real-world driving. While these aren’t mind altering differences when you factor in how many miles we cover on a yearly basis as average North American commuters it does add up.
One of my big measures of the success of a hybrid power train is how smooth the whole thing is. I found the hybrid system on the Ford Escape very smooth and had little issue with the movement back and forth between EV and hybrid. This F-150 was much rougher and shuddered often during the switch. It might not bother everyone, but it struck me as an issue since I know Ford can do better.
Exterior
The King Ranch is the top spec F-150 and it certainly looks it. This test vehicle manages to make white an appealing colour and I really approve of the black contrast along the bottom of the vehicle. You also get beautiful 22” premium wheels but you will pay an extra $1775 CAD for them and they immediately make it clear this vehicle is not for work or play in the bush but a humble road warrior through and through.
Interior
As far as I can tell, the King Ranch iterations of the Ford lineup only come with a brown interior. I’m sure there’s a mountain of consumer research to back up why this is a good decision, but I really do wish there was another option. It’s not done to hide the dirt from a day of fixing fences on the ranch because that’s not the point of this thing so why not offer us a black or (even better) some kind of white premium offering?
Colour aside, the cabin of the F-150 King Ranch is as standard on other F-150’s which is to say it’s a spacious and comfortable place to be. Two things you do get on the King Ranch that standout are the endless “King Ranch” branding icons all over everything and the convertible center console that folds flat giving you a place to fire up your laptop while out on the road. It’s quite useful if you spend as much time working from your car as I do. Add to this the endless array of power options and the King Ranch is a true blue portable office.
Quality
The 2024 Ford F-150 King Ranch feels high end. The build quality feels of an equal quality with good choices of materials and no egregious corner cutting was on display.
CQI – 9. The carpet is a very high quality in the King Ranch and is protected by comprehensive mats.
Value
How do we define the value of a $100,000 full-sized hybrid pickup truck? I can’t. I truly can’t make the math work in my head. Ford isn’t the only one with a pricing problem of course, all manufacturers are a little disconnected from reality with how they price their vehicles, particularly the top spec examples. That being said, when compared to its contemporaries the F-150 King Ranch is a top contender and should you be in the market, definitely one to consider.
Final Thoughts
As we fight our way through the mucky quagmire that is progress we’re going to be confronted with more things we don’t like in our pickup trucks. Change however, is inevitable and as long as that change is good and allows us to hold on to the things we love (like our full-sized pickups), then it behooves us to widen our perspective a little. The 2024 Ford F-150 King Ranch is a full-sized/full-service truck employing the latest in car tech to keep us right where we want to be.
