Man, you shoulda seen the hate mail after we crowned Honda's Ridgeline our 2006 Truck of the Year. I don't just mean readers writing in to express a difference of opinion with our panel of judges: I mean letters and emails dripping with pure venom. How dare we even consider a unibody vehicle with a transverse mounted V-6 and independent rear suspension a truck, much less make it Truck of the Year?
It's simple, really. Of all the trucks eligible that year (and remember, our Of the Year judging only considers new or significantly upgraded vehicles launched during the year, and not every vehicle on sale) the Ridgeline was the one that best met the three key criteria -- superiority, significance, and value. The Ridgeline was -- still is -- an original and innovative take on the pickup truck.
And one more and more automakers are taking a long, hard look at.
Like GM. The GMC Denali XT concept might have a longitudinal V-8 under the hood, but it shares a lot of thinking with the Ridgeline. Built on the Zeta architecture that underpins the Pontiac G8 sedan, it's a unibody vehicle, with an independent rear suspension. Like the Ridgeline, it still has that element of truck functionality most occasional-use buyers like, but promises a smoother ride, better performance, more stable handling.
Toyota's another. The A-BAT concept also rolls on a unibody platform, this time a new platform that's rumored to be the one underpinning the next generation Prius (which Toyota sources hint will spawn a whole family of hybrid vehicles). The Prius connection also explains the A-BAT's hybrid powertrain. Like the Ridgeline, it has a transverse mounted gas engine, and independent suspension all round.
Ford's a third. At the Detroit Show earlier this year the chief designer of the new Ford F-150, Pat Schiavone, wondered out loud whether it was time to rethink the pickup truck. Would Ford consider doing a pickup concept based on the unibody Ford Explorer America SUV concept, just to test things out? "That's not a bad idea," he murmured. Just to remind you, the Explorer America is built off the same architecture as the Taurus/Flex/Volvo S80, ans Ford claims it could be fitted with either a transverse mounted 2.0-liter EcoBoost inline four or a 3.5-liter V-6.
For Schiavone and his colleagues, the "new" F-150 is already old news. The guys at GM and Toyota are in the same place when it comes to the GMT900s and Tundra. They're all already thinking about the next generation. And because truck architectures typically have a longer life cycle than car ones, that means they're thinking about all-new pickup trucks that might hit the market six to 10 years from now. This much they know: The world's going to be a very different place by the time these next-gen pickups hit the market.
The elephant in the room for everyone in the truck business is fuel economy. Even if oil prices don't fall dramatically the 2020 CAFE regulations mean the next generation of trucks are going to have to be way more fuel efficient if automakers want to sell them in any sort of volume. And that's going to mean fundamental changes in the nature of the pickup truck.
Yes, there will still be a demand for big, tough work trucks, and there will still be private buyers who want a heavy duty truck for towing, and are prepared to pay for the gas and the likely expensive sticker price. But what about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who currently buy a new pickup each year for personal use and light duty load carrying. They like the look of a truck and the functionality of a bed, plus the high driving position. Do they really need something that's still basically a work vehicle in fancy dress?
That's the question every truck product planning team in America is wrestling with right now. The Ridgeline scenario appeals for a couple of reasons. It means pickups could share architectures with cars, helping reduce manufacturing and development costs. More fuel efficient powertrains and transmissions could also be shared, too, and a well-designed unibody pickup could be significantly lighter (Ford claims the V-6 Explorer America would be 150lb lighter than the current V-6 Explorer) further improving fuel consumption.
We've already seen how quickly the center of gravity of the SUV market has shifted from truck-based vehicles to car-based crossovers as customers have kept the SUV look and interior functionality they want, and discounted traditional SUV off-road abilities they don't need or use. (You can still buy highly off-road capable SUVs if you want -- Jeep Wrangler, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Nissan Xterra, etc. -- but these are now true niche vehicles.)
The Ridgeline is the crossover pickup, Version 1.0, and concepts like the Denali XT and A-BAT clearly suggest other automakers think the basic idea has potential. As has happened with SUVs, the crossover pickup could transform the personal use truck market, with big, heavy, tough, traditional body-on-frame pickups becoming niche vehicles. Only question is: Who is going to be brave enough to make the jump next? Hard-core truck folks seem to be real touchy about what sort of vehicle you call a truck. I know. I've seen the mail.