New Ford Patent Reveals Hatchback Electric Pickup Truck Design
When Ford CEO Jim Farley said the brand’s next-generation electric pickup looks like a “Millennium Falcon with a back porch attached,” he may have really meant it about the porch.
Ford this week received a patent for a “pivotable cab back assembly for a vehicle and cab back assembly pivoting method” that adds some interesting new functionality to a pickup.
The description says it is meant for a unibody truck that may be electric and doesn’t have a separate cab and bed.
It turns the rear wall of the cab into a door that’s hinged at the top and half way down, allowing it to be opened in a variety of ways.
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Just the bottom can be pivoted to the horizontal position to provide a pass-through into the cab and also double as a work bench. The patent depicts this as having a circular saw attached to it that stays connected for storage when it is closed up.
THE door can also be opened 90 degrees to create a roof over the bed that’s held up by supports, but it goes even farther up than that. Swinging the door a full 180 degrees and then folding the bottom half down 90 degrees creates a small covered space that’s tall enough for some people to stand over, but can also serve a different purpose.
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Ford shows it supporting a large tent that fits over the bed, which could theoretically be cooled or heated using the truck’s battery-powered climate control. Homer Simpson had a similar idea for using a home refrigerator for air conditioning, but Ford’s seems a bit more sound.
The Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV are both unibody designs and feature a pass-through into the cabin, but it works different from Ford’s patented idea.
The Multi-Flex Midgate is comprised of a removable window and a lower section that folds into the cabin with the rear seatbacks. They can be used together or independently and the lower section is split 60/40.
Chevrolet hasn’t released any tents yet, but has shown the Silverado EV with a bed topper that might work, although it was depicted on the WT (work truck) trim that doesn’t have the Multi-Flex Midgate.
As for whether or not the new electric Ford will have the door from the patent, it’s going to be a little longer than expected before we find out.
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The new truck, codenamed T3, was originally scheduled to go on sale in 2025, but its launch has been pushed back to late 2027.
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Until then, Ford electric truck fans will have to make do with the F-150 Lightning, which uses a good old-fashioned body-on-frame design with a separate cab and bed.