The current best-selling model in Canada and North America, the Ford F-150, has just reached an important milestone in its history. Indeed, Ford announced that this week it built its 40 millionth F-Series truck for the U.S. market.
The 40th millionth model, in case you’re wondering, is a 2022 F-150 Tremor version. In the image shared by Ford, it sits next to a 1950 F-1 model.
The story of the F-Series began in 1947 with the arrival of a new pickup truck completely redesigned for the 1948 model-year. In the United States, the F1 model was available in the half-ton series; the F2 was a three-quarter ton model. As for the F3, that referred to pickup trucks with a three-quarter ton capacity, but more robust.
In all, vehicles with a more commercial vocation were produced up to the F8 nomenclature.
Note that in Canada, during the first years of commercialization, the F-47 was referred to as the half-ton model. The number 47 referred to the maximum load that the vehicle could accept, i.e. 4700 lb. The naming systems in North America would be harmonized fairly quickly within a few years.
The attainment of the 40-million-model milestone comes at a pivotal moment in the model’s history, as the F-Series gets set to quietly go electric.
Will the truck’s dominance continue for a long time? Can the model realistically hope to eventually surpass the Toyota Corolla, the best-selling vehicle in history at just over 50 million units?
Time will tell.