Farley Wants Ford To Build An Electrified Off-Road Halo Model
Ford may be considering building a “supercar for gravel,” according to CEO Jim Farley. His comments on a recent Bloomberg podcast suggest that the automaker could be looking into high-performance off-roader with a partially electrified powertrain.
Farley said he’d asked Ford engineers to develop a “1,000-horsepower, partially electric” concept in the vein of the automaker’s Raptor vehicles. “These Raptor people are telling us something. They’re not stupid. They’re really smart people. They spent $120,000 on an 800-horsepower pickup truck.” Ford currently offers Raptor variants of the F-150, Ranger, and Bronco.
If it became a reality, the new vehicle would be produced in extremely limited quantities and come at a crazy price, according to Farley. It’d be similar to the approach Ford took with the Mustang GTD, which costs more than $300,000 and is limited to 300 units. The Blue Oval leaned on Multimatic for help building the GTD, so a new halo vehicle would likely require an outside partner.
Farley publicly sharing his thoughts on an ultra-expensive electrified off-roader is surprising at this moment, as Ford just talked about plans to build more affordable EVs, including a truck. That said, super-limited models tend to sell, even at their ridiculous prices, so Ford will likely sell every one it can produce.
[Images: Ford]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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F150 Raptor V8's and the TRX are halo vehicles because of their power and size. I saw more of them in downtown Vancouver than in my entire town. I have yet to see one in the backcountry.
A halo offroad EV would serve the same crowd and virtue signal.
Is the Hummer EV a hot seller? I see plenty of them around but not offroad... ever.
when a friend off-roaded, his 6-cylinder Jeep rescued a few "halo vehicles".