- Ford confirmed a new gas-powered pickup for U.S. production.
- Truck will be built at Blue Oval City, now Tennessee Truck Plant.
- It replaces a full-size EV pickup once planned for the same facility.
Ford isn’t just doubling down on electric pickups with plans for a $30,000 model. It’s also pivoting back to combustion, bringing a budget-friendly gas-powered truck into the mix. And yes, this shift has everything to do with politics, policy, and what Ford sees as market reality.
According to CEO Jim Farley, a new affordable combustion pickup has officially entered the company’s long-term product roadmap, even if the details remain thin for now.
Read: What Trump Did After A Ford Worker Heckled Him Wasn’t Very Presidential
Farley made the revelation during President Donald Trump’s visit to Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan. This came just a few weeks after Ford quietly revealed in December that the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center would be renamed the Tennessee Truck Plant and start building new, cheap gas-powered trucks from 2029.
Gas Power Returns to Tennessee
“We’re adding a combustion vehicle—a combustion truck, an affordable one—in Tennessee, to the president’s note,” Farley said while speaking with members of the press alongside President Trump and executive chairman of Ford, Bill Ford. “That’s what these policies are doing for Ford. We’re going to actually expand one of our existing plants and make a different kind of truck there.”
When a reporter asked whether those policies included Trump’s controversial tariffs, Farley responded, “Yes, and the EPA,” before Trump jumped in, crediting the move to “his tariffs and the relief I gave them from the most ridiculous standards.”
According to Road & Track, this new combustion truck will replace a previously planned full-size electric pickup that had been slated for production at Ford’s Blue Oval City facility in Stanton, Tennessee.
While it’s good news for consumers that Ford is committing to an affordable new pickup truck, things could change. The vehicle is up to four years away, and by then, another federal election will have taken place.
If Republicans lose power, Democrats could reinstate pre-Trump era policies, potentially pushing automakers to ramp up EV investment and production again.
The Cost of Pulling Back on EVs
After the plant visit, Executive Chair Bill Ford appeared at the Detroit Auto Show and acknowledged the hit his company took in reassessing its EV strategy. The nearly $20 billion charge Ford absorbed from scaling back its electric commitments was a bitter pill to swallow.
“Nobody likes to take that kind of write-down,” he said. “But I think it was really recognizing what reality was in the marketplace, that the aspirations we had, and the whole industry had, for the EV takeoff just wasn’t happening.”
Read: Ford Pulled The Plug On More EVs Than You Realize
Farley, speaking at the same event, made clear that Ford isn’t walking away from electrification entirely. The focus, he said, is shifting toward lower-cost EVs and hybrid models, including gas-electric vehicles.
One example is the upcoming second-generation F-150 Lightning, which won’t be purely electric. Instead, it will feature a range-extending system, marking a step away from the full-EV approach of its predecessor
