Ford raising prices on aluminum-bodied F-150 by $395

Ford Motor Co. is raising prices on its new aluminum-bodied F-Series pickup by $395 to $3,615 as it tries to convince drivers to embrace a more advanced truck with the best fuel economy ever offered by the automaker.

Ford dealers on Monday began taking orders for the new truck that’s due in showrooms later this year, said Mike Levine, a company spokesman.

The F-150 is being built at several plants, including Ford’s Claycomo assembly plant here.

The Claycomo plant has long been home to the best-selling F-150 The plant now operates three shifts that assemble the F-150. The plant, which has about 5,100 employees, also builds Ford’s new Transit commercial van.

Ford said the base model 2015 XL F-150 starts at $26,615, up $395 or 1.5 percent, while the top-end Platinum version starts at $52,155, up $3,055, or 6.2 percent. The biggest increase is on the King Ranch F-150, which now starts at $49,460, up $3,615, or 7.9 percent, Levine said.

Ford is betting a lightweight, aluminum-bodied pickup with fuel economy that may approach 30 miles per gallon on the highway will entice buyers to pay a premium for the F-Series, its top selling and most profitable model. The second largest U.S. automaker also is packing the new truck with extra standard features, such as 8-inch digital dashboard displays, LED lights, inflatable seatbelts and heated rear seats, Levine said.

“Aluminum is more costly than steel, but the price increases that we’re giving our customers reflect the added content, not the materials,” Levine said. “Our customers are also getting improved performance and better efficiency.”

Ford is set to lose production of more than 90,000 F-Series pickups as it shuts its two factories making the models for 13 weeks this year to convert them to produce the aluminum truck. The automaker said on July 24 that the conversion will crimp profits in the second half of the year.

The F-150 arriving in showrooms at year’s end sheds more than 700 pounds to improve fuel economy, mostly by using aluminum instead of steel in its body. In 2013, Ford’s F-Series truck was the top-selling vehicle line in the U.S. for the 32nd consecutive year, with sales rising 18 percent to 763,402. That helped drive Ford’s North American pretax profits to a record $8.78 billion last year.

“The F-150 changeover to aluminum is the largest, most complicated launch in the history of the company,” Adam Jonas, an analyst with Morgan Stanley with an “overweight” rating on Ford, said in an interview last week. “It’s going to be a very painful process. They won’t know until they turn the machine on how the products will be.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2014 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Ford raising prices on aluminum-bodied F-150 by $395."