Toyota RAV4 overtakes the Ford F-150 as the best selling in the US.

Yeah - but you git to live in the PNW.
(at least you're in WESTERN Washington.....)

 

The compact truck has the same standards as that F150, which has the same standards as my Outback and your Prius.

"This standard applies to passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks designed to carry at least one person, and buses."
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.208

That's the vehicle code section covering occupant crash protection. The loop holes that allowed trucks to have less safety features than cars have been closed up. This is why the OG Ranger got cancelled, and Ford didn't see making a new full frame platform for that size truck worth the investment.

A full frame has its advantages. For a small truck, those advantages aren't important enough to buyers to justify the R&D costs for a platform.

This is an issue for the entire car market, not just the trucks.

But when the OG Ranger was gone, people wanting something for hauling and towing moved to a midsize or bigger truck.. The rest switched to a compact car. The auto parts store did the latter when replacing their OG Rangers.

Scroll down at that link, and you will find a formula for target mpg with a footprint factor in it. A model's target depends on its size, and it works out smaller cars and trucks have a higher target to reach than larger. A small truck can have a better mpg than a larger model yet end up penalizing the manufacture on CAFE.

Luckily someone did the math showing this.

A small truck is going to need to do around 50% better than the full size one in fuel economy in order to reduce the fleet value for CAFE. With the same basic body shape, that isn't easy.

It isn't a question of technical feasibility but of financial. The company needs to think there will be enough sales of a platform to make financing the development worth it.

The platform cost issue is a global one. The platform used for the Ranger is their smallest full frame truck one. Maybe it could be adapted for smaller, but it seems with how people globally use trucks, that the unibody car platforms are good enough.

 

Ah I see what's happening -- my bad, I thought you were talking about crash regs, when a few posts ago you said "the EPA rules assign the small truck a higher CAFE target than the bigger truck". That's where the confusion on my side came from, apologies.

Why then was the EcoSport greenlit for NA? That was a terrible vehicle and a terrible decision. Yet it was done, will in boardroom blessing, apparently...

The model started life as a bespoke Brazil-only model (2003), so supposed investments in the platform were already long amortised, production issues and supply chains well-ironed out by consideration for NA -- probably why someone thought it was a good idea.

Was introduced in '18 after update to Mark VI Fiesta platform, and retired here only 4 MY ago (thank God). It had been Fiesta-based two generations-- a car with much better mpg but itself quite unpopular in NA for poor mpg and interior room vs. competitors, unrefined and fragile semi-auto DSG transmissions, and engine fires -- the usual Ford Ecoburst 'service bulletins'. Not lasting 4 MYs means the rather minimal investment made to federalise it, were mostly in vain as no one bought them, but yet there they were, taking up dealer inventory years after its flaws were aired out. 29 mpg combined, with a turbo 1.0L, wet-rubber-cam-belt Triple -- a supposedly award-winning design -- no one's gonna buy a ticking time bomb, once the word gets out on forums.

Both were pulled from NA within a year of each other, my guess being (and pls correct if wrong) CAFE tightening past what was capable with the powertrains... stds for which ramped up more quickly than crash regs have since 2018 (well, the NHTSA regs, vs. IIHS stds -- what all buyers should reference for crash safety, as the mfrs defo do).

Genuinely not trying to be argumentative for its own sake, thanks for taking the time out to educate... but given the actions of example Ford's boardroom in particular (excepting of course, the brilliant Mav HEV)... nope, don't buy the global poor-Me argument, need more convincing...

---

Those are my only retorts for the latest post, learned a sh*tload from the graphs and explanations, somewhat difficult to visualise using only the tables -- am a supposedly visual learner, even if the science behind that's been largely disputed (don't care, have always learned better w\ visual aids or holding the parts in my hands, vs. a dry textbook). Wish it were possible to quickly & similarly draw out my thoughts in my own posts to share here, just to practice what I preach

Ach... so the issue's just reluctance to cross a line of risk whilst complying with ever-more stringent crash and CAFE, huh. Even with Toyota, known for being very resistant to sea change without gobs of near-foolproof financial justification (their destiny's tied to the Japanese government's after all, being a keiretsu), don't think that board's oblivious re: the shift to smaller NA vehicles at greatly reduced cost, is gaining traction.

But to do so, equaling the crash performance of a bedless passenger car... means basically w/o some disruptive discovery about unibody construction / materials to match crash regs, but cost and perform just as well (or the regs themselves changing to favour such a lo-cost small truck)... its passenger cell will have to be a miniature car one, w/o the space or weight margins for crush performance.

As to the BOF argument... a Kawasaki Mule Pro-DX can haul 2000 lbs for the lifetime of the vehicle... but it's basically a slightly-more-complex BOF. The Transit's unibody's only partial, as integrates with a ladder frame back from the passenger cell... so some pretty creative yet scalable and lo-cost solutions will need to happen, as a Mule Pro DX is certainly not federalised for crashworthiness. As with the Slate tho (which does use a combo uni-BOF design, is crashworthy and makes room for heavy batteries)... most likely whichever marque steps up to solve this problem, will do so with a lot of inspiration from a Slate

 

Cute-utes were making a comeback, and Ford felt a need for something in that segment. Cheaper to bring in an existing model than design new. Thus we got the Ecosport, which I remember being called dated by the press at the time. Sounds like it died from poor sales. Not just here, but in India too. The factories located there, that supplied the Americas, were also shut down.

Seems the Puma is considered its replacement in other markets. Europe gets an EV version.