Trucks can help power a house in an outage
Up to 7,200 watts from hybrid pickup
Ford‘s Powerboost hybrid pickups and their on-board electrical generation are being put to the test in the home of the pickup right now. The automaker, seeing the need for portable power amidst a statewide blackout in Texas has reportedly loaned every one that dealers had to help out homes and businesses who needed a plug.
With a week of record lows causing natural gas shortages, power plants to shut down, and pipes to freeze, Texans were having one of their largest disasters in recent memory. Now, Automotive News reports, in order to do what it could to help, Ford has asked its dealers to loan out their stock of Ford F-150 Powerboost hybrid models. That’s 415 trucks in total, going to help people who haven’t had power in days.
To help convince dealers to loan out their brand new trucks, Ford is said to have upped its loaner fee to $600 as an incentive and has assured dealers that the trucks can still be sold with discounts for next month’s Truck Month sales event.
All new F-150 models can be optioned with a 2 kW generator option, enough to help keep folks in comfort in the cold, while the PowerBoost hybrid models offer a 2.4 kW generator standard with a 7.2 kW system optional. While just 415 trucks won’t make a meaningful dent in the state’s fortunes, we’re quite sure that the impact on those who are using them has been massive.
