Ford F-series  trucks are serious business for the blue oval gang. They sell more of these trucks than some car companies sell of their entire lineup over the course of a year and the trucks are a huge profit center for the company. As such, Ford invests lots of people and resources to make sure that the trucks stay at the level the buying public expects. They also invest heavily in innovation and technologies to keep the F-series in the forefront of the buyer’s mind.

The newest chapter in the Ford F-series story is the Atlas concept. Atlas made its public debut at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The truck’s appearance was a surprise to everyone, not least of which was GM who had rolled out their 2014 lineup of trucks and pricing and got about one day of great publicity from it…then this guy showed up. While Ford officials are quick to say that the Atlas is a concept truck that isn’t intended to go into production, we’re confident in saying that the photos you’ll see in this story will look eerily similar to the 2015 F-150 once renderings and spy shots start appearing in several months. We think that it is one boss looking piece and so we reached out to Ford so we could get some info from the company on the truck, the way people buy trucks, and how Atlas is set up to meet the needs of tomorrow’s truck customer.

We spent some time on the horn with Brian Bell who serves as the product marketing manager for the F-150 line and he answered our questions about Atlas. It was interesting to probe a little deeper than the press releases do and find out exactly what the “untouchable” elements are for designing new trucks at Ford. We actually got to that relatively quick when we asked about how important the balancing act is between evolution, refinement, and capability is. Bell said, “We never, ever trade off of functionality. These trucks need to do their jobs as our customers require them to do it. The vast majority of our trucks go to work every day and they are important tools for their users. Understanding that, we cannot compromise functionality for anything.”

Understanding that functionality is king adds an interesting layer to the whole job of designing and refining a truck like the F150. Take a typical passenger car for instance. You need to blend a dash of style with good ride and decent fuel economy. Those three elements cover a super large swath of the typical “applicance” car buyer. The problem for truck designers is that all three of those things are combined with actual work needs like payload capacity, towing capacity, storage space, and agressive looks which run counter to the whole fuel economy program. Today’s pickups are literally light years ahead of trucks that were built even 20 years ago. When asked about this Bell told us, “Our customers have made it pretty clear that they want a truck with a tough design, tough looks, and capability to back all of that up.” Bell continued, “Yes, they want fuel economy improvements because that’s a huge deal these days. They want towing capacity, they want technology to use the trucks more effectively at the jobs they are putting them to work at and they really are not willing to give anything up to get it. That makes our job tough, but it is also fun because what we end up with is trucks like Atlas.” Obviously engineers gave up some points on the fuel efficiency front with the large frontal area of the Atlas concept but they certainly employed some innovative tactics to get as much back as they could. There are active shutters in the grill, in the wheels, and an air dam that drops down when the truck achieves a certain speed. All of these aerodynamic elements are important when chasing the fuel efficiency targets that Ford has set to achieve with this (as presumably the 2015 F-150) trucks.

We were interested in power plants as well because different customers have different needs with respect to spec’ing out an engine. Bell was all about diversity with his answer. He said, “It is important for us to have engine options that fit what customers are using their trucks for. We currently have everything from naturally aspirated V6 engines, the twin turbo EcoBoost V6 engine family, a 5.0L V8, and in the Raptor the 6.2L V8. The idea is to have as many choices as possible to meet customer needs.” Information we had seen said that the Atlas concept would be powered by a “next generation EcoBoost” engine. We know next to nothing about those engines and Bell was not into leaking anything so we’re only going to speculate that there is less displacement and the same or better power. Seems to be the way of the world these days.

The cab was the next area that we discussed with Bell. If you have eyeballs and the basic ability to process information from the world around you, you know that the traditional style cab is now the exception and super or crew cab trucks dominate the marketplace. There’s a reason the Atlas is a crew cab and why so much time was spent on interior design. “Over the last 10 years there has been a massive shift in customer’s needs for cab space,” Bell said. He continued, “Crew cab trucks have blown up in popularity and trucks have gotten so nice today that they are used for all aspects of life and it wasn’t long ago that a truck was used for work and parked at the end of the day. That simply isn’t the case anymore.” Because of that, the days of a steel dash with a couple of knobs, a springy bench seat, and a rubber floor mat are largely gone from the world of interior truck design. Even the most basic “stripper” models have more amenities than the typical economy car. It is mind blowing to think about but in the F-150 line alone Ford has three different cab styles, three different bed lengths, and four wheelbases. Add all that stuff in with potential engine combos and you have an incredible array of products to fit the needs of a customer. At the end of the day it really seems like Ford has positioned itself to be that “catch all” model line up to meet the needs of customers seeking a work truck or a luxury rig to tow their boat on the weekend. In essence, there is no “standard model” truck buyer.

As an example of how the truck landscape has changed even in regard to towing, Bell related a story from his days working the floor at Ford stores. He said, “Typically we would order trucks with the maxed out towing package because so many people came in telling us that they wanted a truck capable of towing. As time has gone on, customers still want that towing capacity but they want it without having to sacrifice lots of elements because it has a big axle ratio in it or ride quality because it is sprung so tight.” Concept vehicles like Atlas allow Ford to explore solutions to those concerns in a new envelope. While we were not given specifics on this concept’s towing/hauling capability we’re going to assume the words “best in class” will eventually be attached to it when some form of the truck becomes available.

Finally, on the cool technology front, Ford has worked some interesting ideas into the concept truck. The first is an overhead 360-degree camera that essentially gives the driver a “halo” view of the truck and its immediate surroundings. This is obviously helpful for tight parking spaces, backing up to things like a loading dock and other fixed objects along with maneuvering through other tight situations. The bed lighting is different in the fact that it is not a single light on the cab but rather the bed being lit from within. One of the neatest ideas we talked about was the trailer backing assist which would allow the driver to back his truck up and watch dash mounted screen, adjust the trailer trajectory with a little joystick/knob and essentially alleviate the drama that lots of trailer backers experience on their way into the lake, a pit space, or out of a tight lot.

The Atlas is an important concept piece for Ford. One could argue that if the F-series trucks sneezed, Ford would catch a cold. In our opinion, the Atlas truck is a natural extension of the F-150 heritage. It walks the fine line between carrying on the recognized history and legacy of the trucks that came before it while simultaneously kicking the technology, styling, and ethos of what an F-series truck is ahead. Our speculation regarding the Atlas concept’s probable similarities to the MY 2015 trucks is just that, speculation. Our guess is educated by history and evolution, so we’re sticking by it. Now, if they’d just offer the Atlas with a small displacement diesel, we’d camp out in front of HQ until they let us drive one! If the end result of this exercise is a truck that looks much like the concept, we think Ford will have yet another popular and volume selling addition to its F-series line up.

WANT TO SEE THE ATLAS IN PERSON? HERE’S THE SHOW SCHEDULE FOR THE CONCEPT!