2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid

Quick as a Raptor and can power your house

- Frank Markus

We borrowed a 2021 Ford F-150 Lariat Sport 4x4 PowerBoost, strapped our gear to it, and were frankly amazed that it’s ready to race Raptors for pinks. But by the end of our three days with this F-150, it was the power in the pickup box, not under the hood, that most impressed us.

Sandwiching a 44-hp, 221-lb-ft electric motor in between the 394-hp, 492-lb-ft 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 EcoBoost engine and the 10-speed automatic transmission boosts total output to 430 horses and 570 lb-ft. The outgoing Raptor made 20 more horses but 60 fewer lb-ft of torque, and the last one we tested weighed 171 pounds less, but the hybrid has a better weight-to-power ratio.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, then, that the new truck runs nearly neck and neck with the Raptor. It zips to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds on the way to a 13.8-second, 102.1-mph quarter mile. All other F-150s we’ve tested need 6 or 7 seconds to get to 60 mph. Very much unlike the Raptor, the EPA reckons it’ll return 24/24/24 mpg city/highway/combined. If only it didn’t moan like a five-cylinder diesel UPS truck.