The 2016 Ford F-150 is the only large pickup to earn an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick for SuperCrew and SuperCab configurations.
Class-leading crash test performance of the new Ford F-150 is enabled by the use of high-strength steel in the frame; high-strength, military-grade, aluminum alloy in the body; and smart engineering, which also help to save up to 700 lbs of weight to enable best-in-class ratings for towing, payload and EPA-estimated gasoline fuel economy.
“From the moment our team set out to design and build the new F-150, we knew it had to be best-in-class,” said Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president, Global Product Development, and chief technical officer. “This Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick is another example of Ford’s commitment to building the toughest, smartest, most capable and safest F-150 ever.”
A cross-functional group of Ford truck veterans worked thousands of hours to deliver improved durability, capability, fuel economy and safety. The team created 31 safety-related innovations – including new structures that manage crash forces, and joining methods that were tested virtually with supercomputer simulations, then retested in Ford’s advanced laboratories.
These smart innovations include a patented extruded aluminum roof crossmember and additional frame crossmember to help improve crash resilience.
To manage crash forces in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety small overlap front crash test, Ford created a system of innovations that work together to help protect the driver. Nylon hinge pillar reinforcements save weight, and in conjunction with specially designed wheel blockers, work to control crash forces while also providing additional safety.
“The same innovative approach applied to every other attribute of the 2016 F-150 is exemplified in our commitment to safety,” said Nair. “We spent thousands of hours engineering, designing and developing multiple safety features that work together in the event of an accident.”
F-150 is the only full-size, light duty truck to earn National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s highest rating, a five-star Overall Vehicle Score and a five-star rating for driver and passenger for all crash test modes and cab configurations – SuperCrew, SuperCab and Regular Cab.
