More thoughts on the Maverick

[MasterMario]

Since Ford looks to be going for the "most fuel efficient pickup" award I was thinking about how you improve the mpgs. We all know a truck body design is not great aerodynamically. I bet if Ford added a camper shell similar in shape to the one below they could pick up at least a couple mpgs on the highway side of things.

They could offer it as a "High Efficiency" package or something. It would turn the bed into a huge trunk like it would mostly be used for anyways. You could still fold down the tailgate to carry longer items and if you made the glass/lift removable you could still haul the occasional tall item when necessary.

Bonus question:

Is the Maverick's normal 12v battery located under the bed? That's sure what it looks like here

Update: Looks like Torch covered this over on Jalopnik and the battery seems to be under the rear seats. Much better than under the bed like I initially thought.
https://jalopnik.com/the-2022-ford-maverick-hybrid-pickup-truck-and-an-old-v-1847073627

[Roundbadge]

@mastermario Re: battery, astute observation. I haven't heard anyone else mention this yet...but I've not been reading a lot of articles about it either.

[Cash Rewards]

@roundbadge torch had an article on the FP about it yesterday

[Roundbadge]

@cash-rewards Yep, just found it. I don't look at that site much anymore, and had stopped looking up anything on the Maverick a few days ago.

[davesaddiction]

@mastermario

A "pillow" of air gets created in the bed of a pickup an the airflow hits the top of the tailgate and exits. Not sure how much of an improvement this would give. The problem with pickups is how high the exit is at the top, and how large an area of turbulence there is behind (and underneath) the vehicle.

Good approach angles are the enemy of fuel economy.

[MasterMario]

@davesaddiction that pocket of air is a giant low pressure hole though. It's not just turbulence that causes drag. Tesla's Cybertruck is a close approximation of what this sort of slant back cover would create. Per this article the approximate Cd of the Cybertruck is 0.39 compared to 0.59 and 0.56 for Dodge and Ford trucks. That's a pretty significant improvement.

[davesaddiction]

@mastermario

Would be very interesting to test it out in the real world.

Laminar flow is where it's at!

[winterlegacy]

@mastermario Are there tests like this with a conventional truck cap?

[MasterMario]

@winterlegacy based on this Master's thesis a traditional cap provides a little bit of improvement over an open bed. Here's a table summarizing all their results.