The usual culprit has pulled off its usual caper — that being CarsDirect getting a look at an early dealer guide and passing on the particulars we're after, this time the pricing for the 2021 Ford F-150. We're told base price for the entry-level two-wheel-drive XL regular cab is $30,635 after the $1,695 destination, making the 2021 pickup a mere $195 more expensive than the 2020 model. That puts the Ford $540 above the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado regular cab long bed in two-wheel drive. Ram doesn't make a single cab even in its Tradesman work series, so comparisons there are unfair. On the lower end of 40 possible trim combinations in the 2021 F-150 lineup, CarsDirect writes that the math shows price increases from $195 to $290. The XLT SuperCrew with a 5.5-foot bed starts at $42,005, a $290 bump over the current model. Adding four-wheel drive raises the price by the same $3,495 that it costs on this year's truck.

At the upper end of the trim tree, the site cautions that "buyers at the top of the F-150 range will see substantially higher prices," but CarsDirect didn't publish any numbers and said it's "still working on our full analysis."

We have a few digits concerning the hybrid, however. The electric-assist that brings with it an onboard generator and as much as 700 miles of driving on a single tank of gas is priced on a sliding scale, being less expensive as a shopper moves up the trim ladder. Available as an option on all but the base trim and the Raptor, it will cost $2,500 to hop from either the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 or 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 to the 3.5-liter EcoBoost Hybrid V6. It will cost $3,300 to get into the hybrid from the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6, or $4,495 to make the switch from the base 3.3-liter V6. Seeing that the 2020 SuperCrew Limited starts at $69,430 after destination, it's easy to see how next year's pickup plumps the MSRP range up to $75,000 before a finicky buyer does any fiddling.

We'll get more details closer to the on-sale date, or whenever CarsDirect gets another look at an order guide. Based on the low-end numbers, initial impressions are that the 2021 F-150 has given up nothing to its competitors.

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