Bring on the Gladiator 4xe PHEV.

At the Detroit show, Jeep confirmed the 2025 Gladiator 4xe (albeit the Gladiator and the Ranger are two very different types of pickup trucks).

Ford’s logic sounds like Toyota’s: “We aren’t going to offer this product that man you might want because we have other products that you don’t want, but we will market the heck out of them to you, with the hopes that you will buy them.” Then we can say “See! No one wanted the product we didn’t offer.”

Plug-in hybrid would be sweet.

Yup. Not sure what their experiences are, but that’s how it seems.

Agreed. And also have a grown-up conversations about those in society who need help. Letting them fend for themselves doesn’t seem to be working.

San Francisco resident here. Our family walks, bikes, ebikes, takes MUNI, and (gasp) drives to do the life thing here, compounded by kids’ activities, appointments, getting sick, etc.

So much this.

So this or a Grand Highlander?

I’ll bite. Where the heck is the Gladiator 4xe PHEV?

C’mon Ford. Bring out a strong plug-in hybrid F-150. You’ll need to to comply with the new CARB rules that kick in for model year 2026.

Try parallel parking on a major east-west or north-south artery in San Francisco. People don’t pay attention, no matter what you do as a driver to try to warn them ahead of time.

Dunno. Our five-year-old loves repeatedly pushing it to hear the “walk” come out of the speaker over-and-over. Then you push it enough times and it suddenly screams “WAIT TO WALK.”

A major Japanese automaker’s PR firm also did a big push recently on how regular hybrids are better and then sprinkled that opinion through the industry.

Expect strong PHEVs starting in model year 2026. What’s a strong PHEV? One with a 50 mile range and a big electric motor such that the battery powers the car in nearly any “punch it!” situation.

Just like the SFMTA’s claims, this would be much more accurate and useful if it was split into those caused by the AVs and those caused by humans involving AVs.

Great overview. Thank you.

2nd Gear: The People Don’t Want Autonomous Cars

Thank you for writing this.