2021 Ford F-150 flashes its grilles in new spy shots

A new Ford F-150 is scheduled to arrive at some point this year, and while the prototypes were buzzing about like flies in 2019, our spy shooters haven’t seen many new developments since the new year. That changed today, as we now have photos of the new F-150 with its grille completely in the open.

Previously, the truck’s maw was covered by white wrappings. These new shots reveal a blocky, mesh design with a single crossbar bisecting the grille. We can’t see the far edges of the mouth yet to know its full shape, but we’re guessing it’s a smoothed out square look. The current F-150’s grille bleeds into the headlights, and it’s a simple, classy look. We can’t tell how far the grille extends outward in these photos, but the headlights are pushed to the edges of the front end. If Ford simply gives us an evolution of the current front end design, it’d keep a lot of people happy.

Mesh grilles are nothing new for the F-150, as several trim variants of the current truck employ a similar design — we might be looking at the XLT here. This one is a bit blockier than standard F-150s before, but we still wouldn’t drop it into the same box as the always-angry Silverado. A second F-150 grille is also partially on display here, as the mesh covering dropped away on one of the standard cab trucks. It uses some chunky rectangles mounted on vertical slats as a styling treatment, which seems to be a new design compared to the current F-150 work truck look. If anything, this truck comes off as slightly more stylish than the one on sale now.

We expect to see the next-gen F-150 come to us sometime later this year, following the Bronco’s incoming spring reveal. That’d make it a 2021 model year — the current generation was introduced for the 2015 model year, where it made the big switch to a largely aluminum body and structure.

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