Ford will build hybrid models of the F-150 pickup and Mustang

Ford will release hybrid versions of its F-150 pickup — America’s best-selling vehicle, moving more than 750,000 units last year — and the legendary Mustang sports car, by 2020. It’s part of a large investment in electrified vehicles that Ford CEO Mark Fields unveiled at its Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan today.

Details on the new hybrids are pretty thin, but Ford did say that the F-150 Hybrid would be able to work as a mobile generator — generating electrical power at a job site is a big deal for farmers and contractor-types — and would offer “powerful towing and payload capacity.”

The Hybrid Mustang will have “V8 power” and “even more low-end torque.” Perhaps this is a way to juice the EcoBoost Mustang’s power output (it has a smaller, four-cylinder turbocharged engine) and deliver performance closer to the larger V8-engine found in the Mustang GT. Ford says it will debut in 2020.

The F-150 and Mustang are Ford’s most visible car models and adding hybrid powertrains is a significant announcement for the company (conveniently coming right at the beginning of CES). Ford also announced a plug-in hybrid version of its hugely popular Transit van for European markets that will arrive in 2019, a pair of pursuit-rated hybrid police vehicles, and a fully electric small SUV that can go 300 miles and will ship by 2020.

Ford also announced that it was canceling plans to build a $1.6 billion facility in Mexico and would invest $700 million in the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, adding 700 new US jobs and protecting an additional 3,500 more at another facility in Michigan.