A while ago, someone from Ford let it slip that the company was considering releasing high-end Ranger Raptor pickup with an eight-cylinder engine under the hood. This is officially not the case anymore, and the Covid-19 pandemic has nothing to do with it.
Ford fans had long hoped that the Raptor would eventually receive the same 5.0-liter supercharged V8 as the Mustang G series, rated at 455 hp (339 kW). They had also hoped it would share the transmission and suspension with the latest F-150 model. Alas, none of this will be the case in the near future.
In its official response, Ford pointed out the lack of necessary funding associated with approving and optimizing the new engine, calibrating the electronics, adapting the suspension, conducting crash tests, and so on. The company would have to design a number of new parts from scratch for this spec alone, which would bump its price considerably and make the whole idea less than viable. Finally, the development cycle would likely have taken a few years, which was also deemed inacceptable.