Doug Scott, Ford division's truck marketing manager, sees no need to offer a hybrid pickup like those sold by General Motors and Chrysler LLC. Scott calls their efforts "a publicity stunt." He spoke with Product Editor Rick Kranz during an F-150 press event this month.

What were some issues that owners of the 2004-08 F-150 wanted addressed in the 2009 model?

Access to the bed, the side. That is one we got hit with right away because we had taken the side of the bed up higher. And for shorter-stature people who reach over from the side, it was problematic almost from day one. We were immediately working on that. The box side step (that tucks underneath the side of the cargo box) came out of that. It is a wonderful solution because we didn't give up any volume.

The previous generation regular cab came standard with four doors, two of which were rear-hinged access doors. Why did Ford drop the two access doors when the 2009 model was being developed?

I launched that truck and I really thought that would catch the attention of regular cab buyers - the four doors, better access to that space behind the seat was really going to be seen as a big advantage.

It never really got a reaction, as measured by the sales result, as measured when we went to research. And when you looked at it, it was more expensive for us to do the flip-out doors. So from a marketing standpoint, it was impossible for me to say, "I've really got to have those flip-out doors" because I wasn't showing any kind of return in terms of customer preference for that flip-out. So it was a pretty compelling case to forget about it.

General Motors and Chrysler are launching full-sized hybrid pickups this year. Is there a market for a hybrid pickup?

It is a publicity stunt. It is no different than what you are seeing with their large SUVs. They are not selling any Tahoe and Yukon hybrids. It's about something to advertise.

In our case, we chose to have a democratization of technology like EcoBoost. Get more fuel efficiencies out there in mass and volume to as many people as you can, rather than focus all this energy on a very limited application that isn't going to be really appealing to many people.