A pickup whose grille drops into a front tailgate, with a TV rising out of the frunk behind it, sounds like a concept-car fever dream. If you’re picturing a fresh whiteboard session in Dearborn, though, the paper trail says otherwise. Ford Global Technologies already holds granted U.S. patents covering both the fold-down front gate and the frunk-mounted screen. They trace back to a single provisional application filed on June 1, 2022.
Ford has been quietly fencing off this family of ideas for years.
The TV has its own patent
The screen idea has its own granted document, titled “Front trunk including screen for displaying images or video” (US 11,960,198). Its first claim describes a vehicle with a frunk screen that retracts into a housing and a powered assembly that raises the screen as the frunk closure opens. Pop the hood, and the TV rises with it.
Related Articles
- Have This With Your Coffee: Your Backfire News Round-Up for September 25
- Bentley Mulliner’s Copernicus Trio: Three One-Off Continentals Themed on Sun, Earth, Moon
The details are far more thought out than a hood-mounted TV has any right to be. The display lives in a cartridge sized to span nearly the full width of the frunk and sits next to the rear wall. The screen rises through a slot in the top of the housing. Ford specifies it should end up perpendicular to the frunk floor within about ±3°, so it’s actually watchable on uneven ground. When retracted, the housing shields the screen from whatever else is rattling around in the frunk. And the whole cartridge can be pulled out if you’d rather have the cargo space.
Ford also covered its bases with alternatives. One version swaps the TV for a roll-up projection screen with a projector mounted under the grille section. Another turns the underside of the hood itself into the projection surface. The document says Ford’s goal is to make the frunk “more usable at worksites, tailgating events,” which neatly sums up the target customer: someone who works from the truck on weekdays and hosts from it on Saturdays.
The front tailgate folds out into two different tables
The fold-down front section is spelled out in a separate granted patent, “Front trunk including closure section configurable into two deployed positions” (US 12,017,615).
The closure is split. The upper section is the hood plus part of the grille and swings up and back. The lower section, the rest of the grille, swings forward and down on its own. That lower section is actually two stacked panels:
- Intermediate position: Both panels rotate about 90° together and sit flat, forming a narrow shelf. Ford says that position keeps you close to the frunk opening for loading and unloading.
- Fully deployed position: The top panel flips roughly 180° forward on its own hinge, lying flat alongside the other. The result is a surface about twice the area.
Ford suggests those surfaces could have a non-slip texture, take a rubber mat, or hold a wireless charging pad. Other parts of the spec describe side ledges, one with cup holders, pegboard panels on the underside of the hood and the frunk’s rear wall, and four 120-volt outlets, all powered by the traction battery.
A third family member, “Front trunk including multi-action closure assembly” (US 11,912,237), claims a hinged frame carrying two separately hinged panels, which the patent describes as the hood and grille. It’s the structural backbone that makes this kind of clamshell possible.
A hint about gas trucks
The front-gate patent also says the grille portions can be sized and shaped to match the grille of an engine-driven model of the same vehicle, so the lineup can share essentially the same front-end body structure. It notes that the grille can use solid surfaces to keep water out, because no airflow is needed to cool an engine.
So Ford isn’t only imagining a clean-sheet EV. The same sheetmetal and front-end hard points could appear on both gas and electric versions of a truck, with the EV turning the grille into a door. Spreading the tooling cost across the whole range is how a gimmick like this becomes affordable.
One caveat, and this is our analysis rather than anything in the patent: “no airflow needed for engine cooling” isn’t the same as “no airflow needed.” EVs still reject heat from the battery, the drive units and the climate-control system. A production version would need to put those heat exchangers somewhere, which is one reason patent drawings and showroom trucks often end up looking different.
Patents aren’t product announcements
The documents don’t name a production vehicle. They describe an “electrified vehicle,” show a pickup as the example, and explicitly say the ideas could apply to PHEVs, fuel-cell vehicles, or even mid- and rear-engined cars. Companies patent defensively all the time. A granted patent means Ford owns the idea. Whether it ever gets built is another matter.
If anything, the size of Ford’s frunk portfolio suggests it’s staking out territory. Other Ford patents from the same well cover a moveable frunk platform with a drawer and frunk work surfaces that slide or fold out. When a company files this many variations, it’s often trying to make sure no rival can ship the obvious version without licensing it.
If this reaches production
Front-end repair costs. Today’s grille is a relatively cheap bolt-on. A grille that’s also a hinged, latched, two-panel table sits right in the zone that takes minor parking-lot hits. Bent hinges, misaligned latches and water-seal issues are the kind of problems that turn a fender-bender into a bigger bill. If you buy the first model year of any truck with this setup, check what the repair procedure and parts cost look like before you need them.
Load ratings. People sit on tailgates. They will absolutely sit on a front one too, probably while holding a beer. Look for a published load rating on the panels and hinges. A fold-out table built for a laptop and a cooler is a different engineering problem from one built for a 200-pound person.
Related Articles
- Jamie Chadwick Just Did Williams’ Homework for Portimão, in a Car F1 Already Retired
- Subaru’s Boxerfest Teaser Shows a Winged WRX tS, and the Wing Is the Real News
Insurance and theft. A factory-installed screen is normally covered as part of the vehicle. Aftermarket electronics often fall under separate custom-equipment limits. Either way, a TV in a lockable frunk is still a TV in a truck parked in a stadium lot. Ask your insurer how it would be covered, and ask the dealer whether the cartridge can be removed and stored at home, as the patent suggests.
Battery math. Running a screen and a few outlets off a traction battery is trivial compared with driving, but a tailgate party still draws power. Know your truck’s minimum-charge cutoff for accessory power before a full day at the game strands you in the parking lot.
Ford’s front tailgate and frunk TV are real ideas with real engineering behind them, and Ford has had them on file since 2022. Whether they ever show up on a window sticker is anyone’s guess, and Ford isn’t saying.
Would you pay extra for a flip-down front tailgate with a pop-up TV, or does it just sound like a way to turn a $400 grille repair into a $4,000 one? Sound off in the comments.
Images Via: USPTO
About the Author
