Much like a mistress snuck into the White House by President Kennedy’s secret service, the new electric Ford F150 Lightning awaits a presidential visit under a sheet. Thanks to some pictures of the event space at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center tweeted out early, we can clearly see this important new truck waiting there, under one of those fancy silken auto-show drapes.
In a few hours, President Biden is supposed to show up and pep-talk America in front of that huge flag, though I think most of us are really more interested about what’s under that sheet.
We’ve already learned a good bit about the electric F-150 already; we know it’ll look mostly like a normal F-150 in size and proportion, and the front end has already been teased, and looks to have a large, inverted-U-shaped light bar and a faceted not-grille.
The pictures appear to show a four-door crew-cab truck, which is hardly surprising. I’ll hope a single-cab version will be offered, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Maybe in the form of a work-spec fleet EV truck, at least?
We also know from patent docs that there’s a big trunk/front bed under the hood, with some sort of hinged/slidable bin setup in there. Will there be an actual headgate, like the idea I had that Canoo and Bollinger are currently fighting about? I hope so.
Hopefully today we’ll finally learn about the truck’s specs, its range, hauling capacity, acceleration, all that fun stuff. So far all we know is that it’ll be quicker than the original, gas-powered V8 Ford Lightning, which hit 60 in 5.8 seconds.
I’d expect range to be at least around 250 miles or so? Hopefully, it’ll be more. I guess we’ll find out all of this later today, along, hopefully, with price and availability.
And all we have to do is sit through a President talking! How bad could it be?
UPDATE: Okay, President Biden showed up, reminded everyone he is a “car guy” and the sheet was taken off the F-150 Lightning:
So far the only images are of the truck in the background; the full reveal (with all the specs) won’t come until tomorrow.
The truck looks pretty much like we guessed; I’m eager to see how that front end opens up. Above the bumper seems to be all some sort of panel or headgate, with a small set of openings below the bumper line for cooling and A/C condenser air intake.
Biden’s remarks were very clear about electrification for the future of the auto industry:
“Look, the future of the auto industry is electric. There’s no turning back. ... The only question is whether we’ll lead the race or fall behind.”
Biden also touted the construction of 50,000 new charging stations, and noted that so many of modernity’s innovations were started by American institutions like NASA.
The only hint of any specs was when Biden got a chance to drive a camouflaged pre-production F-150 Lightning, causing him to remark that “these vehicles can go from zero to 60 in 4.4 seconds.”
So maybe the President let the zero to 60 time slip?
If you want to see the whole thing, here’s the video: