Ford’s F-150 Lighting breaks cover — here’s your first look

(Image credit: Ford)

Ford has revealed the new F-150 Lightning pickup truck a day early. All because the all-electric truck was spotted behind President Biden during his speech at Ford’s Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan.

Ford had been keeping the car under wraps until an official launch event later today. As best as we can tell, that’s still the plan, but naturally the President’s visit mean we got to see the car in action.

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The F-150 Lighting design isn’t all that surprising, and looks remarkably like the gas and hybrid models Ford already has on sale.

And there it is. The electric @Ford F-150 Lightning ahead of comments by @POTUS. pic.twitter.com/IF0baIT55wMay 18, 2021

Considering the F-series has long been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., with 787,422 units sold in 2020, that makes sense. Switching to electric is a big step, and a familiar design can help make it more appealing to truck owners who are unsure of what model to buy next.

Ford F-150 lightning biden test drive — (Image credit: CNN)

Biden got to test drive the car himself, which was caught on camera and gave us a glimpse of the car from different angles. Though Ford covered up the sections of the car, presumably to hide it from reporters and their cameras.

We can see that the F-150 Lighting comes with a large infotainment display, much like other high-end electric cars. We assume that this is a touchscreen too, because it would be pretty dumb for Ford to include such a big screen only for it to need a huge range of buttons to control it.

It was also revealed that the car can go from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds, and the President demonstrated how fast (and quiet) the car was when he drove away from a group of reporters.

Unfortunately we don’t know much else about the F-150 Lighting, beyond the fact Ford plans to assemble the car at Rouge Electric Vehicle Center itself. All the big details will be coming later today, and will hopefully including pricing, release dates, and specs on the truck’s battery and recharging capabilities.

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Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.