Biden Visits F-150 Plant Ahead of Lightning BEV’s Reveal

Bill Ford, Ford Motor Co. executive chairman and a great-grandson of the company’s founder, says it is only fitting the battery-electric F-150 Lightning make its official debut in Dearborn with a reveal preceded by an appearance by President Joe Biden.

“For both Ford and the American auto industry, F-150 Lightning represents a defining moment as we progress toward a zero-emissions, digitally connected future,” Bill Ford notes Wednesday while images of the pickup flash across a screen projected onto the face of the company’s Dearborn headquarters.

Bill Ford says the F-150 first appeared in Dearborn 72 years ago, and the Lightning is a pillar of the company’s more than $22 billion global electric vehicle plan. Ford is starting with zero-emissions versions of its most popular marques – Mustang, Transit and F-150 – with more to come in the years ahead.

Biden was in Dearborn the day before the official reveal to visit Ford’s Rouge manufacturing complex where the F-150 Lightning will be built.

“The future of the auto industry is electric,” Biden tells a group of executives, political figures and union officials inside the plant that also will build a plug-in hybrid version of the F-150, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than four decades.

Biden links the race to build electric vehicles to competition with China and the need to slow climate change which, despite the danger it poses, also represents an opportunity to create thousands of new, good-paying jobs.

Biden also made an exception to Secret Service policy barring presidents from driving a vehicle. He slipped behind the wheel of a camouflaged F-150 in front of photographers.

“This sucker is fast,” Biden observed after one of his runs in the prototype.

The F-150 Lightning targets 563 hp, 775 lb.-ft. (1,050 Nm) of near instantaneous torque– more than any F-150 ever – and a 0-60 mph (97 km/h) time in the mid-4-second range when equipped with an extended-range battery.

It also will offer an array of connected, intelligent features that improve over time via over-the-air software updates; the FordPass app will provide access to charging stations and remote vehicle controls; and available BlueCruise offers hands-free driving on the highway.

Prices for the commercial-oriented version of the F-150 Lightning entry model start at $39,974 before any federal or state tax credits. The mid-series XLT model, offering additional comfort and technology, starts at $52,974 MSRP.

“The F-150 Lightning is a massive moment for our Ford team,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley says at the unveiling.

“It will be built at the Rouge factory, where Henry Ford changed the world and my grandfather punched in every day. F-150 Lightning represents all that our country can do when we push for progress,” he says.

Jim Farley with F-150 Lightning (Getty)