LIGHTNING RODS

NO ONE IN THE '90S Imagined How Ford's Hot Rod Truck Would Evolve

- FRANK MARKUS

These two Ford F-150 Lightning pickups are nothing alike. Their worldviews appear to be diametrically opposed. The original seems antisocial-a flagrant corruption of the noble F-150's puritanical work ethic, a hedonistic implement for transforming petroleum into muscle car noises and pre-Hellcat, tire-shredding burnouts. Oy, the emissions! The modern Lightning EV, by contrast, hugs the planet by swiftly and silently performing tasks without fouling its immediate environs with even a molecule of CO2 while selflessly offering to power homes, businesses, and disaster locations with its abundant onboard energy. Kumbaya, my truck, kumbaya.

Then again, viewed through a historical lens, they're eerily similar. Each truck was conceived to pursue a novel trend in the wider light-duty truck market-the high-performance "personal-use" pickup of the 1990s and the e-truck of today. Neither pioneered its segment-the 1993 model having been preceded by the 1990 Chevrolet SS454 (the first muscle truck of the catalytic converter era) while today's Lightning EV followed the Rivian RIT to market by seven months and Tesla's Cybertruck announcement by a few years. (Of course, that Tesla is chasing the record set by Chrysler’s TC by Maserati for years passing between reveal and production.)

Ford established the Special Vehicle Team in 1991 in part to develop its SS454 rival, with the first two SVT offerings being the 1993-model Lightning pickup and Mustang Cobra (page 30). A couple decades later, one month before the first Lightning EV rolled off the line, Ford boss Jim Farley ensured all future EVs would be developed by a much larger “special electric vehicle team,” known as Ford Model e, when he cleaved the corporation in two. (Ford Blue will handle combustion-powered vehicles.)