Now that the Ford F-150 Lightning is on its way to customers, Ford has gone to work on its second electric pickup. That’s all we officially know for now. But, though they were being coy, Ford executives dropped a pretty good hint that it’s probably based on the midsize Ranger.
Lightning Hits Production
Ford yesterday held a celebration to mark the moment the first customer-bound Lightning rolled off the factory line.
Automakers don’t always mark that milestone – we don’t even get a press release when Ford builds the first Escape of a new model year. But the Lightning marks an important moment for Ford.
Ford CEO Jim Farley told reporters yesterday, “We plan to challenge Tesla and all comers to become the top EV maker in the world. That’s something that no one would have believed just two years ago from us.”
Trucks are a huge part of how Ford hopes to get there. The company builds America’s best-selling vehicle – the F-150 full-size pickup – and offers pickups ranging from compact (the new Maverick, our Best New Model for 2022) to heavy duty. If it hopes to build an electric fleet, it will need to be an electric truck fleet.
Ford knows it. “We have every intention of being the number one electric pickup maker,” Farley said.
A “Next-Gen” EV Truck
Hence, that second open-bed EV model. Farley teased it himself, saying, “We’re already pushing dirt down in Blue Oval City in Tennessee for another electric pickup truck that’s different than this one.”
That leaves a lot of possibilities open, from a Lightning Super Duty to an electric Maverick.
But a Ford spokesperson later explained that the new EV “will be a next-gen electric truck, different from F-150 Lightning.”
The next brand-new truck in Ford’s plan is the 2023 Ranger, which will be an entirely new design based on a model that has already appeared overseas. That makes an electric Ranger seem like the most likely solution.
We’ll bring more news when we have it.
