It’s official. The upcoming electric Ford F-150 will be called F-150 Lightning and it will be revealed on May 19. This the automaker’s second EV, and it has used a legendary moniker in both cases. After slapping the Mach-E with the Mustang badge, Ford has now brought back the performance truck ’Lightning’ badge from the 90s and early 2000s to use it on the electrified truck.

What Do We Already Know About The F-150 Lightning?

There are a few things now, however, that we know. Jim Farley, Ford’s President and CEO, noted that the Lightning “can power your home during an outage”, something that came to prominence even during the Texas winter storm earlier this year. In the standard 2021 F-150, you can have it with an Onboard Pro Power generator with two-, 2.4-, and 7.2 kW capacities. It will work differently in the case of the F-150 Lightning, though, using a Vehicle-to-Load kind of functionality as seen in the Hyundai and Kia EVs.

The other thing noted by the CEO was that the F-150 Lightning will be quicker than the original Lightning. The best 0-60 mph time recorded by the Lightning was in the second half of its second run between 1999 and 2005. Powered by a 5.4-liter supercharged V-8, the ’99 and 2000 model year truck took 6.2 seconds to 60 mph from rest, but the 2001-2004 model took just 5.2 seconds. The top speed was rated at 140 mph, but it was able to clock 147 mph in 2003. This was even recognized by Guinness World Records, which gave it the “World's Fasted Production Truck" title at that point. So, we can expect sub-five-second 0-60 mph times on this model.

Does The Teaser Reveal Anything About The F-150 Lightning?

It’s a “teaser”, so you can’t expect much out of it, but it certainly increased the hype surrounding the truck. Ford has been very good with these pre-launch marketing videos. Even the Bronco, for instance, was hyped sequentially and effectively without it getting tiring or boring.

In the F-150 Lightning’s teaser video, you can see the full-width bar connecting the LED headlights. This was previewed in the past, too, so nothing new here. Other than this, you can see a lot of erstwhile models, like the 1948 F-1, the Model T pickup, and the SVT Lightning amongst others. There are clever quips, like “take the legendary and turn it into something revolutionary”, “take electric and turn it into Lightning”, etc. We could see many such trailers come out at regular intervals teasing the truck.

What Can We Expect From The Ford F-150 Lightning?

After that train-pulling stunt back in 2019, the F-150 Lightning has had a lot of hype surrounding it. But, there’s still not a lot known about it at this point Multiple motor options could be in the reckoning along with different towing capacities, battery sizes, performance specs, and of course, range. From what it’s worth, a widespread trim level palette like the internal combustion F-150’s could be offered right from the beginning. It needs to offer at least 400 miles of EPA-estimated range in its best avatar given that it will arrive sometime in 2023 and 400 miles will be average by then. Also, Chevy has already announced the same range for the upcoming electric Silverado.

When Is The Electric F-150 Arriving?

Most of the EV manufacturers also begin the deliveries of the higher trims first followed by the lower trims – Tesla with the Cybertruck, GMC with the Hummer EV, and Lucid with the Air, to name a few. So, the same could be the case here, too, with the lower trims coming in 2024, perhaps. But, if Ford plans to sell it as a work truck primarily, then this logic won’t work and the company will have to roll out cheaper, high-demand models first.

Where Will The F-150 Lightning Be Built and How Much Will It Cost?

The truck will be built at the Ford’s Rogue Electric Vehicle Center.

There’s no word on the pricing yet, but the company has stated in the past that it won’t sell EVs costing over $100,000. If we go by this, expect the F-150 Lightning to top out around $90,000 before options. Also, don’t wait for an electric Super Duty, because that’s not happening.

Conclusion

The F-150 Lightning will be revealed on May 19 at 2130 ET. The live streaming will be available on 30+ channels, including the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and of course, on its YouTube channel.

What are you looking forward to the most in the F-150 Lightning - power, performance, towing capacity, or range? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.