First Sight: Ford F-150 Lightning Pro
By Laura Burstein2022-02-14T10:23:00
The commercial grade of the full-sized pickup is one piece of Ford’s ambitious new plan for business owners
Ford’s best-selling F-150 pickup truck is going electric, with the first deliveries expected to begin this spring. The blue oval’s stalwart workhorse in its BEV incarnation will deliver up to 300 miles of range and offered in four trim levels — perhaps the most important of which is the Pro model, aimed at the commercial segment, which accounts for a significant portion of Ford’s F-150 sales. We don’t write much about commercial vehicles here at CDN, and while it may not seem glamourous, fleet and business sales are often the bread-and-butter for most manufacturers, so it’s crucial to get the design right.
“Commercial customers have very different needs, but most manufacturers sell watered-down versions of retail vehicles,” Ford President Jim Farley told us recently at a presentation in Sonoma County, in California’s wine country. Instead, he says, the F-150 Pro was designed from the ground-up with toughness and ability in mind. Ford chief designer for trucks Ehab Kaoud spoke with CDN about designing for the commercial buyer.