FORD F-150 LIGHTNING

On the one hand a large pickup truck appears ripe for EV conversion. A long wheelbase is perfect for cradling an enormous slab of lithium-ion, plus a porky kerbweight isn’t going to scare anyone off. Oodles of EV torque is ideal for towing and hauling and having power points scattered everywhere is spectacularly handy.

But there’s a problem – the pickup truck is a symbol of simple, affordable, dependable transport. Range and charging limitations, plus the cost of batteries, start to erode at those pillars immediately. But in America, where they vacuum up pickup trucks at an alarming rate, that’s not even the biggest issue. There, the pickup represents freedom: a full tank of gas, a V6 or a V8 slurping away happily and anything’s possible. To huge swathes of Americans replacing their engines is like taking away basic civil liberties.

Ford sells close to a million F-Series trucks a year in America alone, and the F-150 makes up the lion’s share of that, so messing with the formula is an audacious move. America is going to take some convincing, but Ford has done its bit by not just slinging out the engine and sliding in some AAs, but taking the opportunity to make this a better F-150 full stop. It rolls along with a hitherto unknown refinement, the throttle is sharp as a tack and it accelerates like a sports car. It can tow up to 4,535kg, it can power your house when the grid goes down and it’s a massive power brick on wheels. Order it with the Pro Power Onboard and you get six USB ports and 11 proper sockets.

Its 400-litre Mega Power Frunk is the best use of space vacated by an internal combustion engine we’ve seen yet and with the larger 131kWh battery it’ll do a real world 300 miles between charges – on and, surprisingly far, off-road. It’s forbidden fruit, sold exclusively on the other side of the Atlantic, but it’s got the potential to change the EV landscape for us all.