Ford is Officially Bringing the Lightning Pickup Back and it’s Going to be Electric

Oh Man, Grab Your Popcorn Because Things Are Getting Interesting

Ever since 2004, or so it seems, Ford fanatics have been clamoring for the return of the Ford Lightning. Back in the day, the supercharged pickup truck was definitely something that felt like it was ahead of its time. Performance enthusiasts have always wondered what it would be like if Ford were to recreate such a concept in the current age of trucks.

As we know, Ford has marched on with the likes of the SVT Raptor. However, it didn’t seem as if they had given very much thought to bringing back a street truck like the Lightning.

Today, that all changes as the brand has announced that the Lightning nameplate will come back, presumably for the 2023 model year. However, this truck isn’t going to be exactly what fans of the model have been expecting to see alongside a headline like this.

Instead, while the truck has been promised to exceed the performance of the original Lightning, it’s not going to be powered by a supercharged combustion engine. Instead, the next upcoming Lightning will be powered by electricity. This seems to be the ongoing trend as just about every model these days is in talks to have an electric version released or already has an electric version available.

The pot was certainly stirred and there was a lot of controversy when Ford decided to take the Mustang name and apply it to the all-electric Mach-E. Apparently, something in that process stuck out to them as they are bringing back another iconic performance nameplate and making it all-electric.

We weren’t told much about the platform but instead, asked to tune in on May 19 at 9:30 PM/ET as Ford will spill the beans on their Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts. We presume that they will be a bit more open about specifics at that point in time.

We have a strong feeling that the announcement will probably cause a rift in the performance community. However, if the rest of the industry has told us anything, we would probably expect that this version of the Lightning will be by far the most superior in terms of performance. Whether or not that will be enough for fans to buy into it, though, is yet to be seen.