Ford to reveal new all-electric F-150 Lightning in livestream event May 19

Ford Motor Co. plans to reveal the all-electric F-150 Lightning on May 19 during an evening extravaganza that begins at 9:30 p.m. in a livestream event at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, the company announced at noon Monday.

The Free Press first reported earlier Monday on the installation of a projection screen at the headquarters over the weekend but Ford declined to comment then on anything involving the situation.

Ford spokeswoman Emma Bergg declined to provide any detail about how the new big screen will be used for the event. "More to come. We're excited."

The global event will be broadcast live with more than 30 ways to watch, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter as well as sites in Times Square in New York City and Las Vegas Boulevard, Ford said in its English and Spanish news releases.

"Every so often, a new vehicle comes along that disrupts the status quo and changes the game … Model T, Mustang, (Toyota) Prius, (Tesla) Model 3. Now comes the F-150 Lightning,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley in a statement.

“America’s favorite vehicle for nearly half a century is going digital and fully electric," he said. "F-150 Lightning can power your home during an outage; it’s even quicker than the original F-150 Lightning performance truck; and it will constantly improve through over-the-air updates.”

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The vehicle will be built starting next spring by UAW members at the all-new Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. Farley referred to the Ford Rouge Complex on Monday as "the cathedral of American manufacturing."

Up until Monday, residents of Dearborn and passersby saw workers on elevated platforms outside Ford World Headquarters and wondered if windows were being replaced.

The importance of the F-150 to the 118-year-old automaker cannot be overstated.

The F-Series is second only to the iPhone when it comes to branded consumer product sales, according to an economic analysis in June 2020 from the Boston Consulting Group.

While the iPhone generated $55 billion in revenue compared to $42 billion for the F-Series in 2019, the F-Series generated more revenue than the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League combined — which was $40 billion, the analysis showed.

All by itself, the F-Series full-size pickup truck franchise within Ford Motor Co. is so big that it would make the list of Fortune 100 companies.

“It is impossible to overstate the economic significance of the Ford F-150 to Ford and to the U.S. economy," market analyst Jon Gabrielsen told the Free Press in June. "The Ford F-150 is the single highest volume vehicle sold in the U.S. and has been for years."

Ford revealed its 2021 Ford Bronco and 2021 Ford F-150 during livestreaming events.

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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.