News of Ford filing to trademark the Maverick Lightning and Ranger Lightning names doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but now we can take this to the bank: there will be other electric pickups in the Ford lineup in the more or less near future. Carbuzz was the first to discover and report on the recent patent filing.
Strong demand for the Lightning version of the larger F-150, as well as the great popularity of the hybrid version of the Maverick, obviously convinced Ford that its pickup customers are indeed ready for the transition to electric.
In fact, last year, the company's boss, Jim Farley, suggested that he would like to see another electric truck in the lineup, referring to the Maverick model.
At this point we don’t know the timeline for development of either model. The Maverick has just hit the market, while the Ranger is getting ready to re-emerge in revised form for 2023. That doesn't rule out an electric variant of that model appearing over the course of the next generation.
Of course, even if Ford does confirm what everyone is assuming this trademark filing portends, the automaker will have to contend with online supply-chain and delivery problems on EVs when it comes time to plan a launch schedule. Realistically, we’re probably looking at a 2024-2025 horizon for the arrival of these variants, if they do come to pass.
So much remains unknown here, but we do now know that Ford has at least some intentions for future electric pickups. It’s more a matter of when than if by this point, especially since Ford wants 50 percent of its global sales to be electric by 2030. It's going to take products to reach that goal.
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