Muscle cars were long extinct when Chrysler rolled out the Dodge Li'l Red Express. The grandfather of performance trucks came with a police-spec 360 packing 225 horsepower and 295 pound-feet (400 Nm) of torque. GM joined the party rather late with the Chevrolet 454 SS and GMC Syclone. Over at Ford, the Special Vehicle Team is credited with the development of the Blue Oval's first muscle truck.
First based on the ninth-generation F-Series in half-ton specification, then on the tenth-generation F-Series, the SVT Lightning was described by its maker as being a Mustang GT with a cargo bed. A two-door truck with a short bed, the most performance-oriented F-150 of its day was discontinued after MY 2004 due to falling demand for single-cab sport trucks.
Although it wasn't all that obvious back then, Ford was partly responsible for this fall in demand due to the introduction of the SVT Raptor. To this day, off-road pickup trucks are extremely popular in the US despite truck prices being higher than ever before.
We also have to remember that everyone and their dog prefers double cabs in this day and age, which explains why the two-door single cab is missing from the Ram DT's half-ton lineup. Heck, even Ford dropped the SuperCab from the Raptor for MY 2021.
Be that as it may, a great number of sport truck enthusiasts refuse to come to terms with the all-new and all-electric Lightning. The four-door body style in combination with said nameplate is viewed as blasphemy, and the switch from a rear-drive V8 setup to dual-motor AWD has also ruffled a few feathers.
Photo: Ford
Regardless of which side you fall on this issue, there's no denying that electric muscle will slowly but steadily replace internal combustion-engined passenger vehicles and light trucks. You can blame fuel economy and emission regulations for that. Given these circumstances, rendering artist Rain Prisk decided to redesign the F-150 Lightning into an electric F-150 SVT Lightning for the 21st century.
Pictured on Goodyear racing tires wrapped around six-spoke racing wheels, the single-cabbed F-150 SVT Lightning brings the point home with a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series-style tailgate spoiler, a lowered ride height, and matte paint. It's one seriously badass rendering, albeit the real thing wouldn't sell as well as the F-150 Lightning. Speaking of which, the F-150 Lightning isn't selling rather well compared to the ICE line.
Ford intended to triple F-150 Lightning production in 2023 to 150,000 units, but alas, Ford was forced to cut 700 jobs at the Rouge Complex in October 2023 due to poor demand. How poor? Let's say that F-150 Lightning sales fell 46 percent in the third quarter of 2023 as opposed to the second quarter of 2023.
The bad news doesn't end here, though. After eliminating one of three shifts in October 2023, the Blue Oval is expected to cut F-150 Lightning production in half in 2024. As per a memo sent to suppliers, the Rouge Complex will build 1,600 trucks a week instead of the originally planned 3,200. The same document indicates that ICE F-150 production will remain steady at the Kansas City and Michigan plants.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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