Behold, The Ford F-150 Lightning And Its Gigantic Frunk

Frunks on electric vehicles are rarer than we’d like. All too often, the space normally taken up by an engine is instead filled with various gubbins from the electric powertrain. The new Ford F-150 Lightning, however, has such a beefy front end that it’s able to have a frunk. A huge one.

The “mega power frunk” has a 400 litres capacity, making it 25 litres larger than the boot of a Focus. Ford says it’s big enough to fit two lots of golf clubs or two carry on bags plus a checked-in bag.

Propelling your two sets of golf clubs is a dual-motor powertrain providing 555bhp and 775lb ft of torque to both axles - more twist than any other F-150. 0-60mph will be in the “mid-four-second range” so long as the extended range battery pack is specced. Go for the standard pack, and the torque stays the same, but the power drops to 421bhp.

Ford hasn’t disclosed the capacities for either battery, but we do know one of them, presumably the extended range, weighs around 800kg on its own. The standard pack can go up to 230 miles on a single charge, while the extended range will manage around 300.

Using an optional “home management system,” it’s possible to use the Lightning as a mobile power station to keep the lights on in the event of a power cut. Deployed thusly, you’ll get around three days of power, or as many as 10 if electricity is used more sparingly. No post-hurricane Netflix binging, in other words.

The Lightning has a charging capacity of 150kW, so hooked up to the right kind of station, it’s possible to get the extended range battery from 15 to 80 per cent in 41 minutes. Using the home-installed Ford Charge Station Pro, 15 - 100 per cent is doable in eight hours.

If you’re carrying something a little too substantial for that fabulous frunk, there’s a 167cm load bay that can be piled up with up to 907kg of stuff - a broadly comparable payload to the Lightning’s petrol and diesel counterparts. It can tow up to 4.5 tonnes, a little lower than most fossil-fueled F-150s, but not that far away either.

In terms of styling, it’s still unmistakably an F-150, but with a drastically different front end. There’s a restyled bumper and a new grille surrounded by redesigned lights, incorporating a giant light bar that spans across the bonnet to give a distinctive DRL signature. Inside, Ford has ditched a lot of the standard car’s physical controls and replaced them with a similar enormo-tablet setup to the Mach E.

We’re used to punchy pricing with EVs, but interestingly, the Lightning starts at a relatively low $39,974, compared to $28,940 for the cheapest conventionally-powered F-150. A mid-spec XLT will be still very reasonable at $52,974. The least expensive version of the GMC Hummer EV, which also weighs more than a small moon, is $79,990 and won’t be arriving until 2024. The Lightning, on the other hand, is here in spring next year.