Ford F-150 Lightning SSV Is The Future of Police Trucks
Ford claims F-150 Lightning Special Service Vehicle is first purpose-built electric truck for police.
With the ‘E’ in Police highlighted in bright blue along the side, Ford is emphasizing its future in its production of emergency vehicles with the all-electric 2023 F-150 Lightning SSV. Continuing their decades-long tradition of building vehicles for first responders, the blue oval has built this truck with the goal of improving not only efficiency, but productivity, of the police officers who use them.
Blue Going Green
Many police departments across the country have commissioned EVs, including the Ford Mustang Mach-E, for patrol duties. The idea is to make fleets environmental-friendly. There’s the obvious cost-savings of using electric over gas, which no doubt taxpayers will welcome. And like the civilian model, Ford says the SSV version of the Lightning has the Pro Power Onboard feature, which allows the truck to serve as a mobile power source. Civilians with a Lightning may use this feature to light up their home when their power goes out, but in the scope of police work, Ford says officers may use the powerplant to operate lights at nighttime accident scenes. Ford says the Lightning’s range will be revealed at a later date, but cops can expect the same sub-4 second 0-60 time, 452 horsepower and 775 lb.-ft. of torque.
Ford Tough Enough
Inside the electrified Five-0 is an all-function, no frills interior our men and women in uniform would come to expect: heavy-duty cloth seats, built-in steel intrusion plates and, as an option, roof-mounted LED warning beacons (we’re assuming that you can have your SSV outfitted as a “slick top,” as police officers call them, if you prefer no light bar on the roof). The wide frame of the full-size truck also allows for a service-grade center stack that police work demands. Also featured is the massive 12-inch center touch screen, but we wonder if that screen will get any use when these police trucks are outfitted with the industry-standard Toughbook on-board computers.
Bringing the frunk
Ah, yes. A feature that is a flex in and of itself. Frunks are synonymous with high-end vehicles, from 911s to Model Xs, but this frunk isn’t for stowing away for Louis Vuitton bags. We haven’t taken an official poll, but we imagine that just like how the mythical 4 out of 5 dentists recommend their patients chew sugar-free gum, the same amount of cops would probably recommend their Chief get them a vehicle with more storage space. With both a full-size bed and a frunk that gives them more than 14 cubic feet of space to put their gear, we bet at least 4 out of 5 cops would love it. Ford says more information on the Lightning SSV will be coming later this summer.
Images: Ford