When Ford decided to design an electric version of the F-150 pickup—the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for the past 45 years—the automaker knew that it would need to win over some serious skeptics.
“We wanted to make sure that we built a truck that would be accepted by truck owners today,” says Linda Zhang, chief engineer for the new EV, the Ford F-150 Lightning, which is the winner of the transportation category of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards. That meant developing a pickup that could haul heavy loads; the large version of the truck can pull 10,000 pounds of cargo up steep hills, more than some conventional models. But it can also accelerate faster than a gas truck, and the fact that it’s an electric vehicle makes some things possible that weren’t before.
