F-150 Lightning Walkthrough with Chief Engineer Linda Zhang

[Administrator]

Linda Zhang, Chief Engineer, Ford F-150 Lightning, Shows us Around Ford's All Electric Pickup Truck




In creating the Ford F-150 Lightning, the all electric version of Ford's best selling pickup truck, the company called on Linda Zhang to lead the project. She walked us through her favorite features in the F-150 Lightning, and a full interview with her:

Electrifying the Auto World on Her Terms: What Drives Her, Linda Zhang, Ford F-150 Lightning Chief Engineer
December 23, 2021 by Scotty Reiss

Linda Zhang, F-150 Lightning Chief Program Engineer, explains details of Ford’s first all-electric truck at the reveal of the all-new Ford F-150 Lightning at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, on May 19, 2021.

When you see more possibilities than obstacles, you can change the world.
The world of electric cars is about to hit a tipping point. That’s because in 2022 the ultimate smackdown will take place: Rivian will scale up the delivery of R1T pickup trucks, GMC’s Hummer EV pickups will roll into dealerships, and Tesla should begin production on the Cybertruck. That’s a lot of firepower lined up to win the electric vehicle race, and one that Ford has taken a stake in with a secret weapon of its own: Linda Zhang.

The chief engineer behind the new and game-changing Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, Linda may seem like an unlikely leader to be charged with spearheading the most important vehicle in Ford’s lineup and one that is shaping the future of Ford and the cars and trucks it produces.

But really, she’s not unlikely at all. Linda has been on this path for a while. Curiosity, possibilities and a desire to find new ways to do necessary things has driven her throughout her career. “In school I dabbled in solar cars,” she said, “so I thought this [F-150 Lightning development project] would be good.” Earlier in her career at Ford she also worked on electric cars and “the enablers to get EVs off the ground.” That meant looking for the things that would get customers excited about electric cars, that would make EVs convenient for daily life and that would let them replace popular cars and trucks rather than exist merely as an alternative.

We got a tour of the Ford F-150 Lightning with Linda Zhang.

And in that realm, the Ford F-150 was the ideal candidate for her next era of leadership: Development of the F-150 Lightning. A successful electric pickup truck, one that can do everything the gas-powered F-150 can do, and more, may be the most important factor in convincing naysayers and hesitaters to convert to electric driving.

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[Erik]

Linda mentions that the scales in the bed use a height sensor. I wonder if it measures the ground clearance and whether lifting the truck or getting bigger tires would impact the scales. Hopefully there is a calibration setting to measure the height when the bed is empty.

 

[Easycamper]

Linda mentions that the scales in the bed use a height sensor. I wonder if it measures the ground clearance and whether lifting the truck or getting bigger tires would impact the scales. Hopefully there is a calibration setting to measure the height when the bed is empty.

Hopefully but I’m thinking any modifications are going to throw off the scales. I’ll be adding some sort of suspension support for towing and the scales will probably be useless for me.

 

[Sundancer330]

I have got this far without scales, I think its just another gimmick anyway. One trip across the CAT scales and I have all the info I need for that trailers weight.

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