Tucked away in a press release about Ford teaming up with Red Bull Racing for a 2026 F1 entry was a teaser of a new EV performance demonstration. If you had any doubts about the vehicle's identity, a new tweet from CEO Jim Farley confirms it'll indeed be based on the F-150 Lightning. Red Bull Racing's third driver Daniel Ricciardo had the chance to see the electric truck in full. The rest of us will just have to wait a bit more.
It's not the first high-performance EV demonstrator based on a truck since Ford unveiled an F-100 Eluminator at the 2021 SEMA show with a powertrain borrowed from the Mach-E GT Performance Edition. Speaking of the sporty electric crossover, lest we forget the bonkers Mustang Mach-E 1400 with (yes, you've guessed it) 1,400 horsepower. Other exciting one-offs featured in the slide below are the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 drag car and the more recent Electric SuperVan with almost 2,000 hp.
Much like all these fast EVs, the beefy F-150 Lightning is unlikely to go into production. It too will be a demonstrator to showcase the exciting potential of electric motors for a sports truck. Don't be too surprised if it'll have four-digit horsepower and a ludicrous amount of instant torque. The top-spec electric truck on sale today is already quite potent, packing 580 hp and 775 lb-ft (1,051 Nm).
That kind of power enables the Lightning to go from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than four seconds, beating Ford's own original estimate by more than half a second. One can't help but wonder what the demonstrator will be able to achieve considering the production model is already properly quick for such a large and heavy truck.
As a refresher, the F-150 Lightning was crowned the 2023 North American Truck Of The Year, comfortably beating the Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and Lordstown Endurance. We've also given it two Motor1.com Star Awards for Best Truck and Best EV.
