Ford Adds Police Truck To Already Potent F-150 Pickup Line

With the first Mustang Mach-E electrics deploying as police vehicles, you had to assume that the Ford F-150 Lightning, the vehicle-makers first electric truck, would soon follow the same route. Currently, the Mustang Mach-Es are liveried in light blue and white and are being deployed by various Canadian police authorities. The Lightning Police Truck concept is liveried in the more traditional black and white style used by many U.S. police departments.

Police Departments Receive Modern Work Truck

According to Ford, the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro SSV provides a modern, always-on work-ready truck police departments need to help lower costs, drive efficiency, and accelerate customer sustainability goals. The F-150 Lightning Pro SSV combines the benefits of an electric power train with a law enforcement-specific interior of the F-150 Police Responder package. The package includes police-grade heavy-duty cloth seats, built-in steel intrusion plates, and roof-mounted LED warning beacons.

Meantime, Ford, using FordPro, helps make the transition to electric vehicles easier for municipal customers with a top-selling police vehicle lineup, software, charging solution, service, and financing.

Ford has provided police departments with the vehicles they need to protect and serve communities for over 70 years. Ford Pro customers include more than 12,000 police departments across the country, and its police vehicle lineup outsells all other police vehicles combined. The company attributes this success and customer loyalty to the automaker's close collaboration with its customers, specifically the Ford Police Advisory Board.

"We're proud to offer America's first electric police pickup truck to local government customers who can use the truck's game-changing technology to help improve their productivity," said Nate Oscarson, Ford Pro national government sales manager. "Pro Power Onboard can serve as a mobile power source to light up evening accident scenes on the highway, the electric powertrain helps to reduce costs associated with fuel and scheduled maintenance needs potentially, and the Mega Power Frunk provides extra lockable storage on top of purpose-built police additions our customers have come to expect from the leader in police vehicles."

An Intelligent Electric Truck Purpose-built For Police

The 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro SSV blends familiar Built Ford Tough power and performance, including available sub-four-second 0-60 mph acceleration capabilities, with the vehicle's high-tech electric platform and innovation with Ford Pro's real-time software and support.

The F-150 Lightning Pro SSV is designed to handle specialized departmental needs outside of pursuit situations, such as assisting at an accident or crime scene or allowing departments to tow a boat or trailer. Purpose-built features from F-150 Police Responder® include:

• Police-grade heavy-duty cloth seats with reduced bolsters to help holstered officers enter and exit the vehicle more easily
• Built-in steel intrusion plates in the front seatbacks
• Available red/blue, amber/white roof-mounted LED warning beacons
• An upfit-friendly reinforced instrument panel top tray for easy mounting of police equipment
• Easy-to-clean vinyl rear seats and vinyl flooring

Standard Police Truck features include:

• Interior: 12-inch digital cluster screen and 12-inch landscape-style touchscreen on the center stack
• Exterior: Mega Power Frunk gives officers 14.1 cubic feet of lockable cargo area in the front and offers easy access for upfitters to locate a 220-amp DC-DC power source
• Targeted performance and capability: 452 horsepower, 775 pounds-feet of torque, , 7,700-pound towing capacity, and 2,235 maximum payload with a standard-range battery, and sub-four-second 0-60 mph acceleration4, 580 horsepower, 775 pounds-feet of torque, and 10,000-pound towing capability with the extended-range battery
• Technology: Intelligent Range, SYNC 4, over-the-air Ford Power Up software updates, and Ford Co-Pilot360 technology, including Automatic Emergency Braking and Blindspot Information System (BLIS) with Cross-Traffic Alert
Marc Stern has been an automotive writer since 1971 when an otherwise normal news editor said, "You're our new car editor," and dumped about 27 pounds of auto stuff on my desk. I was in heaven as I have been a gearhead from my early days. As a teen, I spent the usual number of misspent hours hanging out at gas stations Shell and Texaco (a big thing in my youth) and working on cars. From there on, it was a straight line to my first column for the paper, "You Auto Know," an enterprise I handled faithfully for 32 years. Not many people know that I also handled computer documentation for a good part of my living while writing YAN. My best writing, though, was always in cars. My work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, AutoWeek, SuperStock, Trailer Life, Old Cars Weekly, Special Interest Autos, etc. You can follow me on: Twitter or Facebook.