Car Design Dialogues North America: Electrifying an Icon

The move towards electrification continues to present opportunities to revive and reinvent famous nameplates and none more so the F-150 Lighting. Billed as Ford’s Truck of the Future, the Lightning captures the direction of travel for icons of the ICE Age. Ehab Kaoud and Mark Sich from Ford shared their thoughts on how to reinterpret an ICE vehicle for an electrified world, the opportunities and challenges presented by the shift to an EV platform, the interior design and UX strategy, how far to push the boundaries within a conservative segment.

“When you think about this vehicle, it’s all about a relationship – the relationship between Ford and its customer base,” explained Kaoud. “We have listened to what our customer says, and then acted upon what we are hearing. It’s what we’ve been doing for the past 40 years, and we have been rewarded with the best-selling vehicle.”

The two designers discussed the finer details of the new model, running over everything from the lightbar on the front to the way in which information is displayed on the different screens inside the car. “We wanted to make sure it is all harmonious,” said Sich. “We worked on both the physical and the digital elements, and made sure that the two talk to each other and feel like they are all designed together.”