Electric Ford F-150 Lightning spied in Melbourne

Ford's big all-electric F-150 Lightning has been spotted testing on Australian roads.

Wheels reader Mehmet spotted the F-150 Lightning ‘left-hand-drive engineering evaluation vehicle’ in Campbellfield, near Ford Australia's Melbourne product development centre.

It follows pictures of the same test vehicle at a public charging station posted to social media, below.

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“Ford's Australian Product Development team work on a wide variety of global vehicle programs, including many left-hand drive only vehicles for overseas markets,” said a Ford Australia spokesperson.

“The F-150 Lightning spotted on Melbourne roads recently is in Australia for engineering evaluation, and is not an indicator of Lightning being developed for the Australian market.

“Lightning remains left-hand drive only, and unavailable for sale in Australia.”

At the recent launch of the locally re-manufactured F-150 line-up, Ford Australia boss Andrew Birkic said the brand was “looking at” the electric version, but it remains focused on successfully launching the petrol models.

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The local conversion process, completed by Thai-based RMA Automotive at a facility in Melbourne’s outskirts, commenced recently with the first customer vehicles delivered this month.

Ford has trademarked the F-150 Lightning name in Australia, adding further fuel to speculation that the 386 to 515-kilometre all-electric range full-size pick-up would soon hit Aussie showrooms.

“Are we looking at it? Yes,” confirmed Birkic. “Is there a confirmed product program? Have I rung up Trevor [the GM of RMA Automotive] and said I need another line? No."

“That will come in the fullness of time. Not whether I say yes or no but in terms of we need to do further analysis and we just need to prove that we can do the conversion [on regular F-150], that we can do it with a lens on quality.

“So let's just do that first. And then we'll have a yarn about Lighting."

RMA Automotive general manager Trevor Negus confirmed there is capacity to add Lightning and other Ford models into production should Birkic give the green light.

“Absolutely. The whole facility has been built with other products in mind, I guess,” said Negus. “So we've got the capacity to take larger F Series. We've got the capacity to take other vehicles.”

Other models understood to be considered for conversion are the Ford Bronco SUV and the larger F Series Super Duty.

Ford-owned F-150 Raptor and Bronco vehicles have also been spied in Victoria, though – like the Lightning – the brand claims the local existence is solely for global vehicle program development.