DETROIT — President Joe Biden became the first person not associated with Ford Motor Co. to drive the F-150 Lightning.
His joyride Tuesday on the automaker’s test track turned into a viral commercial for the upcoming electric pickup on cable newscasts, late-night TV and newspaper front pages.
It was an impromptu decision that left Ford’s communications team with little time to respond.
As is customary for any presidential visit, Ford and the White House had been coordinating details for weeks. While there was some talk of potentially driving a prototype early on, the idea appeared to have been ruled out quickly, said Mark Truby, Ford’s head of communications.
But Monday evening, less than a day before the president’s arrival, the White House mentioned that Biden, a self-described car guy whose father managed a dealership in Delaware, might want to get behind the wheel after all.
The Ford team scrambled to have something ready to go, just in case. Near midnight, they were able to locate a prototype and get it to the Dearborn test track, less than five miles from the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center where the president would be speaking.
Still, there was no guarantee Biden would follow through on the request. That didn’t come until Tuesday afternoon, just before his speech.
“It was an audible by the president,” Truby said. “It turned out to be pretty serendipitous.”
The decision came after Biden was given a tour showing the capabilities of the F-150 Lightning. He also got to see an uncamouflaged pickup, a day before Wednesday evening’s unveiling to the public, and spent about 15 minutes talking with Ford officials about it.
When he joked during his speech about trying to lose the Secret Service and sneak out to the track, he had already made his decision to drive the truck. The Secret Service prohibits presidents from driving on public roads during their term and even after they leave office.
However, Executive Chairman Bill Ford’s speech introducing Biden, in which he joked that the president could drive the Lightning if the Secret Service would let him, had been prepared well before the decision to had been made.
CEO Jim Farley accompanied Biden in his motorcade on the short trip to the test track and was open to riding along in the pickup, though it ended up being a Secret Service agent in the passenger seat.
After Biden made a loop and pulled up to the reporters who were watching the drive, he unintentionally revealed the Lightning’s 0-to-60 mph time, asking if it was 4.3 or 4.4 seconds. “This sucker’s quick,” Biden said after rolling down the window. Farley could be heard laughing off-camera and saying that information hadn’t been released yet. The president then stepped on the accelerator and peeled away.
Before Tuesday, no one outside of the company had even driven the Lightning, let alone taken one out unsupervised on a test track. Reporters who were briefed on the vehicle last week, under agreement to withhold details until after the unveiling, were allowed only to ride in the passenger seat with professionals behind the wheel.
But the company made an exception for the commander in chief.
Said Truby: “It’s definitely a presidential perk.”