By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – When the president of the United States strongly hints that he wants to test drive the electric pickup he’s in town to see, the CEO of Ford let Lightning strike.
Ford Motor Co. CEO James Farley Jr. said to a cluster of reporters, following the spectacular F-150 Lightning reveal at Ford World Headquarters on May 19, that when President Joe Biden visited the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on May 18, the self-professed “car guy,” son of car salesman, dropped some strong hints that he wanted to get behind the wheel.
The Dearborn Ford test track was on standby, and the Secret Service, which normally does not let a sitting president behind the wheel, acquiesced.
Farley said the interaction with Biden was “really fun.”
“It was a bit chaotic, because he wasn’t supposed to drive, and so I got tapped on the shoulder by a Secret Service member – ‘Hey, get in the motorcade,’” he said. “And we kind of rushed over to the test track.”
Farley said he and Lightning Chief Engineer Linda Zhang had just gotten out of the car, while the president exited his vehicle, and he came up to them, and said, “So?”
“And I was like, ‘Just mash the throttle, and then you’ll get it,’” he said. “And then, I was going to get in, and (Biden) was like ‘Come on, get in,’ and the Secret Service was like, ‘Nah. We’ve got it from here.’”
Farley said when the president took Lightning for a test drive, the coolest moment for him occurred when Biden, who had become familiar with the vehicle, pulled up to the media.
“He looked like Top Gun,” Farley said. “He had, like, his Ray Bans on, and he was enjoying the moment. It seemed like he had really missed all that interaction, when he just said, ‘Is this zero to 60 in 4.3?’ and I said, ‘I think it is more like 4.4, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘Well, I’m just going to step on the gas, and when I get to 80, I’ll let off.’”
Farley said that when Biden stepped on the gas, none of the media had ever seen a pickup do what Lightning did.
“You could tell he was smiling,” Farley said. “He was having a good time. So, if the president can be happy driving the F-150 Lightning, I don’t know what better test drive there is.”