Ford F-150 Lightning Shows Its Dark Side With New Platinum Black Package

Aug. 25, 2023 8:02 AM ET byAnthony Capretto Special Editions /3 Comments

It's Ford's first matte-wrapped production truck.

Ford is taking a page out of its history book by unveiling a new special edition of theF-150 Lightning- The Platinum Black Edition. The Model T was famously only sold in black from 1914-1925, and now, with blacked-out editions being all the rage, the company's flagship electric model is following in its footsteps. Limited to just 2,000 units, this new edition will be the company's first matte-wrapped production truck and will cost a whopping $97, 995.

闪电已经是en a huge success for Ford, with so many orders since its reveal that the company has onlyrecently started to catch up. When it debuted, wait times were up to two years, but thanks to plant retooling and thereallocation of thousands of workers, wait times have drastically dropped. This means the company can finally start focusing on spicing up the truck's lineup, with this Platinum Black Edition being the first of many.

So what makes this edition so much better than a regular old black Lightning? First, it gets many of the blacked-out features one would expect on an edition like this, along with some truly unique ones. Beyond the attractive matte wrap - not paint - it receives 22-inch matte black wheels and lug nuts, black badging, power-deployable running boards with agate black gloss accents, a black tonneau cover, and a smoked light bar.

The truck then features an Agate Black gloss roof and door handles, Lightning graphics on the glass roof panels, black Nirvana leather on the interior, numbered limited edition plaques in the trunk and driver-side door jamb, and unique black-on-black Lightning badges that the company says appear to glow when light flashes over them at night.

It's a hefty list of changes given it's simply a cosmetic package. Still, it also has the benefit of being based on the top-of-the-line Platinum model, meaning you receive the 320-mile extended range battery pack and 580 horsepower/775 lb-ft of torque to all of the wheels. You also receive a much more upscale interior with the lovely aforementioned Nirvana leather seats, a twin-panel moonroof, and a B&O Unleashed sound system.

As for hands-free driving, Ford's excellent BlueCruise can be optionedbefore or after a 90-day trial period, after which you can subscribe to it for $75 a month or $800 a year. When you're paying nearly six figures (likely more after markups) for a truck, you'd expect that sort of tech included at no extra charge; welcome to the era of subscription services. Despite this, we expect Ford to sell every one of the 2,000 units in no time.