Ford has been recognized on numerous occasions for its innovation in recent months, with its Pro Power Onboard generator landing a spot on Time‘s 100 best inventions of 2021 list, the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning landing on Popular Science‘s Top 100 New Technologies of 2021 list, the 2022 Ford Maverick winning 2022 North American Truck of the Year, and the automaker itself making the 2022 JUST 100 list. Now, Ford Motor Company has also landed on Fast Company‘s 2022 Most Innovative Companies in Design list, coming in at number two, just behind design platform Canva.
First and foremost, FoMoCo impressed judges with the F-150 Lightning, a bold shift away from its traditional business model. “This is a moment,” Fast Company said. “On top of entering the market as an affordable EV performance version of America’s favorite vehicle and reaching nearly 200,000 preorders before Ford paused them, the F-150 is also a backup storage battery for your home that can run for days on end,” referring to the Lightning’s Ford Intelligent Backup Power feature.
“This is just the sort of advanced, vehicle-to-grid power-sharing technology that researchers at UCLA proved out years ago and nearly everyone in the energy industry agrees is needed to balance power loads,” judges added. “But Ford is the first manufacturer bold enough to ship the option.”
But it wasn’t just the F-150 Lightning that attracted the attention of Fast Company when it was compiling its latest Most Innovative Companies in Design list, either. “The company’s other new truck, the Maverick, starts at under $20,000. Its open bed is designed to be hacked with 2x4s, for anything from storing plants to constructing your own camping setup. In 2022, Ford has made buying a truck a tantalizing option.”
Thus far, Ford’s recent willingness to innovate – particularly in the world of trucks, where things don’t change very often – has attracted the attention of not only critics but buyers, as the F-150 Lightning and Maverick both quickly sold out for the 2022 model year.
We’ll have more Ford-related awards and recognitions to share soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
Comment
That’s all well and good but the most pressing need right now is more battery and chip production. Let’s see some of that innovative thinking on those fronts.