2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Battery Protection Details Revealed

April 13, 2022 7:56 am

Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned more details about the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, including the unique way in which it’s assembled at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, as well as the fact that long-time supplier Magna is making the all-electric pickup’s battery enclosures. Now, more details regarding the F-150 Lightning’s crossmember have emerged, and that one simple piece is quite an engineering feat all by itself.

BASF and L&L Products teamed up to develop a new crossmember for the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning that is an integral part of the battery system, which required those companies to reduce the size of the F-150’s existing unit without compromising its strength, as it will need to help support the pickup’s heavy battery pack. The pair managed to pull that off, creating a smaller yet super strong crossmember that’s capable of protecting both the F-150 Lightning’s battery pack and its occupants.

“We were able to use a solution featuring L&L Products’ Continuous Composites Systems (CCS) and BASF’s Elastocoat 74850 polyurethane pultrusion system that eliminated the need for extensive redesign of the crossmember while providing strength, stiffness, and rigidity to a lightweight structure,” said BASF Performance Materials Chassis Market Segment Manager Chris Korson.

“This innovation also shares three firsts for CCS,” said L&L Products Product Engineering Manager Hank Richardson. “One being the first developed closed section tubular CCS part, the second being the first CCS body-in-white application, and the third being the first use of CCS in an electric vehicle.”

CCS utilizes a fiber-reinforced pultruded composite carrier with highly engineered sealants and adhesives in a 2D profile to create straight or curved composite profiles that are reinforced with continuous fibers and mats. The F-150 Lightning’s crossmember also represents the very first application of BASF’s Elastocoat 74850 polyurethane pultrusion system implemented prior to the the E-Coat process, which required the use of a new computer simulation program developed by BASF.

We’ll have more on the F-150 Lightning soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and continuous Ford news coverage.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.