When it comes to pitching a product, you want to try to avoid overselling and underdelivering. So when Ford is out here calling the usable space under the hood of the all-electric 2022 F-150 Lightning a Mega Power Frunk, you’ve gotta think it’s some real big business. And it is!
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Mega Power Frunk meets needs for convenient grocery storage
Just ask Linda Zhang, recently named a 2021 Rising Star by Automotive News. The chief engineer for the all-new F-150 Lightning, Zhang says that the idea for the Mega Power Frunk came from the need to make use with the room under the hood. So her team decided to relate it specifically to the needs of truck customers.
“Our cross-functional truck team knows truck customers, and we know that dry, lockable storage is a traditional pain point,” Zhang told @FordOnline. “They have prioritized the utility and functionality of the pickup box over a traditional trunk. However, they still miss the closed storage.”
The team dove further and found that truck customers want the ability to store their groceries safely in a pickup truck. Specifically, Zhang says customers want “to get home without squished bread from having it in the second row getting stepped on by the kiddo’s little feet.”
I might suggest to those folks that they encourage kids not to use bread as shoes. Too absorbent, not durable. Just not very functional footwear, bread.
Truck team turned to customers for F-150 Lightning Mega Power Frunk ideas
Zhang and the truck team held clinics where they took apart the research and analyzed the wants and needs for what would become the Mega Power Frunk. One consideration was tailgating, which is how features like four 12-volt AC outlets and a built-in drain plug made It into the finished product. And thanks to that, you can use the Mega Power Frunk to store a whole bunch of chicken wings, just like the Mustang Mach-E.
Ford sourced ideas from customers, who came up with ideas like cup holders and USB ports among others. The need for sturdiness and space informed its 400-pound, 14.1 cubic-foot storage space — and gave it the mega part of its name.
But for all that the Mega Power Frunk does, Zhang says that the power up/down open-and-close feature was one of the most challenging parts to figure out. Despite and perhaps because of all the challenges, Zhang says that the Mega Power Frunk and 2022 F-150 Lightning represent “a really great success story.
“A lot of the things that went into the frunk was us responding to customer desires and trying to alleviate their pain points. For example, now instead of putting their bread in the back seat and having kids stepping on it, it can go in the frunk, which they’ve never had,” she says.
Again, if your kids are just stepping on your bread, have a talk with them. And not to shame them or scold them, mind you. But because it’s just not very hygienic or cost-effective if you were planning to use that bread for sandwiches or whatever.
Kyle S. Johnson lives in Cincinnati, a city known by many as “the Cincinnati of Southwest Ohio.” He enjoys professional wrestling, Halloween, and also other things. He has been writing for a while, and he plans to continue to write well into the future. See more articles by Kyle.