President Biden Goes Truckin' With Ford

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

There are lots of pros to being the president of the United States. There are also many cons. To me, two of the biggest drawbacks would be the ever-present threat of assassination and having to give up driving forever.

Well, the current commander-in-chief is a car guy, and President Joe Biden reminded us of his automotive bona fides while giving Ford a nice PR boost. He did so by toolin’ around in a truck.

More specifically, the upcoming Ford F-150 Lightning.

Biden was in Dearborn, Michigan to tout his infrastructure plan, dubbed the American Jobs Plan, and to talk up the future of electric vehicles — and how America needs to beat China at the EV game.

Part of his plan includes government assistance via tax credits to help establish EV and battery production in the States, more incentives for consumers to buy EVs, more focus on electrifying the medium- and heavy-duty truck fleet, more EV charging stations, and upgrades to the electric grid.

Coincidentally, I was just down I-94, leaving Ann Arbor after sampling the Volkswagen Taos. Perhaps I should’ve headed east instead of west and crashed this shindig?

The Lightning won’t even be officially unveiled until tomorrow — though one was parked, uncovered, in the background — but like a buff-book journalist on a long-lead media drive, Biden got an early chance at driving the truck.

He even provided a review, saying “this sucker’s quick.” Maybe Biden wants to trade the White House Resolute Desk for a home office and a car reviewer’s salary?

If so, my editorial feedback is this: Concise, Joe, but far short of our minimum word count for a review. Still, if you find yourself unemployed in 2025, TTAC does welcome pitches.

That is, if the rules change and ex-presidents are allowed to drive again.

[Image: Ford]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Jalop1991 does the odometer represent itself in an analog fashion? Will the numbers roll slowly and stop wherever, or do they just blink to the next number like any old boring modern car?
  • MaintenanceCosts E34 535i may be, for my money, the most desirable BMW ever built. (It's either it or the E34 M5.) Skeptical of these mods but they might be worth undoing.
  • Arthur Dailey What a load of cow patties from fat cat politicians, swilling at the trough of their rich backers. Business is all for `free markets` when it benefits them. But are very quick to hold their hands out for government tax credits, tax breaks or government contracts. And business executives are unwilling to limit their power over their workers. Business executives are trained to `divide and conquer` by pitting workers against each other for raises or promotions. As for the fat cat politicians what about legislating a living wage, so workers don't have to worry about holding down multiple jobs or begging for raises? And what about actually criminally charging those who hire people who are not legally illegible to work? Remember that it is business interests who regularly lobby for greater immigration. If you are a good and fair employer, your workers will never feel the need to speak to a union. And if you are not a good employer, then hopefully 'you get the union that you deserve'.
  • 28-Cars-Later Finally, something possibly maybe worth buying.
  • EBFlex The simple fact is very small and cheap ICE vehicles have a range thats longer than all EVs. That is the bar that needs met. And EVs cannot meet that.Of course range matters. But that's one element of many that make EVs completely ineffective at replacing ICE vehicles.
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