Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley may have invented a new summer treat: the frunksicle.
During a road trip through the American West in an F-150 Lightning last week, Farley visited Jim Burke Ford, which was throwing a carnival for the Boys & Girls Club in Bakersfield, Calif. He tweeted photos and video of himself using the electric pickup to inflate a bounce house and serving frozen fruit pops out of the front truck, which Ford calls the Mega Power Frunk.
Farley and a small group of colleagues spent three days driving from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas, meeting with researchers, businesses, dealers and electric vehicle owners along the way.
“Long hauling in an electric truck is an act of pioneerism, not because it’s hard or dangerous, but because it’s a new way to experience America,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Shifting from fueling stations to charging stations requires new behaviors and opens new possibilities. Thanks to the technology in the Lightning, I’ll be able to get work done from the road, just like so many of our customers do every day.”
Farley tweeted from numerous waypoints, showing how commercial customers are using the Lightning and spotlighting dealerships that are embracing EVs. Many of his posts emphasized the vast capacity of the frunk, which his crew used to store their luggage.
“There is no better way to see America than from behind the wheel,” Farley wrote, adding that insights gained while spending nearly a year on the road early in his career helped Toyota make the Camry one of the nation’s top-selling vehicles.