Ford Lightning Luggage Test: How big is the frunk?

I’ve already demonstrated how useful the Ford Lightning’s frunk can be for 100% novel/ridiculous uses. Now it’s time to take a deeper dive into how useful it can be for more common storage. At first glance, it seems like a gaping space, but as I would discover, it’s not as useful as its total volume would imply. That’s not to take anything away from it — the Lightning frunk is a truly game-changing feature for the trunk. No need to take up passenger space or buy a tonneau cover for secured bed storage. 

Officially, the front trunk volume is 14.1 cubic feet. That’s the same as a Hyundai Elantra compact sedan, so let’s use that car’s luggage test as a comparison point. 

Here is the frunk. Looks huge, right? At the very least, the access is nuts and the gigantic hood looming above it is quite the visual. 

Like many SUVs these days, there is under-floor storage. It’s too shallow for any of my bags, but the lid is removable (more on that lid later), meaning its space is fair game for this test. 

OK, let’s get to the bags. As with every Luggage Test, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife’s fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).

Uh oh. This is all I could muster: one of the bigger bags (blue) and the two medium bags (black). Note that the big blue bag is sitting in the underfloor storage well. It’s too tall to fit otherwise.

Should you must use the underfloor area, though I’m not sure how realistic that is, I could only fit the two medium black bags and the smaller blue roller. And, I suppose, the smushed fancy bag somewhere, not that that counts per Luggage Test rules.

By contrast, here is the 14.2-cubic-foot trunk of an Elantra. All my bags fit. 

So what’s going on here? It comes down to all that leftover space around the bags in the Lightning frunk. As I’ve shown time and time again with these tests, the boxier a cargo area is, the more useful it is. The Lightning’s frunk is almost an oval, meaning its total volume is ill-suited for swallowing square objects. Should you need to fill it with shrimp, or something, it’ll be much better.

In the end, this once again proves that comparing cargo volumes between body styles is not recommended, and that cargo volumes don’t tell the whole story.

Now, let’s turn to other frunk-related matters, because there’s still a lot to talk about this space even if its luggage-carrying leaves something to be desired.

The removable floor piece is double sided. One is a grippy corrugated surface comparable to the surrounding area. The flip side has recesses to keep things in place and an imperial measuring tape. 

Here’s a close-up of the measuring tape. Despite it using imperial units, the frunk volume is listed in liters (400) rather than cubic feet (14.1). The weight limit is in pounds. Hmm, I wonder if Canadian-market Lightnings are all metric?

There are handy pop-out hooks all around the frunk lining, which are useful for hanging Halloween lights and fake spider webs, or securing grocery bags. 

Here are the frunk’s Pro Power outlets, including four standard household plugs, a USB-A port and USB-C port. 

There are LED lights in the frunk, which you can turn on with this button.

You open and close the frunk using the key fob or via this little button located where the arrow is pointing. 

And finally, beware the gigantic loop of metal that hangs down from the hood. I repeatedly banged my head on it while doing this test as well as multiple times after. I didn’t realize it until now, but you can actually see the grease mark it left on my forehead. I also clonked my son’s head on it when showing him the Halloween decorations. Sorry Buddy. 

True, I’m 6-foot-3, but yeah … ouch.