PEOPLE OF THE YEAR
WALL OF FAME
The six people who kept cars exciting in 2021, and reached TG hero status while they were at it
WORDS JASON BARLOW
LINDA ZHANG
CHIEF ENGINEER
“As a child of two engineers, I remember asking how clouds in the sky move and how wheels on a car turn,” Linda Zhang recalled in a recent Detroit Free Press interview. Earlier this year, the 44-year-old Chinese-American engineer made the cover of Time, an accolade rarely awarded to people in the car business. But then Zhang, who arrived in the US aged eight, has overseen the transformation of one of America’s great symbols, the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup, into a pure EV. The F-series, of course, has long been America’s bestseller; in 2019, Ford shifted 900k, generating close to £37bn. No pressure then. The dual-motor EV generates 563bhp and 775lb ft, more than any previous F-150, and has a range of upto 300 miles. It’s closing in on 200,000 reservations. “Those are hearts and minds that we’ve been able to move towards this EV shift,” says Zhang.