DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford Motor previewed its new electric F-150 Lightning pickup earlier than planned during a visit Tuesday by President Joe Biden to the Michigan plant that's producing the vehicle.

The highly anticipated vehicle resembles the automaker's current F-150 but has unique exterior styling such as a closed-off grille and light bar across the front of the vehicle that connects its headlights. Sitting next to a traditional 2021 Ford F-150, it appeared to be about the same.

Ford declined to release additional details about the vehicle ahead of its official public reveal at 9:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The company unexpectedly unveiled the pickup for Biden's tour of Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, where the vehicle starts production this spring.

Ford executives have said the F-150 Lightning will be a true pickup truck designed for commercial work, unlike expected lifestyle pickups such as the GMC Hummer EV or Tesla Cybertruck. It is expected to go on sale by mid-next year.

"It is just the best of Ford," Jim Farley, Ford's CEO, said last week during the company's annual shareholders meeting.

Farley has said the F-150 Lightning will be able "to power your home during an outage, it's even quicker than the original F-150 Lightning performance truck; and it will constantly improve through over-the-air updates."

When announcing the vehicle's name, Farley compared its significance to the Ford Model T and Ford Mustang.

Biden toured the facility to promote his agenda for American-made electric vehicles and $2 trillion infrastructure package that includes $174 billion to spur the development and adoption of electric vehicles.

Pickups are viewed as an important way to increase consumer adoption of EVs because they're the bestselling vehicles in the country. They're also extremely important to fleet and commercial customers, expected to be among the largest purchasers of EVs.