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The F-150 Lightning, although cool, is a pavement pounder for taking the kids to hockey practice. When towing, you might get 150 miles out of it before having to wait 8 hours to charge it up. This is not an F-150 that is going to tow a trailer or a payload across the state or country, so I'd suggest that most people don't want to be associated with a truck that really isn't truck-worthy in most semi-demanding situations.
Yes I understand there is a 45 minute mega-charger too, but we are going to expect Bob's Gas in a little town to have a mega-charger for your F-150? Even so, 45 minutes every 150 miles? eek.
No doubt, if only it was like the lighting of old that could tow master payloads across States and county... the old lightning was not a pavement pounder....sigh....
Not for long trips obviously, which is a big reason I bought mine.
But it's definitely not just a pavement pounder. It's ideal for many fleet uses. Municipal DPWs that send guys out to fix potholes, empty trash cans etc. Return the truck to the depot every night to charge. No oil changes. No coolant. Brakes last forever practically.
They are going to sell as many as they can make.
King Ranch? I hope so, but as said before a very small %.
Not exactly sure when this happened, but I was poking around Ford's website this morning and noticed a new section for "fleet" models and noticed a 4th truck in the line up: The F150 lightning Pro. It appears it will also have the option for extended range. If this matches Ford's XL stats currently, this may be the truck I order.
Haha, maybe not direct competition with the first edition, but I suspect they will be closer competitors when GM releases the HV2/3, etc, which are supposed to be less expensive. GM started with a halo truck with an eye watering MSRP, and claim all reservations are sold out, but they need to convert those to orders still, and with the F-150 news I wouldn't be surprised if at least a few took a step back and weren't like, I could get a couple F-150s for one Hummer. While the Hummer beats the F-150 on most main metrics like 0-60 and that, reality is even the F-150 is faster than you will almost ever need, tow ratings are comparable, range is claimed a little better on the Hummer, but not by a huge margin and will have to see what real world is for both of them.
Mary Barra (GM CEO) recently said that they have an electric Silverado in the works. GM probably has the most EV experience of the big 3 (Volt, Bolt, shifting Caddy to all EV) so will probably have a solid drivetrain, but the Silverado interior is looking pretty dated on the current version.
It's better equipped than I expected. Someone, I think jokingly, said it may have crank windows and that, because the price gap to XLT is pretty large. It seems pretty close though, although I suspect it's down a lot to interior materials and that. I know there is a big difference in getting the 2.4KW ProPower, but at least in the gas F-150, it's only about $700 to move up to 7.2KW, so I don't think that explains it. Hopefully we will see more detailed comparison.
That is a valid point, how much money will I save per year, to warrant the extra cost of the Lightning. That is, what will the ROI (Return On Investment) be on a Lightning compared to a 3.5L Ecoboost or whatever engine?
I always found the folks tying to justify a Tesla purchase based on "fuel savings" funny when they first came out. There were tons of people going from cars like Honda Accords to what's essentially a $90K+ (at the time of introduction) sports car, and there were dozens of people trying to justify it with these convoluted gas saving calculations that ended up along the lines of "So if I drive 83,475 miles per year even though my commute is 6 miles, and assume I only buy gas at California prices even though I live in Ohio, I'll be saving $8.23 each year and can justify the purchase to my wife!!!" It's a bit like trying to justify a Ferrari based on the "time savings" that a 3.8 second 0-60 provides for your work commute. If electric turns you on (pun intended) and you're not going to have to feed your kids ramen noodles to afford it, go for it.
I've had electric or plug-in cars for a few years, and at our average electric rates ($0.04 off-peak for EV only, $0.075 standard rate) it's roughly equivalent to $1/gal gas. On the road, rates are all over the place, and in many cases more expensive than filling with premium. I've not done the math exhaustively, but I likely "save" a couple hundred bucks each year; certainly not enough to be life changing. For me, there are a few benefits to electric:
The whole "stinky gas station" argument is way overblown, but it is nice to essentially have your "gas station" in your garage and never need to goof around needing gas when you're in a rush because you put it off.
Depending on the vehicle, there's essentially no regular maintenance beyond rotating tires, wipers, and hitting doors, etc. with some lube. I paid $0 in maintenance over 2 years with a Chevy Bolt (10K and 20K services covered but otherwise would have been around $40). It will be interesting to see how dealerships figure this out since that's a big chunk of revenue that potentially disappears.
The 0-60 stuff is overblown in my opinion, but it is nice to mash the go-pedal and get instant acceleration when passing, merging, or having to be a bit more "nimble" in traffic. There's no downshifting, turbo lag, or spinning up lots of rotating mass. It's really nice once you get used to it.
I don't get a lot of tax breaks so getting $7,500 in gov't cheese is nice. I agree with the arguments that this is an "unfair" adjustment of market factors, but I consider it some small payback for the regular drumbeat of the gov't telling me I need to pay more, and that I'm an evil so-and-so for trying to take care of my family rather than living off the fat of the land.
If you do go this route, everything is rainbows and unicorns until you take a road trip. Charging infrastructure is way better than when I started, but you'll still have chargers that are broken, and you'll have pucker moments when that key fast charger on your road trip is behind construction cones or blocked by a dump truck (both of these happened to me). There is some truth to the idea that a 15-60 minute "fast" charge break on a road trip is a nice way to stretch your legs and have a sit-down meal rather than fast food, but it's a forced option rather than with gas where you're more than able to do that at your discretion. It will be interesting to see how/if the infrastructure can keep pace with EV adoption, and I believe someone is going to "invent" a new style of gas station. If I were in charge, it would be like the filling stations on the high-speed roads in Germany or Italy where you have a half-decent restaurant and coffee shop, plentiful parking, and a little store or something so you could plug in for 15-30 minutes, get a decent meal, maybe check your email and be back on the road vs. a remote corner of an outlet mall or bad hotel that's 3 miles off the highway.
I have a Powerboost on order since I wanted a truck and there were no available EV options when I ordered, but I've also put in a reservation for a Lightning. My theory is that I'll see how I like truck lifestyle (always owned cars/wagons/SUVs to this point) and going back to gas treats me, and how much towing I do since that is the wildcard and I fully expect a max of 100-150 miles with the EV. If I miss the electric and end up not doing the regular, epic, camping/towing adventures that I'm dreaming about, the Lightning likely meets 90% of my needs and I'll trade in the PB.
Vinyl seats? Will have to see how crappy those are, otherwise, looks like a solid value for sure. And I wonder what the cost bump will be for the extended battery...and where that $12k is spent in the XLT also. Doesn't seem like a lot more content for +$12k.
Mary Barra (GM CEO) recently said that they have an electric Silverado in the works. GM probably has the most EV experience of the big 3 (Volt, Bolt, shifting Caddy to all EV) so will probably have a solid drivetrain, but the Silverado interior is looking pretty dated on the current version.
GM will have a new interior for 2022. They are definitely way behind Ford and Ram right now, but Ford was also way behind Ram until the 2021 redesign.
The US average time at a pump is 4.5 minutes. If you need just 15 minutes at a charger, you still need over 3x the number of charging spots Vs pumps at any given fuel station. Charging stations near restaurants by highways would take a burden from limited fuel station acreage, provide a means to continue to use chargers as they become legacy, and provide an option to always using the fastest charge rate while on the road.
