This truck is actually perfect for my BIL who is a builder. He drives around to all his jobs all day with sometimes things in the back of his truck. He doesn't take it on on trips but puts a ton of miles on his vehicle a year. He is on his 3rd engine in his current F-150 that has the old 5.4L engine. 300 miles would work easily for him.

 

For a moment there I thought I was in the Ridgeline forum.

 

My biggest problem is that it's quite nice inside, the hybrid stuff is cool, but it's still a minivan on the outside, and instead of driving an McLaren with a supermodel like I dreamed of as a 14-year old, I'm rocking a minivan with 3 kids, although admittedly my wife is the looks and brains of our paring so I didn't do half bad there.

 

Tesla, Nissan, and others messed around with this quite a bit. The biggest problems is that the packs are heavy, and there are no good connectors that can handle that level of power, are easy to disconnect, safe, and efficient, and the "skateboard" chassis design that pretty much everyone is now using makes a swappable pack difficult since the pack is a structural element. Nissan had a demo in France where you'd drive into a station that had batteries on a sort of rotating conveyor belt, but it assumed a box-like battery and solving the connector problem.

The skateboard chassis design has so many benefits (equal weight distribution, allow for frunk and new cabin designs, easy to reuse across platforms that I think the replaceable battery concept is largely DOA at this point.

 

Just make the cells look like giant double A's and make the bottom of all EV's like every RC car I had as a kid.

 

I remember a comedian saying one time that the answer to all of the car accident fatalities was to make all of the cars out of Nerf.

I've also thought that we should make all roads like Hotwheel tracks. Make them all downhill and everyone will get infinity MPG!

 

The Lightning’s frame looks different, and it doesn’t look like it will be compatible with standard F-150 fifth wheel hitch mounts. Hopefully someone will come out with one.

 

I remember that bit but don't remember who did it. Think he said you'd run over you buddies for fun.

Also, I've had my *** beat both with a hot wheels track and beside the road. Driving on a giant one might cause some kind of PTSD.

 

Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t see a lot of demand for a 5th wheel hitch for the Lightning so I doubt a commercially produced hitch will be available to buy. I am sure someone will make one themselves for their YouTube followers to watch though.

 

For some reason that comment made me laugh envisioning a YT video that starts out “Here’s how I made a 5th wheel hitch for my Lightning for only $36 using 2x4s and pocket screws!”