Ford F-150 Lightning EV: High Tech Truck Deep Dive

>One cool trick with the truck is that, when properly equipped, it can return power to the grid,
>or charge your house in an emergency. Depending on the energy requirements of the
>household, Ford suggests it can power a dwelling for 3 to 10 days.

lol think of it as the worlds largest powerbank??
 
I think the amount of effort that went into fitting a physical knob onto the screen supersedes everything else in this car, it probably consumed half the budget.

Ford execs were probably like - hey, if we get the knob out, nobody can compete with us!
 
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>One cool trick with the truck is that, when properly equipped, it can return power to the grid,
>or charge your house in an emergency. Depending on the energy requirements of the
>household, Ford suggests it can power a dwelling for 3 to 10 days.

lol think of it as the worlds largest powerbank??

Personally I think that will appeal to those living in areas with only off grid power or people who live in areas where storms frequently knock out the power. Instead of buying a generator that just sits there until needed you can drive your generator around and still have it when you need it. Essentially it's a portable generator that always starts.
 
I think the amount of effort that went into fitting a physical knob onto the screen supersedes everything else in this car, it probably consumed half the budget.

Ford execs were probably like - hey, if we get the knob out, nobody can compete with us!

Honda has no knob and catches holy hell everytime someone new buys their vehicles and figures that out.
 
I want some right hand drive options in electric pickups, but I’m not sure any of these are coming to Australia. Maybe in 5 years when I’m ready to replace my turbo diesel amarok I’ll have some options.
 
I want some right hand drive options in electric pickups, but I’m not sure any of these are coming to Australia. Maybe in 5 years when I’m ready to replace my turbo diesel amarok I’ll have some options.
Ford has been aggressively pushing RHD diesel F150 in Europe in the last 2 years, which means electric RHD pick-ups won't be far behind.
 
It can hit highway speeds from a standstill in just about four seconds!

Considering how aggressively pickups drive in my area and their disdain for the safety of others in how they -always- tailgate and change lanes... this is a safety hazard rather than a feature.

Incidentally I have personally watched Tesla vehicles on three separate occasions get into accidents because I assume the driver wanted to show off that acceleration from a standstill. XD
 
This is the first electric vehicle that I would like to own. It would be great to have this and a small camper given its tow rating. However, the infrastructure just isn't there yet to support that. Finding a charging station gets pretty complicated in remote locations. Hopefully state and national parks will install some charging facilities in the near future, maybe some already have them. I wouldn't rely on remote, small gas stations to have them for quite some time still.
 
I'd can't wait for the day that electric is more practical in the midwest. But it just isn't. I'd rather have the Ford Maverick as a Daily. Crew Cab Trucks are by far the most practical vehicle a family could own. Great as a family hauler as well as being able to haul crap in the bed or pull your toys around.

My Diesel Ram will likely be held onto for a long time, but I'd love the replacement to be electric.
 
As soon as they come up with a vehicle that will travel 1000 miles on a single charge, or be able to charge the battery to full in 10 minutes, they can take these electric cars a put them some place where the sun doesn't shine. When you live in rural areas, electric cars just are not an option. When I travel to see family, I want to get there in the 11-12 hours it normally takes to get there. I don't want to spend 3 days getting to the destination. Electric vehicles will never happen for me in my lifetime.. Sorry.
 
I think you Gen-Y's need to take a more "holistic" approach to your reviews; rather than regurgitating the Ford PR information. Otherwise you could (unfairly) be branded as "shills".
Take the F-150E, you should take the specs, and using your knowledge of why people buy these vehicles in the past, and the use to which they put them, derive some comments on the vehicle.
For most users the TCO of the trucks is important. For this example:
For "working truck" owners clearly 2 F-150E's are required to perform the work of the previous F-150's (being out of service for 12 hrs a day - yes you cannot believe the lab based, perfect temperature recharging of 10 hours). You do not mention the unloaded weight, but it will be much more than the F-150Gas. So all of those dirt road marginal bridges/roads out there will be tested (to failure?). What about maintenance - where do you get it near the working environment? So have the "spare" truck will be mandatory to keep even some productivity from the truck.
For "freeway cruisers". The reason that Ford measured this trucks capabilities at 1000lb bed load was to show you that by putting the additional 1000lb battery pack in the truck bed you could achieve the performance that you will use and still achieve the range and use of the truck outside of the 12hrs recharging time - maybe less since you would probably charge in a temperature controlled garage. All well and good except that they will be charging extra for this battery pack (guesstimating about $15k-20k). This has to be added to your TCO. As should be the costs of keeping your garage temperature controlled.
Bear in mind too: If the "freeway cruiser" potential buyers of these trucks were actually concerned about their impact on the environment in their desire to go from A to B. they would not be buying a truck period. I am not judging - in my opinion we all should be allowed to purchase what we see fits out needs. But the question to be asked: with that freedom why would anyone buy a F-150E over a F-150G or a F-150D? Perhaps because, like Ford itself, you create a lot of media attention having a showcase vehicle that can be poked and prodded with lots of buttons to push and media to look and listen to (and while intoxicated too) since vehicle itself cannot move.
 
>One cool trick with the truck is that, when properly equipped, it can return power to the grid,
>or charge your house in an emergency. Depending on the energy requirements of the
>household, Ford suggests it can power a dwelling for 3 to 10 days.

lol think of it as the worlds largest powerbank??
AND still a portable one!!
 
>One cool trick with the truck is that, when properly equipped, it can return power to the grid,
>or charge your house in an emergency. Depending on the energy requirements of the
>household, Ford suggests it can power a dwelling for 3 to 10 days.

lol think of it as the worlds largest powerbank??
Ford probably heard the message from the Electricity Utility companies in the US NE and US SW (California) about the many brown/black-outs to come in the power grids in the next 10 years; supply is already being drained by demand and "renewable" and "nonrenewable" supply project presently forested will take 10 years to complete. They are pointing out that you can couple this truck to a diesel generator and "go off the grid" with your accommodation and local transport (and food if you buy some fridges. Is that COOL or what? Of course what they fail to mention is that with the additional purchase of a few components you can do the same with Tesla's. Elon Musk already has the power control module (other than the batteries to only expensive part of "going off the grid" required built into the software - it just has to be activated. I can see a lot of "grow-ops" being very interested in this feature. You not only have a vehicle that can transport your product to market (under the radar, with that canopy cover) but a source of power (helps you stay under the radar with a legitimate reason for the huge powerbank, off the grid but with no diesel gen signature). Though what I would say - you better hope the cops don'd figure this out. If they do it will mean that every F-150E will be subject to traffic stops on every journey. And very owner of multiple F-150E will be targeted even more, I suspect.
 
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As soon as they come up with a vehicle that will travel 1000 miles on a single charge, or be able to charge the battery to full in 10 minutes, they can take these electric cars a put them some place where the sun doesn't shine. When you live in rural areas, electric cars just are not an option. When I travel to see family, I want to get there in the 11-12 hours it normally takes to get there. I don't want to spend 3 days getting to the destination. Electric vehicles will never happen for me in my lifetime.. Sorry.
You need to add "affordability" to your statement for it to be accurate, at least for 10+ years. We already have solutions to your range, that were published, by Tesla I think way back when, tow a trailer with additional battery packs, probably 2 for 1000 miles. Solutions for your charging time, spare battery packs located on roads thought your travel area - just unhitch the old one and add a new one - 10 minutes easy. Some people wonder why Elon Musk is now pouring most of his money into battery production rather than vehicle development. You now see why. He wants to sell the battery packs to the Governments so that can give them (for free) to users like you and convince you to buy an electric vehicle. If I was you I would take him up on the offer. In rural areas buy an electric vehicle - remember its the City people who will be paying you to take it. Never say never.
 
Personally I think that will appeal to those living in areas with only off grid power or people who live in areas where storms frequently knock out the power. Instead of buying a generator that just sits there until needed you can drive your generator around and still have it when you need it. Essentially it's a portable generator that always starts.
But great for the "grow-ops".
 
The high end ones and the Hummers are pretty much inline with the price of high end ICE trucks. It's no the Tesla truck is coming in at under $70,000
 
As soon as they come up with a vehicle that will travel 1000 miles on a single charge, or be able to charge the battery to full in 10 minutes, they can take these electric cars a put them some place where the sun doesn't shine. When you live in rural areas, electric cars just are not an option. When I travel to see family, I want to get there in the 11-12 hours it normally takes to get there. I don't want to spend 3 days getting to the destination. Electric vehicles will never happen for me in my lifetime.. Sorry.

It's not "time to full charge" we need to care about, it's "time to 50% charge". Batteries, by design, take significantly longer to charge as they start to fill up. So, for example, you can have a battery that takes 45 minutes to reach 80%, but 5 minutes to reach 40%.

What really needs to happen is getting to around ~300 miles of travel (competitive with most vehicles) in a 5-10 minutes worth of charging. That would be competitive with ICE time-to-range refill times. And honestly, we're not *that* far off from reaching this criteria, and I think some vehicles (Model 3) may already meet it.
 

What really needs to happen is getting to around ~300 miles of travel (competitive with most vehicles) in a 5-10 minutes worth of charging. That would be competitive with ICE time-to-range refill times. And honestly, we're not *that* far off from reaching this criteria, and I think some vehicles (Model 3) may already meet it.

No vehicles meet this criteria, not even close.
 
Solutions for your charging time, spare battery packs located on roads thought your travel area - just unhitch the old one and add a new one - 10 minutes easy. Some people wonder why Elon Musk is now pouring most of his money into battery production rather than vehicle development. You now see why. He wants to sell the battery packs to the Governments so that can give them (for free) to users like you and convince you to buy an electric vehicle.
Testa had a battery swapping station and very few people used it. No one wanted to risk swapping to a worst battery and there was no way to know since battery usage data didn't move with the battery. The one and only pilot program battery swap station closed in late 2016.
 
I think you Gen-Y's need to take a more "holistic" approach to your reviews; rather than regurgitating the Ford PR information. Otherwise you could (unfairly) be branded as "shills".
Take the F-150E, you should take the specs, and using your knowledge of why people buy these vehicles in the past, and the use to which they put them, derive some comments on the vehicle.
For most users the TCO of the trucks is important. For this example:
For "working truck" owners clearly 2 F-150E's are required to perform the work of the previous F-150's (being out of service for 12 hrs a day - yes you cannot believe the lab based, perfect temperature recharging of 10 hours). You do not mention the unloaded weight, but it will be much more than the F-150Gas. So all of those dirt road marginal bridges/roads out there will be tested (to failure?). What about maintenance - where do you get it near the working environment? So have the "spare" truck will be mandatory to keep even some productivity from the truck.
For "freeway cruisers". The reason that Ford measured this trucks capabilities at 1000lb bed load was to show you that by putting the additional 1000lb battery pack in the truck bed you could achieve the performance that you will use and still achieve the range and use of the truck outside of the 12hrs recharging time - maybe less since you would probably charge in a temperature controlled garage. All well and good except that they will be charging extra for this battery pack (guesstimating about $15k-20k). This has to be added to your TCO. As should be the costs of keeping your garage temperature controlled.
Bear in mind too: If the "freeway cruiser" potential buyers of these trucks were actually concerned about their impact on the environment in their desire to go from A to B. they would not be buying a truck period. I am not judging - in my opinion we all should be allowed to purchase what we see fits out needs. But the question to be asked: with that freedom why would anyone buy a F-150E over a F-150G or a F-150D? Perhaps because, like Ford itself, you create a lot of media attention having a showcase vehicle that can be poked and prodded with lots of buttons to push and media to look and listen to (and while intoxicated too) since vehicle itself cannot move.
I don't know where you got any of these ideas from. If a truck takes 10 hours to charge from empty why would you assume batteries are completely drained at the end of every day? And why would you assume their charging times are way off without any objective data to prove or disprove Ford's claims? A spare truck will not be mandatory. No one with a work site 150 miles from their garage and charger would buy an EV F150 for work it would be pointless. Where is the extra battery pack that weighs 1000 lbs and where is the listed price for it? Why would Ford take up room in the bed of a truck with an extra battery? There is a point where no additional batteries would increase range due added weight.

"with that freedom why would anyone buy a F-150E over a F-150G or a F-150D?" Because of the built in power sources, low maintenance, fuel cost savings for the truck and generators.
 
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