Ford's new battery powered Lightning truck

[TomD]

Ford is betting big on a new battery powered F150 called the Lightning. Car and Driver magazine, which I've subscribed to for around 45 years just ran a test. A few out takes:

The Lightning drives indistinguishably from a regular F150 but accelerates much harder with 0-60 time of 4.0 seconds flat and a 12.7 second quarter mile @ 106 mph. That's approaching Corvette fast and will blow away a Mustang GT.The truck interior is borderline tacky and doesn't even approach the quality level of the pickup class leader Ram. If you get the big battery version, EPA estimates a 320 mile range but C&D tested an actual 230 mile range at a steady 75 mph. That with an unloaded truck with no trailers. You're not gonna take this truck on an Interstate trip towing anything. Even without a trailer, where the devil are you going to find a fast charger station every 200 miles and sit around an hour or three. You'd probably beat that trip average on a bicycle.

Oh yeah, a price as tested of $93,609 plus shipping plus sales tax, over $100K out the door. That's enough to get even Mr. Buttplug's attention. This is admittedly the top of the line Platinum and you can get the small battery work truck trim level for around $50K tax, tag, title but you'll lose a good portion of the power and the unloaded 75 MPH range will drop to around 170 miles. Looks like $80 K out the door is the cheapest you can a big battery version.

Until they get the battery infrastructure sorted out, the battery capacity increased by a factor of 3 or thereabouts & get the price out of the stratosphere, not ready for prime time is my opinion. The truck is just too compromised in several categories for this electro truck to even begin to take over from the F150 as a truck for everybody.

 

[nickndfl]

Politicians must be heavily invested in the suppliers and on the take.

 

[Sampson]

And apparently they are selling for about 10 to 50k over msrp right now. Here is one for a cool 150k CAD. With tax and fees added it would cost the same as I bought my first home for.

 

[viking]

I thought we had a thread on this already…

 

[ZZZZZ]

$150 k (more or less)? They're out of their friggin' minds!

That's almost 3x my house purchase 12 years ago.

 

[the_shootist]

And apparently they are selling for about 10 to 50k over msrp right now. Here is one for a cool 150k CAD. With tax and fees added it would cost the same as I bought my first home for.

View attachment 268563

Does it come in hot pink?

 

[glockngold]

Wake me when Ford makes a lightning powered truck battery.
It'll charge faster.

 

[FADEAWAY]

WHY? would anyone need or want a pickup like this !!!

 

[Ensoniq]

Does it come in hot pink?

If you work for Mary Kay it does

except she standardized on Escalades

 

[chieftain]

They can keep the "Lightning".

I'm driving one right now (FEV, field evaluation vehicle) as Ford Australia is looking at converting them to RHD for the local market. I picked it up three hours ago fully charged, I've done 200km and it's showing 40% battery remaining. That's barely enough to get me home from where I am right now. And I have the long range battery.

This thing is too plastic to take the sort of beating a tradesman/contractor would dish out on a daily basis.

 

[Casey Jones]

They can keep the "Lightning".

I'm driving one right now (FEV, field evaluation vehicle) as Ford Australia is looking at converting them to RHD for the local market. I picked it up three hours ago fully charged, I've done 200km and it's showing 40% battery remaining. That's barely enough to get me home from where I am right now. And I have the long range battery.

This thing is too plastic to take the sort of beating a tradesman/contractor would dish out on a daily basis.

They're not designed to be worked.

In fact, modern Ford petrol trucks are not intended to be worked. That was my sorry discovery a year ago...that fragile aluminum body...ANY stress causing major failures...

This crap is for the connected rich (and there is no other kind of rich, today) to Virtue Signal.

And little else.

 

[chieftain]

There's a current F-250 base model sitting in the lot as well with the 6.7L Power Stroke diesel, that's on the books for tomorrow.

Oh and I just made it back to the lot, the Lightning had no hope of getting me home.

 

[gnome]

I'm the obvious EV troll, but trucks just aren't ready for primetime. Maybe in 5 years.

Also, Ford cannot afford to get their electric pickup wrong. They are not profitable without dominance of the pickup segment. If they build a lemon it could doom the brand.

 

[Ensoniq]

I'm the obvious EV troll, but trucks just aren't ready for primetime. Maybe in 5 years.

Also, Ford cannot afford to get their electric pickup wrong. They are not profitable without dominance of the pickup segment. If they build a lemon it could doom the brand.

Lightnin has traditionally been their low volume high performance brand.

I wouldn’t think they expect to sell many, particularly at a buck fifty

 

[Bigfoot]

They can keep the "Lightning".

Perhaps you'd like the Cobra instead. It's a battery-powered truck. It's just as ridiculous as the Lighting. But, it costs a fraction of the price.

 

[TomD]

 

[Thecrensh]

Wow. Incredibly expensive.

 

[Uglytruth]

93k as tested!

 

[hammerhead]

Wow. Incredibly expensive.

I think the game plan is to make icm's seem expensive compared to the electrics.

 

[DodgebyDave]

92k? no

It's a pick up. Yes, brakes are the most important. 1/4 mile and 0-60 is irrelevant.

I need to move 5 tons 2400 miles. In this century.

Here is the deal. I'll hook horses up to the ram and spend the 10k battery surcharge on hookers and blow

 

[Casey Jones]

I think the game plan is to make icm's seem expensive compared to the electrics.

That's the game.

They don't understand economics.

Making I-C vehicles prohibitive in cost, doesn't make battery-scooters more affordable. It simply raises the cost of transportation, no matter how it's purchased.

It effectively prices personal transportation out of the hands of a large part of the population.

Good, you might say. Is it? If it's impossible to commute, cost-effectively...that means, it's necessary to live close to work.

Good!...? Think about that. You work at a steel mill, or a recycling plant...and you have to live in its shadows. I have lived in many old Rust Belt cities...when I lived in the Buffalo, NY area, I commuted to the western edge of Erie County. On my way to the job, one shortcut took me right alongside the Bethlehem Steel plant, then, just-recently closed.

The plant had gone up over a century earlier, in an era where only the more-well-to-do owned cars. The Model T was out there but was not universally owned by city dwellers. But, just outside the fences, and basically in the wake of the discharges of the mill smelters, were rows of "homes" - some, commpany housing, apparently; some, more-obviously intended as individual homes.

The conditions of these homes were...NASTY. It wasn't just the crud on the roofs and clapboard siding. They didn't get afternoon light. The soil was obviously poisoned from what had once been heavy cinder and coal soot. They were cramped, miserable.

Some were still occupied. Not with people who had worked in the steel mill in its last decade; obvious welfare cases.

Similarly: I worked in Cleveland's Collinwood railroad yard, for years. That neighborhood had sprung up, even before Cleveland had annexed it a century earlier. It was a little railroad town outside Cleveland that had gotten absorbed.

No railroaders lived in the area. Again, the homes were tiny; the area gritty; the proximity to the rail yard, not only noisy, but dangerous, should there be an industrial accident, spill or train collision.

THIS is what will come of making personal transportation the exclusive prerogative of the Elites. You will not only own nothing, you will live in foul industrial sections of Organized cities, alongside Mine-Ore-Itties who want to kill you...and you will LIKE IT.

 

[Casey Jones]

92k? no

It's a more-obvious bad buy when you consider the relatively short life those batteries are going to have.

$92,000 for a rig that has an expected service life, less battery replacement (if it's even possible) of ten years, means $9200 a year; or $900 a MONTH...OWNERSHIP cost. That's assuming minimum value once the batteries are spent - AND, once Ford stops SUPPORTING these things.

You're not INVESTING $900 a month - you're SPENDING it. Thirty dollars A DAY, JUST FOR TRANSPORTATION.

 

[viking]

It's a more-obvious bad buy when you consider the relatively short life those batteries are going to have.

$92,000 for a rig that has an expected service life, less battery replacement (if it's even possible) of ten years, means $9200 a year; or $900 a MONTH...OWNERSHIP cost. That's assuming minimum value once the batteries are spent - AND, once Ford stops SUPPORTING these things.

You're not INVESTING $900 a month - you're SPENDING it. Thirty dollars A DAY, JUST FOR TRANSPORTATION.

You forgot insurance rates for a vehicle that expensive.

I own 5 vehicles, only insure one or two at a time. And only on my main vehicle do I carry any collision coverage.

The only one of them that I bought new is my 1994 F-150. That truck will sit for many months (I disconnect the battery) and start right up.

So while I do wish gas was cheaper, I save a lot with just driving older vehicles.

 

[Irons]

Ford has their heads up their ass. Too bad too they are the last domestic that was still making solid vehicles.

But now everything is pie in the sky electric bullshit that there is no infrastructure to support, oh and strapping 6 turbochargers to a lawn mower engine and bolting it to a 10 speed electronic automatic transmission that you can't check or change the fluid in. And then dropping that disaster into a truck they want 50+k for.



.

 

[DodgebyDave]

Nobody makes a truck that I'm willing to spend money on so I'm building my own. Frame up.

It will have brakes, a heater, AC and eye melting stereo. Windshield wipers. I like the Ram center console/computer stash.

black smoke belching carbon footprint stomping green hugger crying diesel

 

[gringott]

Happily this is not a product I would ever for the rest of my life be in the market for.
I am more likely to purchase a donkey and a cart. Fact.

 

[chieftain]

Follow up to my last post, I had the diesel F250 for four days, I dropped it off this evening. A proper beast.

 

[Casey Jones]

Ford has their heads up their ass. Too bad too they are the last domestic that was still making solid vehicles.

But now everything is pie in the sky electric bullshit that there is no infrastructure to support, oh and strapping 6 turbochargers to a lawn mower engine and bolting it to a 10 speed electronic automatic transmission that you can't check or change the fluid in. And then dropping that disaster into a truck they want 50+k for.



.

You have to read deep to understand the politics of Ford - the company and the family.

Billy Ford has emerged as the scion of weight, in the Ford Tribe. First, the company is (still) under family control. The Ford IPO of 1956 involved a structure that gave the children of Henry Ford, and their descendants, a particular level of stock - not Preferred, but what was identified as Class B Common. This stock could only be held by persons of the Ford family; and if sold to outsiders, would revert to Class A Common.

Class B shareholders have TOTAL OVERRIDE in any vote by shareholders of any proposed initiative. In short, they control the company. Only if they waive their rights or are split, do common-stock shareholders' votes count, on initiatives. In short, Ford heirs still own/run the company.

With Hank the Deuce long dead...the power struggle was between Edsel Ford II and William Clay Ford II, Billy. Billy emerged as the leader - Edsel, Henry II's son, is now in his seventies and out of the picture. HOWEVER, Billy has proven himself inept both as an identifier of talent - he picked Jacques Nasser, 30 years ago, to be CEO...a disastrous pick of a Middle-Eastern exec from the European auto industry. He was Woke before Woke was a thing - antiwhite racist, and vainglorious. Quality went into the toilet.

When it was undeniable that Nasser was running the company into the ground, Ford fired him and took the CEO's job himself. And that was scarcely better - he demonstrated his total incompetence at administration, as well. To his credit, he realized it, in relatively short order.

An executive search began. Ford, like many silly scions of rich families, was unduely influenced by the last persons he'd talked to. He had his staff, partly, Nasser's staff...identify candidates. One was Carlos Ghosn...we can imagine how that might have played out, had Ghosn taken the bait.

But Ghosn wanted a level of control that would have excluded the Ford family - probably he was thinking to do to Ford what he'd done to Nissan, bring it under control of a larger European brand. Cut-and-paste merger.

Another exec brought forward was Allen Mullaly, Boeing Commercial Aviation president, just passed over for the CEO post for all of Boeing McDonnell. He was smarting.

Mullaly was also Woke, and probably how it was he came to Ford's staff's attention. Difference was, he was ALSO a competent engineer. AND a true people person. He could motivate people, and he understood the importance of doing things right. Be it management, finance, or product being made on the lines.

THAT was how Ford had such a rise in quality in the early 2000s. Mullaly, before hiring with Ford, owned a Lexus as his personal car, and called it the best-made car in the world. His aim was to make Ford as good, and he made progress, there. He had a long way to go, and had that niggling little issue with near-bankruptcy; but he made strides.

He also aged out, and retired. He put a good system in place, but Ford's century-old corporate culture was resilient. Once he retired, things went back to what they were, from the age of Old Henry. Backstabbing and demands of complete loyalty.

Eventually (after Mullaly's lieutenant crashed and burned) Billy went back to his old golfing-buddy list, and dug up the former CEO of Steelcase. Put HIM in charge. He may still be there; but the aim now, is to sell Mustangs and trucks. Nothing more.

And since Billy, who drinks the Kool-Aid at every meal...demands ELECTRIC!!...they're gonna be electric.

They're not gonna be quality. Billy Ford, who gets his cars for free, complete with drivers...doesn't care about quality. Although he may, in retrospect, after the coming Ford bankruptcy wipes HIM out.

 

[D-FENZ]

Follow up to my last post, I had the diesel F250 for four days, I dropped it off this evening. A proper beast.

Testify...

The Ford 6.7 diesel really is a beast. I have a 4WD F350 with one of those. Stock, it will burn rubber, if you're so inclined, in at least the first three gears but still get a respectable 18-19 mpg empty. Pulls a 10,000 lbs. trailer like it's not even there. One of the first things I did though was get rid of the def/cat/EGR crap so it can breathe properly.

 

[EO 11110]

batteries should be like propane bottles. pull up to the station, rack out the spent, rack in the charged. 5 minutes

 

[Casey Jones]

batteries should be like propane bottles. pull up to the station, rack out the spent, rack in the charged. 5 minutes

The trouble with that is...first, the cost of batteries.

Second, the wide variation in battery condition. You can imagine how it might go, with bad battery packs filling up changing stations...and no changing facility wanting to be left holding the hot potato, the bad battery pack.

There are so many problems with these stupid battery carts...that are simply solved by putting a gasoline engine in. Good gravy...when I worked on a golf course, even then...half our carts were battery, but the other half, gasoline. Old golfers liked the quiet electric carts, but they died on the course regularly. Never any problem with the gas buggies.

 

[TomD]

Neither the batteries nor the infrastructure for charging the batteries is in place.

A battery car might be a good pick for a commuter as long as the drive isn't too long, assuming you have a place or your own facilities to charge. Even assuming that 99% of the public fit those terms, we don't have the electrical generating or transmission capability to charge them. They're trying to force the conversion too soon. Neither the equipment or infrastructure is ready for prime time.

 

[viking]

Neither the batteries nor the infrastructure for charging the batteries is in place.

A battery car might be a good pick for a commuter as long as the drive isn't too long, assuming you have a place or your own facilities to charge. Even assuming that 99% of the public fit those terms, we don't have the electrical generating or transmission capability to charge them. They're trying to force the conversion too soon. Neither the equipment or infrastructure is ready for prime time.

If they charge at night, after 9pm (like a lot of commuters could/would) the grid should be fine. At least for quite sometime.

 

[Uglytruth]

Dumping dealerships....... price gouging or taking over the racket? If debt is money Ford Financing woudl be a HUGE winner on these 80K trucks.

 

[chieftain]

Testify...

The Ford 6.7 diesel really is a beast. I have a 4WD F350 with one of those. Stock, it will burn rubber, if you're so inclined, in at least the first three gears but still get a respectable 18-19 mpg empty. Pulls a 10,000 lbs. trailer like it's not even there. One of the first things I did though was get rid of the def/cat/EGR crap so it can breathe properly.

This one had the 48 gallon tank (180L) and I managed to get 1100km out of 90L (28mpg). Torque... unbelievable. As for the EGR/DEF crap, none of it was fitted to this example for some reason.

 

[viking]

I recently upgraded. Now I’m charging my EV for free!

 

[Casey Jones]

Dumping dealerships....... price gouging or taking over the racket? If debt is money Ford Financing woudl be a HUGE winner on these 80K trucks.

Eliminating the physical retail presence.

Why? Because TSLA DOES IT! That seems to be the thinking beyond the incomprehensible action.

Meantime, NOT mentioned in the captive legacy media, NOT mentioned by the $TSLA fanboiz...is the ongoing problem Tesla owners have in getting their cars serviced. Which is a frequent need, as is expected of a car made of plastic and Radio Shack generic parts.

Ford here will alienate their dealers, lose retail presence...as the Internet morphs, once again, from a sales portal to a government-tracking and propaganda-distribution tool. People will be looking at the cost of connection, decide it's not worth it for cleansed, censored, Woke content...and cut the cord.

And Ford will have no connection to such people. Probably they won't be buyers of $90k electric carts, anyway; but that's another demographic and market-pursuit mistake they're making.

But, like it or not, dealers make the company a success. Datsun's initial success in the US, was partly because of the cadre of energized, motivated dealers that were recruited by Nissan's exiled executive, sent here as punishment. He saw how GM sold cars in the States, copied some of that, improved it - finding young people who were HUNGRY, who knew cars - and until about 1980, Datsun/Nissan was bigger than Toyota.

Direct sales and online drop-shipments, are for Chinese scooters and obscure brands that nobody has confidence in - such as Moto-Guzzi, or, now, Fiat. How's the Fiat 500 selling, now that all the dealers recruited 15 years ago, have been starved out?

 

[Thecrensh]

That's the game.

They don't understand economics.

Making I-C vehicles prohibitive in cost, doesn't make battery-scooters more affordable. It simply raises the cost of transportation, no matter how it's purchased.

It effectively prices personal transportation out of the hands of a large part of the population.

Good, you might say. Is it? If it's impossible to commute, cost-effectively...that means, it's necessary to live close to work.

Good!...? Think about that. You work at a steel mill, or a recycling plant...and you have to live in its shadows. I have lived in many old Rust Belt cities...when I lived in the Buffalo, NY area, I commuted to the western edge of Erie County. On my way to the job, one shortcut took me right alongside the Bethlehem Steel plant, then, just-recently closed.

The plant had gone up over a century earlier, in an era where only the more-well-to-do owned cars. The Model T was out there but was not universally owned by city dwellers. But, just outside the fences, and basically in the wake of the discharges of the mill smelters, were rows of "homes" - some, commpany housing, apparently; some, more-obviously intended as individual homes.

The conditions of these homes were...NASTY. It wasn't just the crud on the roofs and clapboard siding. They didn't get afternoon light. The soil was obviously poisoned from what had once been heavy cinder and coal soot. They were cramped, miserable.

Some were still occupied. Not with people who had worked in the steel mill in its last decade; obvious welfare cases.

Similarly: I worked in Cleveland's Collinwood railroad yard, for years. That neighborhood had sprung up, even before Cleveland had annexed it a century earlier. It was a little railroad town outside Cleveland that had gotten absorbed.

No railroaders lived in the area. Again, the homes were tiny; the area gritty; the proximity to the rail yard, not only noisy, but dangerous, should there be an industrial accident, spill or train collision.

THIS is what will come of making personal transportation the exclusive prerogative of the Elites. You will not only own nothing, you will live in foul industrial sections of Organized cities, alongside Mine-Ore-Itties who want to kill you...and you will LIKE IT.

The thing is, if people are convinced to LIKE owning nothing and eating the bugs then the transition will be extraordinarily painful.

 

[Usury]

So today I watched a video where Ford CEO says he’s tired of dealers marking up above MSRP so they’re gonna cut out the dealers and sell their Lightning’s direct like Tesla. What I heard was “from now own we’re no longer even going to give any appearance that we will honor warranty claims…”

 

[Buck]

i've never really understood the reason to rate a pickup truck in the quarter mile...


i want torque in my truck, not acceleration speed