Ford F-150 Lightning All-Electric Truck

We recently got our hands on Ford's new all-electric pickup truck. With over 200,000 orders for the Lightning, it is a big success for the venerable automaker and changing the way many Americans think about electric vehicles. Mainly because it's shockingly good (pun intended). Interestingly, more than half of those who have reserved a Lightning have never owned a Ford vehicle. That's saying something.
 
The sturdy F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for an astounding 43 years. Introduced in 1948, the F-150 was Ford's first post-war truck. The faithful work wagon has evolved through thirteen generations and now the all-electric Lightning joins the automaker's family. It debuted by pulling a one-million-pound freight train just to get the Ford truck faithful on board - and it worked.

LIGHTNING STRIKES

Ford is building 150,000 of the EV trucks per year at its expanded Dearborn, Michigan plant. All Lightnings come as four-door crew cabs offering generous room inside and a five-and-a-half-foot bed in the back. Because there is an electric motor at each axle, all-wheel drive is standard, and it will tow 10,000 pounds with the extended battery. Payload capacity is 2,000 pounds.
 
Peak horsepower is limited by the output of the battery pack and the Lightning offers two options. There's the standard 98-kWh battery that produces 452 horsepower, and the upgraded 131-kWh pack that pushes 580 hp. Both versions give you a meaty 775 pound-feet of torque and you can actually power your house with the Lightning's batteries for three days or more.


The standard range battery pack will take you an EPA-estimated 230 miles before you need a charge, and the extended range battery will take you an EPA-estimated 320 miles. EPA estimates give the F-150 up to 78 miles per gallon equivalent in the city and 63 MPGe on the highway. Being that it is an electric truck, Ford engineers thought, "Why not put a whole bunch of electrical outlets on this thing." They did just that and you'll find eleven plugs, some in the cab, some inside the very large Mega Frunk that is under the hood, and some, including a 220-volt outlet, in the bed in back. 

Just imagine the tailgate parties you could have with all those outlets. Watch our "Cruisin" YouTube video to see all the things you could power.
The Bottom Line
We think that one of the reasons that the F-150 Lightning has so many fans and followers is that it is an intelligent evolution of America's favorite and best-selling truck. In fact, the 200,000 consumers who are on the list for the first Lightnings plunked down their deposits before they could ever actually sit in or drive one of these all-electric wonders. And there would have been a lot more future owners, but Ford capped the number of people who could pre-order to 200,000 because, as the company's CEO Jim Farley told the press, "We had to stop taking reservations because we had so many." That's a very good sign for the future of Ford.