Article: How Ford’s F-150 Lightning, Once in Hot Demand, Lost Its Luster

[sotek2345]

These are great trucks and I no way regret my purchase. If you bought them for the right reasons, they are perfect. I never planned to use it as cross-country vehicle and that is where people went wrong in my opinion. It excels as local commuter and errand runner. Charge at home and your topped off every morning.

I love my Lightning as a road trip vehicle - it is fantastic! Yes, you have to do some planning and I can't wait for the infrastructure to improve, but it is VERY comfortable and easy to drive.

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[Tony Burgh]

In a Washington Post article this morning from a reporter known for his investigative work, he says that you need to do your homework and understand what your needs are. But basically:
“What’s the takeaway based on price? If you want the lowest sticker price, gasoline cars are still the winner — but they will cost you over time in fuel and maintenance, not to mention much higher carbon emissions. If you’re looking for the biggest savings over five years or more, and charging is accessible, go with electric.”

 

[Tony Burgh]

I love my Lightning as a road trip vehicle - it is fantastic! Yes, you have to do some planning and I can't wait for the infrastructure to improve, but it is VERY comfortable and easy to drive.

For long distance comfort, nothing beat my 2015 Lariat Ecoboost with 36 gallon gas tank. Highway speeds of 75-80 mph consumed 25 mpg. But it was only one or two times per year that we went 1000+ miles on trips. For day to day and most longer drives under 500 miles, Lightning is the way to go. Especially charging to 100% the night before leaving home.

 

[F150ROD]

Dealers.

 

[Zprime29]

No mention of interest rates hurting sales? They more than doubled from initial sales. Or what about production of the touted $40k option? No mention of Ford advertising a good price and then not making enough at that price? I dunno...it seems to me the reason is simple why it isn't hot anymore. All comes down to the bottom dollar and there are only so many people A) willing to buy an EV truck and B) have the means to buy an EV truck.

In my personal experience, the cost savings only comes into play if you are moving from a similar vehicle. I upgraded from a (when new) $22k Subaru Legacy. Got $8500 for trade in (7 years old 110k miles) and it cost me $150 to register. When compute what I save in gas/maintenance, it's all lost due to the more expensive registration on a $80k truck (paid $1300 to register). I'm definitely not saving money and that's before I consider the payments on the truck itself. Don't care, love the truck, would do it again.

 

[sotek2345]

For long distance comfort, nothing beat my 2015 Lariat Ecoboost with 36 gallon gas tank. Highway speeds of 75-80 mph consumed 25 mpg. But it was only one or two times per year that we went 1000+ miles on trips. For day to day and most longer drives under 500 miles, Lightning is the way to go. Especially charging to 100% the night before leaving home.

Fair enough. I had a 2016 XLT with the 2.7 ecoboost, but it only got 16mpg at 70-75mph on the highway. I mainly blame the KO2 tires I put on it, but even before I put them on I only got ~18-19 mpg on the highway.

All that said, it didn't have Bluecruise, or even adaptive cruise which makes a huge difference in driving fatigue.

I also try to minimize carbon on all trips now as well, so options are more limited if you exclude gas/diesel vehicles, airplanes, and any fossil fuel powered boat.

 

[Zprime29]

All that said, it didn't have Bluecruise, or even adaptive cruise which makes a huge difference in driving fatigue.

I was blown away at how much it reduces driving fatigue. Going to make me sad when I give it up cuz Ford still wants too much for hands free. I'm can totally live with adaptive + lane keep.

 

[Nomoregas]

we use as service vehicle and drive 250KM -300 a day with cap and 1000 pounds in back and works great, just our experience but we think the truck really shines in that usage. we do not tow with the truck

 

[JRT]

No doubt the Lightning has positives but it does have negatives with its ownership vs a traditional truck. It's expensive, 72k for my 2023 XLT vs 2023 61k for a hybrid XLT load with what the comes with Lightning comes with. Last year the $7500 was a credit you only get the entire amount if your tax liability is that or greater. I really think the mass slow down was inflation and rates more then anything. Now you can see some pretty serious layoffs going on, this is mostly not being widely reported. Cheap vehicles will be in demand for sure.

Also I'm not fan boy the savior of charging on trips is tesla. That will most likely cause more confusion for average driver who has no clue there are different tesla chargers and we can't us the most prolific v2 which people see more often. As soon as Chevy Bolts get access I bet big access issues with those slow charging cars blocking v3 fast...

 

[hturnerfamily]

The Lightning hauls stuff just fine. It does "truck stuff" very well. I've carried motorcycles (street/dirt), building materials, furniture, antiques, and even bales of hay. None of it caused any sweat when it came to range. The range of our trucks isn't based on a tonneau cover being in place -- the CT takes a big range hit with a motorcycle in the back.

The long distance towing range is more of an infrastructure problem than an issue with the truck itself. Chargers just aren't configured for vehicles towing trailers. If you have to disconnect your trailer for each charging stop, it just isn't viable.

That being said, the majority of people aren't towing stuff hundreds of [m]iles. Bringing a boat to the lake, towing landscaping equipment, etc -- those activities aren't typically "hundreds of miles" adventures. If you're towing a camper across multiple states, no EV is going to be fun with today's infrastructure. It's doable, but it won't be fun.

There's an unfortunate reality that EVs have become politicized. The most watched morning show in the country has at least one segment bashing EVs per week -- as if it is a scheduled thing. Politicians have been using increasingly escalated anti-EV rhetoric on the stump. This kind of thing hurts demand across the board. How much is this hurting demand? Tesla is getting ready for lay-offs.

From various patent filings, I am expecting the T3 to be a unibody Ranger sized thing. Think Rivian size or smaller. I also don't expect Ford to rush it out right now given the softening demand in the market.

I love my Lightning. I own it, title in hand, and plan to enjoy it for at least a decade. It's not getting replaced with anything anytime soon.

Your comments and sentiments are correct. There are PLENTY of vehicles, vehicle types, body styles, engine sizes, and powertrain types that aren't necessarily designed for 'commercial towing'... which some seem to think the LIGHTNING was 'only' designed for.

Most any truck owner, of ANY year, make, or model, does NOT use their truck for truck 'things', it's just a vehicle they LIKE to drive. It has little to do with 'towing capacity' or 'range'. Try to tow anything with your Ford Fiesta, if you're going to make any 'comparison' to real-world usage, in very rare occasions, and you'll also be let down.

Those who have bought a Lightning for 'commercial towing' usage are not living in reality. It's not impossible, no, but their own ideas of 'how it works' has to meet up with today's charging and travel infrastructure. The same problems would be within the gas and diesel truck world if you only had access to gas and diesel every 200 miles. We live in a gas and diesel world, so making the 'comparison' of an ICE versus EV 'truck' is not really a 'fair' deal.

I love my Lightning. I own it, title in hand, and plan to enjoy it for at least a decade the rest of my life. It's not getting replaced with anything anytime soon. With 40,000 plus miles, it's barely broke in.

 

[Adventureboy]

I wouldn't trade my Lightning for anything out there at the moment. It does everything I need it to do. Once you get through the learning curve and weed out the bad DCFC stations, things improve dramatically (this may be dependent on where you are located but the TSC network opening up will remove any challenges for most of us) .
I road trip just fine with it. 1400km road trip just last month in the dead of winter and went exactly as planned. I can tow Seadoos and a 17ft boat just fine with a minor adjustment to the charging pattern.
Not a good truck if you want to tow a camper or enclosed trailer long distances, so if you want that, there are better options. I can tow my 6X10 enclosed a couple hundred kms but wouldn't want to road trip with it.

 

[detansinn]

No mention of interest rates hurting sales? They more than doubled from initial sales. Or what about production of the touted $40k option? No mention of Ford advertising a good price and then not making enough at that price? I dunno...it seems to me the reason is simple why it isn't hot anymore. All comes down to the bottom dollar and there are only so many people A) willing to buy an EV truck and B) have the means to buy an EV truck.

In my personal experience, the cost savings only comes into play if you are moving from a similar vehicle. I upgraded from a (when new) $22k Subaru Legacy. Got $8500 for trade in (7 years old 110k miles) and it cost me $150 to register. When compute what I save in gas/maintenance, it's all lost due to the more expensive registration on a $80k truck (paid $1300 to register). I'm definitely not saving money and that's before I consider the payments on the truck itself. Don't care, love the truck, would do it again.

Ford is offering 3.9% for the Lightning right now along with other dealer incentives.
https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/pricing-and-incentives/

Hence, I didn't mention interest rates as impacting sales. Dealers have also been putting cash the hood. It's banging deal if you're shopping for one now and looking to finance.

 

[TaxmanHog]

FORD SAID

"And as Jim said, our Gen 2 vehicles, we won't launch unless we can get to a profit and a return on that capital that we're investing there at the pricing environment that we now understand is reality. So, yes, it is very much the mother of all optimization modeling and work around the balance between how many EVs we sell because we talked about the compliance benefit of that. For every Lightning, we can sell 12 ICE vehicles. You know, we can sell a number of ICE vehicles with every Mach-E we sell, and so there's that balance."

If politicians have a say, they might go either direction on the mandates for x% of sales by specified goal years, if congress loosen or tighten these parameters, the industry models may or maynot be on target. That's a lot of billions of dollars to spec on what fickle hacks come up with in 2 & 4 year cycles.

 

[Danface]

The Lightning hauls stuff just fine. It does "truck stuff" very well. I've carried motorcycles (street/dirt), building materials, furniture, antiques, and even bales of hay. None of it caused any sweat when it came to range. The range of our trucks isn't based on a tonneau cover being in place -- the CT takes a big range hit with a motorcycle in the back.

The long distance towing range is more of an infrastructure problem than an issue with the truck itself. Chargers just aren't configured for vehicles towing trailers. If you have to disconnect your trailer for each charging stop, it just isn't viable.

That being said, the majority of people aren't towing stuff hundreds of files. Bringing a boat to the lake, towing landscaping equipment, etc -- those activities aren't typically "hundreds of miles" adventures. If you're towing a camper across multiple states, no EV is going to be fun with today's infrastructure. It's doable, but it won't be fun.

There's an unfortunate reality that EVs have become politicized. The most watched morning show in the country has at least one segment bashing EVs per week -- as if it is a scheduled thing. Politicians have been using increasingly escalated anti-EV rhetoric on the stump. This kind of thing hurts demand across the board. How much is this hurting demand? Tesla is getting ready for lay-offs.

From various patent filings, I am expecting the T3 to be a unibody Ranger sized thing. Think Rivian size or smaller. I also don't expect Ford to rush it out right now given the softening demand in the market.

I love my Lightning. I own it, title in hand, and plan to enjoy it for at least a decade. It's not getting replaced with anything anytime soon.

Unfortunately, instant access to one another has been hijacked by individuals and groups who want to create zombie armies of non-thinking followers ... Every technology, from the wheel to the internet, can be used for all sort of reasons, some positive for society some negative. But I digress

 

[gregoryhcain]

Didn’t change my mind one bit. I love my Lightning, charge it 95% at home in a garage and do 95% of my towing regionally. When I do longer tows and hauls I just plan a bit more, am easier on the pedal and enjoy the ride taking a little more time. Two winters nearly done and the truck has done great, I’ve saved thousands in fuel bills and I absolutely love driving it. I said it after a thousand miles and I’ll say it again now after 26,000 miles; Best Truck or Vehicle I’ve ever owned in my nearly seven decades on planet earth…owned too many vehicles to count…

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