2021 F-150 Lightning With Extended Battery May Get ~460 Miles Range, Unloaded!

[EVSport7]

And again, there are a ton of other truck use cases that will work great with the Lightning. Many better than gas. Some worse. So, it doesn't make sense to act like it can't do anything useful because it can't do what *you* want it to do quite as fast as the gas version. It would be like saying, "Oh, Shaq can't shoot three pointers very well. He would be a terrible choice for your NBA team."

Consider me unconvinced.

That is the hurdle that Ford and many others are going to have to get over to convince a lot of truck guys to get on board with EVs.

I think that they work amazingly well for a very large portion of the segment (government and fleet vehicles, weekend warriors, soccer moms, etc.), but there will always be those fringe use cases where they have to haul horse trailers across the country or whatever. Something like the Lightning will not be a good option for that, and that's fine for now. As battery tech gets better and better, more of these use cases will be attainable and made possible.

Go after that low hanging fruit first, show that big chunk of the population of truck buyers how great this technology will work for them, and then worry about bringing more people into the fold down the road.

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[150ish]

Can you enlighten me on the CarPlay issue? Is it with the Mach e? Fords? Or just CarPlay in general?

My CarPlay, 2021 F150, will disconnect itself in certain areas and will struggle to reconnect if I sit at the stop light to long. It used to completely boot itself off and the CarPlay button on the radio would do nothing. Now it seems to be just shutting the radio off in those areas. Its the same two areas I drive through on my way to/from work.

 

[beatle]

That is the hurdle that Ford and many others are going to have to get over to convince a lot of truck guys to get on board with EVs.

I think that they work amazingly well for a very large portion of the segment (government and fleet vehicles, weekend warriors, soccer moms, etc.), but there will always be those fringe use cases where they have to haul horse trailers across the country or whatever. Something like the Lightning will not be a good option for that, and that's fine for now. As battery tech gets better and better, more of these use cases will be attainable and made possible.

Go after that low hanging fruit first, show that big chunk of the population of truck buyers how great this technology will work for them, and then worry about bringing more people into the fold down the road.

I suppose it's like whether someone needs a half ton pickup in the first place. A Tacoma and a Ridgeline have done me well for the past 10 years. Sure, they are "less capable" than an F150, but they have done everything I have needed (motorcycle hauling, landfill runs, moving shop equipment, occasional trailer work) and I have been happy with the compromise. The F150 Lightning would have done well (better, actually) in all of those cases so I ordered one.

 

[Blainestang]

That is the hurdle that Ford and many others are going to have to get over to convince a lot of truck guys to get on board with EVs.

I think that they work amazingly well for a very large portion of the segment (government and fleet vehicles, weekend warriors, soccer moms, etc.), but there will always be those fringe use cases where they have to haul horse trailers across the country or whatever. Something like the Lightning will not be a good option for that, and that's fine for now. As battery tech gets better and better, more of these use cases will be attainable and made possible.

Go after that low hanging fruit first, show that big chunk of the population of truck buyers how great this technology will work for them, and then worry about bringing more people into the fold down the road.

Yep. They're not for everyone, yet, and that's fine.

But, Ford clearly has enough demand amongst people that it does work for to keep them busy for a while, so the other people will come around as the trucks get out there and range/charging/infrastructure improves for the relative outlier use cases.

My issue is with claiming that because it's not ideal for everyone, that it's only good as a 10-mile commuter / mall crawler.

 

[ChasingCoral]

As a F150 owner for many years and towing boats to the Florida Keys. Electric trucks are just not there yet and the charging infrastructure is not even close. A 4 hour trip in my 2016 would take me almost double that in an Electric truck. Not to mention try finding a charging station that you can pull a truck and 30' boat trailer up to. They are mostly set up for small cars in a single parking spot. For daily commuting 10 miles to work and mall crawling, you might as well stick with a soccer mom suv.

You seem to be one of those folks who is more interested than making straw man arguments than looking at reality. Let's break down your arguments:

A 4 hour trip in my 2016 would take me almost double that in an Electric truck.

That's because of what? A four hour trip pulling a trailer in the Keys is at most a 250 mile trip, especially considering speeds you can travel in the Keys. We don't yet have the details on exact range while towing your boat but let's assume that it cost the range to 150 miles. That's one 45 minute charging stop. I really don't understand how that doubles your trip time.

Not to mention try finding a charging station that you can pull a truck and 30' boat trailer up to. They are mostly set up for small cars in a single parking spot.

So you have checked the charging stations you would use on that route? Have you visited the ones you would use? Using Google Maps or PlugShare you can look at pictures of the actual charging stations. Just to check a couple, the Florida City and Key Largo Electrify America stations are typical Walmart configurations. You could drive around the loop in the parking lot and into the first spot with a truck. Yes, the trailer will block the lane for the 45 minutes you charge but folks can get around and other BEVs can reach the other chargers. There are lots of options for travel in those parking lots.

Let's also not forget that the features Ford has built in for trailering make it fairly quick to drop the trailer and pick it back up.

With the future need for charging pickups and SUVs with trailers, there is no question EA needs a better design. The current standard configuration works but is far from ideal.

For daily commuting 10 miles to work and mall crawling, you might as well stick with a soccer mom suv.

No one here said that a Lightning will be perfect for every F-150 owner. However, comments like this one make it clear that you're not interested in reason.

 

[astricklin]

I would argue that the people who drive a truck/suv as the 'mall crawler' are the people who this vehicle would benefit most as they should really be driving vehicles that get over 30mpg but chose to drive ones that get under 20 for a myriad of reasons. An electric truck/suv with around 200 miles of range is perfect for this use case.

 

[Blainestang]

I would argue that the people who drive a truck/suv as the 'mall crawler' are the people who this vehicle would benefit most as they should really be driving vehicles that get over 30mpg but chose to drive ones that get under 20 for a myriad of reasons. An electric truck/suv with around 200 miles of range is perfect for this use case.

Yep, it's the perfect truck for people who don't actually even need a truck.. and has a bunch of advantages over gas for that use case. But it's not the ONLY use case, as the guy above would have us believe.

 

[astricklin]

Exactly.

We will eventually need to try to convince these types of people that electric vehicles will actually meet their vehicle needs.
A large number of people think about what they want their vehicle to be able to do and not what they actually use it for. The 'what about a road trip' type of argument that people use to justify that an electric vehicle won't work for them is just silly. You may take one road trip a year, maybe.
I know someone who went in to buy a Prius and walked out with a pickup. They have never used it for anything that required a truck. But 'i can move a fridge if I need to'....? When have you ever in your life needed to move a fridge?

 

[Blainestang]

Exactly.

We will eventually need to try to convince these types of people that electric vehicles will actually meet their vehicle needs.
A large number of people think about what they want their vehicle to be able to do and not what they actually use it for. The 'what about a road trip' type of argument that people use to justify that an electric vehicle won't work for them is just silly. You may take one road trip a year, maybe.
I know someone who went in to buy a Prius and walked out with a pickup. They have never used it for anything that required a truck. But 'i can move a fridge if I need to'....? When have you ever in your life needed to move a fridge?

Yep. Most people have a much bigger, less efficient, more expensive, etc. car than they need. Well, in America, that's basically everyone. So, basically none of us are exempt from criticism there, BUT obviously some cases are more egregious than others.

The good news is that EVs will allow people to drive the big vehicles that they want, but still be relatively efficient, etc.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Exactly.

We will eventually need to try to convince these types of people that electric vehicles will actually meet their vehicle needs.
A large number of people think about what they want their vehicle to be able to do and not what they actually use it for. The 'what about a road trip' type of argument that people use to justify that an electric vehicle won't work for them is just silly. You may take one road trip a year, maybe.
I know someone who went in to buy a Prius and walked out with a pickup. They have never used it for anything that required a truck. But 'i can move a fridge if I need to'....? When have you ever in your life needed to move a fridge?

The troglodytes will continue to claim how bad a job electric vehicles do. In the meantime, those of us who know better will have our orders filled. Once we have our Lightnings, they will see how well they work in a wide range of applications. They'll never admit it when they eat crow, though.

 

[Smokewagun]

These arguments are like diesel vs. gas. Naysayers will be naysayers.
I’m pretty excited about the Lightning and reserved before the release video was done. I drive quite a bit, and find that I could save close to $325 a month going electric. That’s roughly 1/2 the payment I’d expect. That also allows me to keep miles off my current truck to keep it cherry for long trips or towing. I could see being better off when I hit 200k in 4-5 years on the lightning as my other truck would still be mint and low miles. Question is how long will the battery last before it starts drastically reducing my mileage?

 

[Sam James]

These arguments are like diesel vs. gas. Naysayers will be naysayers.
I’m pretty excited about the Lightning and reserved before the release video was done. I drive quite a bit, and find that I could save close to $325 a month going electric. That’s roughly 1/2 the payment I’d expect. That also allows me to keep miles off my current truck to keep it cherry for long trips or towing. I could see being better off when I hit 200k in 4-5 years on the lightning as my other truck would still be mint and low miles. Question is how long will the battery last before it starts drastically reducing my mileage?

The warranty is for 70% at 8 years, which makes me think Ford's planning for them to come in higher.

 

[MickeyAO]

The warranty is for 70% at 8 years, which makes me think Ford's planning for them to come in higher.

Is the 70% for capacity fade or power fade? EOL (end of life) has long been 80% capacity and/or 70% power fade for automotive applications.

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

I’ve never utilized an EV before but I find myself asking “Self, how my stops to charge on a road trip before $10k seems like it’s worth throwing out on 70 more “estimated” miles?”
Like a lot of people on here I would drive about 80 miles a day regularly. I’m kinda leaning towards the base PRO model and make it as cheap as I can as long as it has basic creature comforts.

 

[sotek2345]

I’ve never utilized an EV before but I find myself asking “Self, how my stops to charge on a road trip before $10k seems like it’s worth throwing out on 70 more “estimated” miles?”
Like a lot of people on here I would drive about 80 miles a day regularly. I’m kinda leaning towards the base PRO model and make it as cheap as I can as long as it has basic creature comforts.

The upgraded battery also gets you considerably more power (426 vs 561 HP). A 135 HP boost is quite substantial and evident even in lower milage driving. Extended range also comes with the "Pro" home charger station (included) which enables the Truck to home backup power. Not a bad package overall for $10k (and maybe cheaper on higher trims, we don't know yet).

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