Comparison: Early Tesla S/X ordering & delivery vs. F-150 Lightning experiences

[FlasherZ]

Hi all,

New to the forum, but old hat with EV's. Wife and I drive Teslas today - Model S for me and Model X. We had the fourth Model S delivered in the St. Louis area and the first Model X. With the exception of my rusty old 2007 F-250 w/ 6.0 for orchard maintenance, every mile we drive is EV since 2012 (350,000 of them).

I suppose the first thing I want to say is that I'm seeing the very same excitement that I saw when Tesla launched its vehicles. Then, the same fretting over the logistics to get the orders to the customers. My advice: try not to worry too much, it's a lot of excitement but it will drive you mad scouring for more information!

The commonalities:

• The overall excitement... just, wow. This isn't a compliance vehicle, Ford really invested a lot of great engineering into this, much like what we saw with Tesla.
• Configuration / ordering: Tesla did all of their Signature (first 1,000) orders at once, but then started to invite configuration based on various factors, including region (mostly for shipping & logistics purposes). It *mostly* aligned to the ordering order, but there was some weirdness too. Tesla didn't quite have as many options - and they've even simplified it more since.
• Delivery: If you thought the ordering process was unfair, production and delivery will be even worse. Tesla had a lot of opaque processes and didn't tell the customers any details about how they were ordering production. Some were obvious - for example, California-first; larger battery packs first; higher-performance first... yet others couldn't be figured out. I owned a Signature car (first 1,000) and it was delivered AFTER the first batch of "production" (non-Signature) cars were being delivered. I can see signs of Ford doing this too with some of what I'm reading here about individual cases. I sent e-mail to a bunch of people asking for transparency or more information about when I should expect - with little more than "you'll get it when you get it".
• There are clear signs -- with Tesla, VIN assignment meant your car would be produced within 2 weeks and that meant shipment within 30. Unless you were unlucky like me, and the car failed a critical test on the line and had to be scrapped and re-started (learned after one of those e-mails). Ford has its signs too, scheduled production date... so at least we get *some* information.
• Packaging: there were constant complaints about Tesla packaging, especially after they recognized they needed to simplify production to keep things moving. What seems like a basic feature would bring along with it a $10k package and there was screaming.

The differences:

• The dealer factor: I have to admit, the experience with dealers was just horrible here for me. I placed my reservation near the beginning of the introduction broadcast, and the dealer I chose (not my local dealer, they weren't EV certified) called me like an excited puppy, wanting to get me into a brand new F-150 as soon as possible. When I said "no, the EV one", the tone changed and I was ignored with "no information yet". I reached out with some questions as Ford sent out information, and after November -- my 3rd e-mail to them -- they just didn't respond. They outright refused to answer my questions about ADM, suggesting "we'll talk about it when order time comes." Meanwhile, my local (closer) Ford dealer changed hands, got EV certified, and I switched to them - and received an order invite in wave 5.
• The whole dealer prioritization thing... it would seem that Ford should be able to dictate terms and conditions for the Lightning, as they are holding the reservations for the customers. I know that the laws are weird in a lot of states (from my reading about Tesla's fights here), but I think the dealers have way too much power in the current environment.

Wait and see:

• Incremental / on-the-fly / mid-MY changes... will Ford adjust in the middle of a MY if it identifies a better way of onboarding customers faster?
• Frequency of OTA features & OTA updates... I imagine there are already signs from Mach-E buyers - but Lightning is likely to eclipse this several-fold.
• OTA upgrade / firmware roll-outs... just wait until the firmware trackers come along and people start complaining about their truck getting the latest firmware build a month after some of the early folks.

But here's the bottom line - when you get your vehicle, you're going to absolutely LOVE it. With the Tesla, I'd walk out of a store to have 20 people standing around the car, and I'd spend 45 minutes explaining it, showing the frunk. That first time you go for groceries and you put the whole load in the front of a pickup truck, people are going to stare and ask "WHAT THE?" and you're just going to smile and strike up a 15-30 minute conversation with a complete stranger. It's an awesome experience.

I absolutely cannot wait for this delivery. Looking over all the other EV's out there, I think Ford is doing things right (save for the dealer nightmares) and they have pinpointed the right things in the driver experience. I'm happy to be here with all of you.

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[FlasherZ]

And don't forget to take the very first pictures when you're at the dealer or it gets delivered! These are exciting times!

(I probably should admit my love for the dark red color. Tesla's Signature Red was a gorgeous tri-coat color, as deep as lake Michigan. And of course I went with Rapid Red on the Lightning.)