Does the Lightning Still Stack Up Well vs. Other EV Trucks?

[Gullwing]

if ford offered a larger battery option in the lightning, would anyone even be talking about the Silverado?

I guess it depends on what people prioritize but I agree aside from range does the Silverado really set itself apart? I mentioned the Silverado when I started this thread and my conclusion was probably not worth the massive price increase over the Lightning for the additional range. For somebody like me that's comparing EV trucks I keep coming back to the Lightning based on best bang for your buck.

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[Green1]

if ford offered a larger battery option in the lightning, would anyone even be talking about the Silverado?

I've long said that Ford messed that one up. What they call extended range should have been the standard, and there should have been a higher range one above it.
As for comparing to the Silverado. Truck buyers have long been brand loyal, and therefore some people would buy a Silverado versus an F150. And beyond range, they are overall very comparable vehicles. As much as I would never buy a GM product, any competition in the market is a good thing for consumers.

 

[speedy123]

I've long said that Ford messed that one up. What they call extended range should have been the standard, and there should have been a higher range one above it.
As for comparing to the Silverado. Truck buyers have long been brand loyal, and therefore some people would buy a Silverado versus an F150. And beyond range, they are overall very comparable vehicles. As much as I would never buy a GM product, any competition in the market is a good thing for consumers.

Charging up to 350kw is attractive!
Lack of CarPlay is dumb.

 

[BlueLightning]

Yes! Honestly believe the is the best option for your money if you are wanting a simple EV truck!

Great if just Point A to Point B!

Rivian has been out just as long if not longer and they act like they are teamed up with Gucci with their price.

GM have lost their mind going from $39k to well over $100k base, but Tesla set that standard.

Ram is still middle price, but they haven’t released yet so they will probably follow GM, Tesla on super increased price release?!

Canoo has four concepts, will take your money, spend everyone else’s money (live the life) but still don’t have a product.

Finally, there is Tesla. Many were waiting several years for their $39K truck, but drank the Kool aid and bit the bone for one over $100k that’s built with $39k worth of parts .

 

[Jake24]

Lightning XLT SR - $9k BEV rebate. Stands alone for value, quality, tech, comfort & style...incredible truck! What f'n competition?

 

[StraydogEOD]

Came here for this exact thread as I might be in the market to move on from my '22 Model 3 SR after I move back to Utah next week. My Model 3 was great for living in the DC area but I have missed having a truck bed and definitely plan to get up into the mountains a lot more often, to include rough "roads". I've had a reservation on the Cybertruck since 4 days after it launched and my patience with Tesla is wearing thin, especially after the founder's series cash grab. I get it, a company needs to recoup cost and be profitable but seeing the price go up by a little under half for the AWD version I originally reserved and my initial customer experience when I tried to initially buy a Y has me looking elsewhere. Also, while part of me wants to get the CT because so many people hate it purely based on looks or their overlords tell them to hate Elon, that's a silly reason to spend that much money and that reason to push forward with it is waning rapidly.

I've had some form of full BEV since I got my first Zero motorcycle in 2016 so I'm pretty familiar with what it's like to live with a BEV and I love it personally. With that, I'm mostly looking at gently used or possibly leftover 2023 Lariat ER models.

The Rivian seems nice but also too similar in size to the Tacoma I had a few years ago which was too small for my hobbies. Case in point-my YZ450 was close to hanging off the lowered tailgate in the bed even when placed diagonally and with the smaller R1T bed, no thanks.

The TL;DR of my intended use:

-Throwing a Surron Ultra Bee in the bed to get up in the mountains to ride. Love having outlets I can charge it with in the frunk.

-Normal non-towing or super light towing truck duties. Things like taking my Africa Twin in for service once a century, helping friends move, camping in the Rockies, commuting, exploring the PNW with more camping. Some LIGHT off roading on forest service roads, out in the desert, etc. I've seen some videos of people with the Lightning in the exact areas I have in mind and it seemed to perform just fine with stock suspension and ride height.

The primary hesitations I have are:

-the "slow" charging speed of the Lightning with a larger battery meaning longer times than I'm used to when I am on the road.

-the potentially not as bad now unreliability of non-Tesla fast chargers. I know the magic dock is an option now so that's great. I've tried using a few EAs with my M3 just to see if the reports were true and in those experiences, they definitely were. But it's been a year or so since I've tried.

Penny for anyone's thoughts on my rant?

 

[invertedspear]

I know the magic dock is an option now so that's great. I've tried using a few EAs with my M3 just to see if the reports were true and in those experiences, they definitely were. But it's been a year or so since I've tried.

Ford is giving away the adapter so you can use any Tesla V3 or 4 supercharger. Opens a lot more options. They're way behind on delivering that but the market is being filled by A2Z and Lectron (I recommend the A2Z) until they fully distribute them.

The slow aspect I can't say much, it's really as fast as most 400v EVs barring GM's solution that splits the pack in 2 and switches between series and parallel so that it can charge as an 800v battery, the size of the pack is why it's "slow".

You want off-roading? Go Rivian
You want the most range and fastest charging? Go Silverado
You want to turn heads or stay Tesla? Go Cybertruck
You want to wait? Go Ram Rev

You want a middle ground that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and most people can't tell it's an EV? That's where this truck plays.

 

[Green1]

Came here for this exact thread as I might be in the market to move on from my '22 Model 3 SR after I move back to Utah next week. My Model 3 was great for living in the DC area but I have missed having a truck bed and definitely plan to get up into the mountains a lot more often, to include rough "roads". I've had a reservation on the Cybertruck since 4 days after it launched and my patience with Tesla is wearing thin, especially after the founder's series cash grab. I get it, a company needs to recoup cost and be profitable but seeing the price go up by a little under half for the AWD version I originally reserved and my initial customer experience when I tried to initially buy a Y has me looking elsewhere. Also, while part of me wants to get the CT because so many people hate it purely based on looks or their overlords tell them to hate Elon, that's a silly reason to spend that much money and that reason to push forward with it is waning rapidly.

I've had some form of full BEV since I got my first Zero motorcycle in 2016 so I'm pretty familiar with what it's like to live with a BEV and I love it personally. With that, I'm mostly looking at gently used or possibly leftover 2023 Lariat ER models.

The Rivian seems nice but also too similar in size to the Tacoma I had a few years ago which was too small for my hobbies. Case in point-my YZ450 was close to hanging off the lowered tailgate in the bed even when placed diagonally and with the smaller R1T bed, no thanks.

The TL;DR of my intended use:

-Throwing a Surron Ultra Bee in the bed to get up in the mountains to ride. Love having outlets I can charge it with in the frunk.

-Normal non-towing or super light towing truck duties. Things like taking my Africa Twin in for service once a century, helping friends move, camping in the Rockies, commuting, exploring the PNW with more camping. Some LIGHT off roading on forest service roads, out in the desert, etc. I've seen some videos of people with the Lightning in the exact areas I have in mind and it seemed to perform just fine with stock suspension and ride height.

The primary hesitations I have are:

-the "slow" charging speed of the Lightning with a larger battery meaning longer times than I'm used to when I am on the road.

-the potentially not as bad now unreliability of non-Tesla fast chargers. I know the magic dock is an option now so that's great. I've tried using a few EAs with my M3 just to see if the reports were true and in those experiences, they definitely were. But it's been a year or so since I've tried.

Penny for anyone's thoughts on my rant?

The charge speed isn't nearly as bad as people seem to think. It all comes down to the charge curve, this truck stays at 100 kW all the way up to 80%, Tesla doesn't do that. Now I don't know what your Tesla did for a charge curve, but mine dropped off so dramatically and so rapidly that this truck will save hours off any road trip.

This won't compete with Kia and Hyundai for their charge speeds which are the best in the industry, but it's not as anemic as people make it out to be.

 

[StraydogEOD]

Ford is giving away the adapter so you can use any Tesla V3 or 4 supercharger. Opens a lot more options. They're way behind on delivering that but the market is being filled by A2Z and Lectron (I recommend the A2Z) until they fully distribute them.

The slow aspect I can't say much, it's really as fast as most 400v EVs barring GM's solution that splits the pack in 2 and switches between series and parallel so that it can charge as an 800v battery, the size of the pack is why it's "slow".

You want off-roading? Go Rivian
You want the most range and fastest charging? Go Silverado
You want to turn heads or stay Tesla? Go Cybertruck
You want to wait? Go Ram Rev

You want a middle ground that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and most people can't tell it's an EV? That's where this truck plays.

The cost and capability you get for it is a big draw for the Lightning in my book for sure.

As far as the CT, seems like it's almost a sports car with a truck bed. I'm not a fan of drawing attention, I normally prefer to avoid it. That's low on the priority list though.

Is the R1T significantly better at off road than the Lightning? If yes, how so? Off road performance is a secondary priority for me so this is mostly out of curiosity.

 

[invertedspear]

The cost and capability you get for it is a big draw for the Lightning in my book for sure.

As far as the CT, seems like it's almost a sports car with a truck bed. I'm not a fan of drawing attention, I normally prefer to avoid it. That's low on the priority list though.

Is the R1T significantly better at off road than the Lightning? If yes, how so? Off road performance is a secondary priority for me so this is mostly out of curiosity.

I'd say the CT is a Pontiac Aztec look, sports car performance, El Camino utility.

I don't have first hand experience off-road in an R1T, but it is slightly narrower than the lighting and lighter, both of which are very useful when off-roading around here. It's also what Rivian sells it as: "an adventure lifestyle vehicle". So they likely keep things tuned via the software for off-road. I'd rather be in a Jeep, but that limits the gear I can carry. The significance of the lighter weight and narrower wheel spacing is going to depend on conditions where you off-road, which I also don't have experience with. I just know that the F150L would absolutely have been stuck in some of the muck I've gone through in the AZ deserts, especially after rains.

 

[Green1]

The cost and capability you get for it is a big draw for the Lightning in my book for sure.

As far as the CT, seems like it's almost a sports car with a truck bed. I'm not a fan of drawing attention, I normally prefer to avoid it. That's low on the priority list though.

Is the R1T significantly better at off road than the Lightning? If yes, how so? Off road performance is a secondary priority for me so this is mostly out of curiosity.

The R1T is narrower, shorter wheelbase, better approach, departure, and break over angles, higher ground clearance, better fording depth, better articulation, and available in a quad motor variant which will beat our simple rear locker any day.

There's not really any question that the R1T is the best off-roader of all of these choices. The question is, does it matter? For myself I decided the answer was no, and the lower cost, and larger bed, and better frunk, and Android auto made the F-150 a better deal for me.

If you're going to do hardcore off-roading, the lightning is not the vehicle for that. But if you're going to drive down the occasional lousy road, dirt track, or mild off-roading, the lightning is actually amazing, and better than a lot of other vehicles that could be chosen. For the off-roading I'm going to do, it's more than enough.

 

[Jake24]

You want a middle ground that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and most people can't tell it's an EV? That's where this truck plays.

Real easy choice w/$9k BEV rebates & $5k delivery allowance.
Style, comfort, quality, features & value!

 

[StraydogEOD]

The R1T is narrower, shorter wheelbase, better approach, departure, and break over angles, higher ground clearance, better fording depth, better articulation, and available in a quad motor variant which will beat our simple rear locker any day.

There's not really any question that the R1T is the best off-roader of all of these choices. The question is, does it matter? For myself I decided the answer was no, and the lower cost, and larger bed, and better frunk, and Android auto made the F-150 a better deal for me.

If you're going to do hardcore off-roading, the lightning is not the vehicle for that. But if you're going to drive down the occasional lousy road, dirt track, or mild off-roading, the lightning is actually amazing, and better than a lot of other vehicles that could be chosen. For the off-roading I'm going to do, it's more than enough.

No intentions for anything hard-core. May put some KO2s on if I find myself off pavement often. Otherwise, it feels like out of the 3, the Lightning is what fits the bill the best overall for me.

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