Why isn’t the Lightning getting more of the gas F150 market?

[21st Century Truck]

...I wouldn't recommend for people that take multiple long road trips or people who can't charge at home. And then there is the price.
.

1st bolded recommendation - no. I'm living proof, and I'm not into suffering for suffering's sake. 2d bolded recommendation - yes, very much so.

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[frost22]

I wonder if Dealers are pushing people AWAY from EV's because they are worried about their future. All the maintenance of an ICE is a significant revenue stream - and a Lightning requires a LOT LESS maintenance - Could a Ford Dealer survive if it was ONLY EV? I think they would have to scale DOWN quite considerably. Thoughts?

Extended warranty coverage. I just got one as my 36k warranty is ending and I'm keeping this truck for awhile. Those headlights and tail lights get $$$$. $2500 is well worth it compared to those parts failing out of warranty coverage. (Just be sure to get the light coverage)

 

[21st Century Truck]

Extended warranty coverage. I just got one as my 36k warranty is ending and I'm keeping this truck for awhile. Those headlights and tail lights get $$$$. $2500 is well worth it compared to those parts failing out of warranty coverage. (Just be sure to get the light coverage)

I agree. I learned this lesson back on my 1st Prius (the Flintstone wheels Prius) back in 2002 or 2003, when its ECU the central electronic brain for that car fried itself about 17 miles short of the end of the warranty. The dealership clucked about it but replaced that critical electronic $970+ part for free.

This repeated again later, with different parts each time but all electronic components, on my 3d Gen Prius and on my 2015 Ford Fusion.

The ever-increasing electronics on our 21st Century computers-on-wheels which we still call "cars" that make the extended warranties worthwhile now.

 

[flyct]

Very simple. The target F150 driver (and most pickup truck drivers) are probably the most wary of an EV.

I’ve had many pickup drivers make fun of me for my Lightning.

Same here. If you really want to be made fun of go to this forum https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum311/ 99% of posters are EV haters that come over from the Diesel Super Duty Forum side. .

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I wonder if Dealers are pushing people AWAY from EV's because they are worried about their future. All the maintenance of an ICE is a significant revenue stream - and a Lightning requires a LOT LESS maintenance - Could a Ford Dealer survive if it was ONLY EV? I think they would have to scale DOWN quite considerably. Thoughts?

That's my guess. Dealers typically make around 50% of their income on maintenance. EV maintenance is very minor, so I suspect that's a big part of it.

I also believe there's an identity issue. My nearest Ford dealer is mostly a truck dealer and has been strongly anti-EV. They'll sell the rare Mustang Mach-E (didn't offer a Mustang Mach-E until 2023), but I have never seen a Lightning on their lot or on their website. I may just not be looking at the correct time, but I believe it's more than that. Their "EV Technician" didn't know what to do with our Mustang when we brought it in for the HVBJB recall replacement. Our second-nearest dealer doesn't offer EVs at all. We ended up having to bring it to a dealer 90 minutes away (the dealer from whom we purchased it in the first place--they were the nearest authorized EV dealer at the time we ordered the Mustang Mach-E). I think these dealers have taken on an identity that doesn't include supporting EVs.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

1st bolded recommendation - no. I'm living proof, and I'm not into suffering for suffering's sake. 2d bolded recommendation - yes, very much so.

With about 33,000 miles of EV road tripping (our typical road trip is ~500 miles one way), I agree. We sold our last ICE because road tripping in an EV is so much more pleasant and the ICE was just sitting and gaining years but not miles. We decided to sell it to someone who would actually use it.

 

[Calvin H-C]

Extended warranty coverage.

Also, the maintenance/protection package. It covers the wearables that the extended warranty does not cover, and it pays for the routine service visits.

It also includes brakes, but Ford requires the pads to be down to at least 3 mm. Spoiler alert: my FFE didn't have it's front pads down to that before the maintenance plan ran out

Dealerships will get paid for those visits by Ford, so they do a nice job of competing for you to bring it to them.

 

[Joe Dablock]

Regarding dealers talking people out of EV’s, I think they have read the tea leaves so to speak. The EV’s might go 100k miles without even a brake job. With no oil changes, there is no opportunity to look the vehicle over and suggest this or that maintenance. Once the majority of vehicles are EV’s, the dealer maintenance shops are going to be quite quiet! Also, both my MME and my Lightning get software updates/recalls while sitting in my driveway.

 

[Malimal]

1st bolded recommendation - no. I'm living proof, and I'm not into suffering for suffering's sake. 2d bolded recommendation - yes, very much so.

So you take multiple long road trips..

I guess it could work if you don't mind stopping every couple hours. Which I did on our long road trip. One thing I was missing was the Tesla adapter. the nearest regular charging station at our destination was 30 minutes away.

 

[broncoaz]

Same here. If you really want to be made fun of go to this forum https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum311/ 99% of posters are EV haters that come over from the Diesel Super Duty Forum side. .

I routinely engage in EV and solar related threads on shooting forums. Talk about getting made fun of...at a minimum it usually devolves to questioning one’s sexuality.

 

[Calvin H-C]

...at a minimum it usually devolves to questioning one’s sexuality

Of course it does, but is should involve stating the need to have a vehicle that makes noise to compensate for a certain body part being small.

 

[21st Century Truck]

So you take multiple long road trips..

I guess it could work if you don't mind stopping every couple hours. Which I did on our long road trip. One thing I was missing was the Tesla adapter. the nearest regular charging station at our destination was 30 minutes away.

Of course I don't mind stopping every couple of hours. Neither does the dog. Neither do the kids.

I agree the Tesla adapter did make it a bit easier, except for West Virginia.

 

[Scorpio3d]

My calculations show that for a similarly-equipped F-150 ICE Lariat, purchasing a Lightning over the ICE will pay me back within 2-3 years. Maybe even sooner since my assumption was 10,000-14,000 miles per year and I'm on track to put 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year.

When I did the calculations of a similarly priced four-wheel-drive lariat with the eco-boost engine versus the lariat lightning, I was already $1000+ ahead, including the $7500 tax incentive only! Add in the savings of go go juice and that should be at a minimum $1000 per year at 10,000 to 12,000 miles.
I was lucky and purchased mine at the right time and my savings on the initial purchase were substantially higher and I installed solar so my savings for go go juice cost is also substantially higher.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

When I did the calculations of a similarly priced four-wheel-drive lariat with the eco-boost engine versus the lariat lightning, I was already $1000+ ahead, including the $7500 tax incentive only! Add in the savings of go go juice and that should be at a minimum $1000 per year at 10,000 to 12,000 miles.
I was lucky and purchased mine at the right time and my savings on the initial purchase were substantially higher and I installed solar so my savings for go go juice cost is also substantially higher.

I wrote some software (well, spreadsheet functions) that model everything from the future cost of energy for the vehicle to the cost of maintenance to depreciation (first year and subsequent years), insurance, etc., etc., etc. I typically run 10,000 to 1 million simulations on each vehicle I'm comparing.

Here's an example from a comparison between BEV and ICE Lariats. In this scenario, 85% of the time the Lightning was cheaper than the ICE. It all depends on variables, but I have to work at some really weird possibilities to make the ICE cost less (gas drops to <$1/gallon, etc). This scenario has a median of 18,000 miles/year driven for its runs (the miles driven per year is a variable in the simulation).

 

[B177y]

I wrote some software (well, spreadsheet functions) that model everything from the future cost of energy for the vehicle to the cost of maintenance to depreciation (first year and subsequent years), insurance, etc., etc., etc. I typically run 10,000 to 1 million simulations on each vehicle I'm comparing.

Here's an example from a comparison between BEV and ICE Lariats. In this scenario, 85% of the time the Lightning was cheaper than the ICE. It all depends on variables, but I have to work at some really weird possibilities to make the ICE cost less (gas drops to <$1/gallon, etc). This scenario has a median of 18,000 miles/year driven for its runs (the miles driven per year is a variable in the simulation).

I'd love to hit that 20 year mark.

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