The electric full-size pickup is upon us. If they win hearts here, it’s another of the crucial barriers for EV adoption taken down, but who will actually buy this?
Ford is absolutely the correct company to push this forward in the United States. Their F-series has been the most successful pickup truck for decades now. Ford is credited with inventing the mass-produced pickup truck with an assist from the Galion Godwin trucking company. More recently, and in a stereotype-subverting commitment to maintain their place at the top of the sales charts through superior products, they have brought aluminum bodies and smaller displacement, turbocharged engines as the superior engine choice on their trucks.
All of these have been hits, despite being met with initial derision from consumers and rival brands alike. Who can forget when GM created a campaign against the aluminum truck…only to use it themselves not too long after? Then, there’s the usual problem in a not-insignificant number of segments: “More better”, which has acted against smaller engines in the automotive business and, amusingly, larger burgers on the fast food industry. Now, the barrier is electric. And Ford is sure that the unique selling propositions of the Lightning are good enough that they should be considered.
Personally, I kinda have to agree with them. The frunk is a massive plus, the (up to) 300-mile range is excellent for a vehicle that would lend itself to longer journeys, and the backup power solution where you can use it to power your house is quite frankly showing off. So, what is the default question when asking about it?
“What’s the range when towing?”
Yes. Even though about 75% of people who would buy a car like this would never hitch anything to it, that’s the one on everyone’s head, presumably because the laws of physics guarantee that it will not be flattering. C&D estimated < 100mi at max towing capacity back in May. Granted those few miles would benefit from silent running and all of the torque all of the time, but longer distances would have to be planned taking into account a lot of pauses to “Drink a coffee” and “Enjoy the scenery”.
Fortunately for the non-towers, the range should be good enough for them. And fortunately for Ford, a not insignificant amount of the people who buy these for fleets in the hundreds will generally do none or just some light towing. Not to mention the gasoline options being right there for those jobs.
Like with the Ecoboost V6, the Lightning seems to be more of a proof of concept for the public at large upon release. If they can convince enough fleet managers to buy them for the correct uses (and with lower maintenance costs, a slashed fuel bill, and more or less the same basic capabilities of the gasoline powered one besides towing, how couldn’t they?) they’ll become a common sight thus crumbling yet another mental barrier in adoption. People who would never give one a glance will have to use them for work and maybe discover that their advantages outweigh their issues for them. And then, naturally, ford gets hundreds of thousands of miles of in-the-field testing to further refine the concept. Not to mention catch and fix any obvious flaws before they move to the inevitable EV-fication of the entire lineup.
It’ll be quite interesting to see the reactions when the trucks actually hit the road, especially among the subset that is still in denial about the spotlight being removed from their beloved V8 (Tip: get one while you can). But I expect that, success or flop, ford is already learning a lot more through it than with the unfortunately named Mustang Mach-E. and we’ll all get to reap the benefits of this in the end.
