Fresh off their success of the Mustang Mach-E, Ford has revealed that their most popular car, and for that matter, America’s most popular car, is going electric.
The F-150 Lighting is Ford’s contribution to the extremely limited electric truck market, and they’ve managed to include a truckload of features for a price tag of $36,650, that—when reduced by the $7,500 federal EV tax credit—puts its price point right in line with most other electric trucks.
The base model has 230 miles of range, 3.5 tons of towing capacity, an enormous front trunk, a 14-inch command touchscreen console, highway self-drive and automatic trailer hitching, and 11 power outlets for everything from your iPad to power tools all encased within the four-door “SuperCrew” cabin that F-150 buyers normally have to pay extra for.
The double-electric motor means all versions are all-wheel drive, and the technological integration is seriously impressive. This includes detailed onboard scales that measure load and towing weight, and that calculate that extra tonnage into the battery life to ensure you’re never left on the side of the road.
Public EV fast-charging stations can add 54 miles of range in 10 minutes, charging the battery from 15% to 80% in 41 minutes. This is pretty standard for modern EVs.
It’s an interesting attempt to pair a workman’s vehicle with a market share that tends to be dominated by young, affluent buyers that live in cities. One auto writer at the Verge suggested that if you’re going to take a gamble on whether an EV version of a well-known internal combustion car was going to work, you might as well try it with the most popular car in America, which at its most popular recent period put an American behind an F-150 wheel every 30 seconds.
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But they aren’t throwing darts in the dark, they have some data to base their strategy off of: the recent EV conversion of the Mustang. 70% of the buyers of the Mach-E had never owned a Ford before.
One of the mantras of the F-150 Lighting design was self-reliance. As well as acting like a sort of mobile power station for light to medium work intensity sustained by the battery, owners of the extended range battery model, costing about $40,000 and capable of going 130 miles more on a full charge, will get an 80amp home-charging station that as well as filling up the battery in eight hours, will act as a backup generator for your home in the event of a power outage for about three days.
Having created the first mass produced automobile, if the F-150 Lighting is even a quarter as popular as the F-150, Ford will go a long way towards creating the next vehicular revolution.
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