5 THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT THE FORD F-150 LIGHTNING (AND, 5 THINGS WE DON'T)

The Ford F-150 Lightning was one of the most awaited electric trucks in the country, and rightfully so. The standard gas-powered F-150 is the highest-selling vehicle in the United States and now since it has arrived in an all-electric avatar, the excitement is bound to be high among the fans of the F-150. The F-150 Lightning has many small changes as compared to its standard sibling which makes it more cutting-edge and modern, just what electric vehicle buyers expect. It also has some really cool and intelligent features that make it unique among its rivals. The biggest thing going for the F-150 is the brand value and the aspirational value that it enjoys. This has made the F-150 Lightning much anticipated ever since it was first announced. Like always, there are also a few things that could have been better and Ford can look into improving these things in future iterations. Here are five things that we love about it, and five things that we don’t.

Pro: The Ford F-150 Lightning Offers A Decent Range

Despite the massive size and weight, the F-150 Lightning has a decent range that has sent it to the top of the shortlists of people waiting for all the upcoming electric pickup trucks. It comes in two variants called the standard range and the extended range. The standard range variant offers a claimed range of 230 miles whereas the extended range offers a range of 320 miles. This is quite acceptable and puts it in a comparable space when it comes to the range offered by the competition. As expected, the maximum range is achieved when doing moderate speeds in urban and semi-urban conditions.

Con: Range Drops Drastically At High Speeds And While Towing

Thanks to the brick-like aerodynamics, the range of the F-150 Lightning drops drastically at higher speeds typically seen on freeways and this will surely limit its long-distance capability. This also means that traveling long distances on freeways will require frequent recharging of the batteries. This problem is common across all vehicles that have an upright stance and a flat front end. This makes them aerodynamically extremely inefficient, and this problem is compounded exponentially at higher speeds like those on freeways due to higher air resistance and drag. Also, there is no way to make something that has a shape of a truck more aerodynamic, and hence, one has to drive at moderate speeds in order to achieve maximum range. Worst of all, towing at full capacity takes a massive hit on the range.

Pro: It Comes With A Huge Frunk

The F-150 Lightning maintains that huge and tall hood just like the gas-powered F-150. However, courtesy of the lack of an engine, the entire space under that huge hood has transformed into a large storage area or frunk, as it’s more popularly known. It provides a massive 14.1 cubic feet of space inside the frunk and this coupled with the low-loading lip, makes it extremely practical to haul heavy items into the trunk. The other biggest advantage of the frunk is that it offers a safe lockable space where owners could keep their luggage without the worry of theft. Usually, the main issue in pickup trucks is the lack of proper enclosed space for storing luggage, the frunk just makes up for this issue and how! Since the battery packs are placed low in the chassis, the space where the engine would usually be installed in an IC engine car is very big and completely empty, making for a fairly large frunk.

Con: High Bed Makes Loading Difficult

Due to the massive height of the F-150 Lightning, the bed is extremely high and this makes loading anything in the bed extremely difficult. One has to lift the items over a considerable height in order to place them in the bed. This makes it difficult as well as tiresome to haul in heavy items in the bed and this also necessitates taking the help of a second person for loading heavy items into the rear bed. Loading light items is not that difficult but when it comes to bulky and heavy loads, lifting them up to the high-loading lip and pushing them into the bed is a huge task. What adds to the woes is that there is no provision to lower the suspension to make it easier to load heavier objects. Providing this feature would have made it easier to load heavy objects.

Pro: The Lightning Can Power Your House

The Ford F-150 Lightning provides a power outlet that can power a number of appliances like a TV or some tools that might be helpful for people who intend to use it as a work truck. It will be able to provide 9.6 kW of power with a 2.4 kW inverter up front and a 7.2 kW power out in the bed. With a fully charged battery, the Lightning can even power your entire house. In fact, it can do this so intelligently that if one plugs the Lightning into a wall charger and the power goes out, it can automatically start powering your house, thereby offering bidirectional capability when it comes to power. This makes it exceptionally versatile and useful for camping and long-distance road trips where one could just park at a campsite without the need to have any external power supply.

Con: The Base Variant Is Bare-Bones

The base variant of the F-150 Lightning is pretty basic and is not really value for money. In fact, the base variant gets cheap vinyl seats that look completely out of place in a not-so-cheap and cutting-edge modern electric truck. This forces the prospective owners to go for the higher variants and hence spend more money. Moreover, the feature set in the base variant is not really worthy of the $60,000+ price tag that it commands. Ford could really think of adding some more features and better trim materials in the base variant of the F-150 Lightning and make it more appealing to the masses. The base variants get a very basic infotainment system and materials that feel economy-grade and rough around the edges.

Pro: The Electric Truck Boasts A Spacious Interior

The F-150 Lightning, just like its gas-powered sibling, has ample space on the inside. There’s healthy legroom, headroom, and shoulder room in both front as well as the rear seats and this makes it comfortable for five passengers to travel long distances without feeling cramped. Being a wide truck, the shoulder room in the back seat is sufficient to accommodate three passengers in utmost comfort thereby making it a comfortable five-seater. In addition to this, the flat floor makes for comfortable leg space for all three passengers. Also, there's space to tuck one's feet under the front seats thus providing that much additional room. The front seats, too, are wide and spacious and offer excellent support. The ample space coupled with seats that are perfectly cushioned makes it a very comfortable truck.

Con: There's Only One Cab Configuration

The Ford-150 Lightning comes only in an extended cab form along with a 5.5 feet bed. Although this isn’t particularly a bad thing, in fact not at all a bad thing as this is typically the highest selling configuration in pickup trucks in the United States, offering customers an option would have been better as not every customer wants to carry five passengers. Some owners might want to carry only loads in the bed and for them, a single cab variant with a longer bed would have been ideal, but sadly that's not an option here. Although a 5.5 feet bed isn't small by any means, providing the option to choose a suitable cab style would have made the pickup more versatile.

Pro: It Offers Good Practicality

The standard gas-powered F-150 is the best-selling vehicle in the United States and the Lightning being based on that brings in some inherent positives with it. It is still that practical, large, and comfortable family truck that people love, just in an electric avatar. Add to this the Lightning gets a few minor changes on the outside just enough to distinguish it from its gas-powered sibling. Just like its regular sibling, the Lightning, too, gets the popular onboard scales system that measures the payload weight and displays the range accordingly. In addition to this, it also gets Ford’s popular BlueCruise hands-free cruise-control system. The BlueCruise system makes it extremely effortless for the driver on long-distance road trips. In addition, the Lightning also gets all the small nifty features just like the regular F-150 that make it more practical and user-friendly.

Con: Can Go North Of $100,000 With Options!

The base trim of the F-150 Lightning retail at around $59,974 and the top-spec extended-range variant retails at around $99,000 which makes it pretty expensive for what essentially is a truck. The base variant especially is pretty spartan in terms of equipment and at a retail price of more than around $60,000, it isn’t exactly cheap. The top variants on the other hand, almost touch a six-figure price tag. That is very expensive for an F-150 truck, although Ford is banking on the aspirational value that the F-150 brand carries. However, it's definitely not a value-for-money product and the buzz created around it is all due to the electric vehicle craze and the brand value that the truck enjoys.

2023-05-28T20:05:57Z dg43tfdfdgfd