- We're here in San Antonio to drive
the all-new 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning
all-electric pickup truck.
It's not the first all-electric pickup to hit market,
but it is the first from a mainstream brand.
We have some history
at cars.com with Ford pickups.
The redesigned F-150 won
both our Best of and Best Pickup Awards,
and we actually bought an F-150 limited hybrid.
And then, last year,
the Maverick swept both of those awards again,
and now we have a 2022 Maverick Lariat hybrid.
So now we're here with an all-electric Ford
after two hybrid Ford pickups.
We'll have to wait till we get it back home in Chicago
for a more comprehensive test,
particularly with our home charging setups.
But for now, let's see how it does.
Let's check it out.
Part of what makes the F-150 Lightning so compelling
is that it really doesn't look that much different
from a non-electric F-150.
Since there's no need for a grill,
you do get this solid piece
and you do get a new Lighting signature,
but up front you'd be hard pressed to tell
besides those two things that this is any different.
This does hold the mega power frunk underneath,
but coming along the sides,
you do get some new wheel designs.
Here's the charging port.
And then along the sides you just get F-150.
The running boards are flat for aerodynamics flat
underneath for aerodynamics,
and then you get some Lightning badging
with the unique blue accent.
And when you come around to the back,
you get the same across body LED Lighting signature
that you see up front and some more badging as well
with the little Lightning logo there,
but really that's about it.
I should also note
that the Lightning Pro has a little bit of a different look
that's more of the fleet only lower cost model.
So I'm sitting inside the F-150 Lariat
and we've already really gone
over the F-150 Lightnings interior
at last year's Chicago auto show.
So I'll try not to belabor that here
but what's really striking is like the exterior
just how similar this is
to a gas-powered F-150 that you can buy right now.
This model does come equipped with BlueCruise
It's available on Lariat and Platinum models.
So you do have a camera here
and another camera over here
to make sure your eyes are on the road
while your hands are off the wheel.
The other big difference
is that in Lariat and Platinum models,
you get this 15.5 inch SYNC 4A system,
which moves pretty much all the controls to touchscreens.
We're not huge fans of that.
It's not the most convenient
or user-friendly way to do things.
There is still a physical volume knob,
but things like climate control,
everything exists within the screen.
Sync 4A is relatively easy to use, I've found,
but they're just multiple menus
for things that could be simple button pushes.
Lower trim models do get a smaller screen
that maintains more physical controls
but higher trim levels will get this fancy SYNC 4A.
Interesting to if SYNC 4A starts propagating
into lower trims and more Ford products in the future.
Other than that, you still get mostly F-150 stuff.
So there's a wireless charging pad here, USBC and A ports.
You can also get a collapsible gear selector
that folds down, and this model comes equipped
with the work surface that folds flat.
Eat your lunch, put your laptop here.
Do things like that.
Otherwise, this is an F-150.
This feels just like our long-term F-150,
although a little bit lower materials quality
because this is a lower trim level.
So the F-150's breaks feel somewhat like a traditional EVs,
which is good and bad.
They do have a decent amount of stopping power.
There's just not a lot of pedal feel,
like it feels like it takes a lot of effort
to push the pedal down.
Not super communicative.
The Lightning does in fact have one pedal driving,
not every EV does.
I've only been driving for maybe an hour and a half,
two hours right now, so I don't quite have the feel down.
I don't find the accelerator pedal to do a great job
of communicating as I'm letting off,
which means that I can be surprised
by some sudden breaking force.
But one pedal driving is one of my favorite ways
to drive EV, so I'm glad it's here.
And I think obviously with more experience,
you build up a better feel for it.
Again, I haven't spent much time inside this vehicle
but as of now, I haven't found any way
to adjust any sort of level of regenerative braking
in the truck.
It's pretty much, "Do you want to use one pedal driving?
Yes or no?"
But beyond that, you can't really change
or at least I haven't found how to change yet.
Just how much regenerative force the brakes produce.
So we're on some bumpy roads right now,
which you may or may not see in the way my body moves
but the ride quality overall
feels like a traditional pickup truck
with a load in the back.
I think ride quality
in this particular F-150 Lightning
is also helped by its 20 inch wheels.
Our long-term F-150 with which I've spent the most time
of any F-150 has 22 inch wheels,
which can lead to a lot of impact harshness.
I haven't noticed that nearly as much here.
Overall, it's a pleasant experience.
Still very much handles like a truck,
which is to say not super well.
Road wind and tire noise is pretty impressive to me.
There's obviously some and that's probably exacerbated
a bit by the lack of engine noise
to drown out any exterior noises.
But not too bad, certainly not annoying.
One of the most impressive things
about the F-150 Lightning
and how it drives is its power.
This is a Lighting model with the extended range battery,
which means it has 320 miles of range.
But more importantly than that,
at least for right now,
is it has 580 horsepower and 775 pounds feet of torque.
We're coming up to a stop sign now,
so I can show you in one second.
But what that means is it can do things like this.
Chirp the tires and push your head back in the seat
before you even realize what's going on,
but what's also great about the Lightning is that
in addition to power from a stop,
you definitely have ample passing power at highway speed.
So if you need to get around something,
merge into traffic,
you've got power to spare.
Ford says the Lightning can do zero to 60
in about the mid-four-second range.
We can't wait to test that ourselves,
mostly because it's just so much fun.
The standard range battery is available
in the pro XLT and Lariat.
That gives you 230 miles of range and 452 horsepower
to go with that 775 pounds feet of torque.
The extended range battery
is also available in the XLT and Lariat
as well as the range topping platinum.
In the XLT and Lariat that gets you 320 miles of range
in the platinum that drops to 300.
As far as range thus far,
we started with just under 320 miles of range
and we're currently at 223.
I also have not been driving that carefully at all
and spent a good chunk of time in sport mode.
There's not a whole lot of body roll in the F-150 Lightning
relative to other pickup trucks,
which is to say,
there's a fair amount of body roll
because it's a pickup truck.
I don't think there's maybe quite as much as our F-150
but really I'd have to drive them back to back
to be certain either way.
As far as steering feedback.
Again, it's a pickup truck.
You're not expecting a sports car here, are you?
If you are, I mean, you could try the TRX or the Raptor
but those are really sports cars for dirt and not the road.
What I'm saying is that the steering communicates enough
that I'm not complaining about it,
but not really a whole lot because it's a truck
and it's not tuned to be communicating
every bit of road to you.
Parking the F-150 Lightning
is about a straightforward as parking a regular F-150.
This one comes with parking assist systems
that can do it for you automatically,
handle the steering for you.
This one also has a helpful 360 degree camera system
to make that easier.
So one other feature available on higher level trims
of the F-150 Lightning is BlueCruise,
which is what Ford calls its hands-free driving system.
As you can see, we are on the highway.
I am not using my hands and we are driving.
It does get mad.
If you start looking away from the system.
There are monitors here and here
to make sure you're keeping your eyes on the road.
But, overall it works pretty well.
It's a very straightforward hands-free system.
There's no automatic lane changing or anything at this time.
The Ford says they're working on rolling that feature out
along with other enhancements as well.
Now having said all that, do I like using BlueCruise?
Not really, but that's because I don't like
not holding onto the wheel and controlling the car.
And I don't know how my passenger
in the back seat also feels about the fact
that I don't have my hands on the wheel right now.
It's a very, just uncomfortable situation for me.
And now it wants to turn off for some reason,
which isn't really clear except it said,
"Keep hands on steering wheel."
So now we're back to driving normally
But when it works, it works pretty well.
According to Ford, it will work down to a stop.
Now, BlueCruise will only work on pre-map
sections of highway unlike say Tesla's autopilot
or full self-driving.
But I actually prefer that for my sense of safety.
According to this trip in 49.7 miles of driving,
we have averaged 0.8 miles per kilowat hour.
Granted, it has been idling as well,
but that's not great.
Ford does say that the impact
of towing on the range of an electric vehicle
is roughly equivalent to the impact of towing
on fuel economy of an internal combustion vehicle.
Not sure I believe that,
but that is what Ford claims.
Probably, my biggest complaint right now driving along
is that I don't have actual towing specific side mirrors,
but these do give an okay view
of the sides of the boat trailer we're pulling behind us.
Part of the fun of the Lightning
is just how quick and powerful it is when unladen,
but while towing you do lose
a lot of that surprise and wow factor.
It is still amply powerful,
just not obviously as quick as it could be.
If it didn't have say 8,300 pounds behind you.
This is a very short tow route,
but it included surface roads and freeway.
And this is impressive.
We've used about seven miles of range
and the range calculation has been very low.
We started with about 82 miles of range.
We're down to 75, but the range calculation
has also been accurate for the situation.
So are you going to be able to get very far
in one charge while towing?
No.
Is it going to be fairly accurate
for how far you can get?
Yes.
You just have to plan accordingly.
I'm not sure this is the choice
necessarily for someone who needs a long haul towing rig,
but it does have the ability
to at least tow those heavy loads.
How far you can get is a different story.
I've only spent a brief time in the Lightning
but I've come away very impressed.
It's too early to say whether or not
Ford has another award winning pickup truck on its hands.
So we'll have to wait for more comprehensive testing.
So, stay tuned for that and more at cars.com.