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ALASTAIR WEAVER: Alistair Weaver here
in Texas for Edmunds at the most important vehicle
launch for the past century.
Exaggeration?
Not really.
If this F-150 Lightning crashes and burns,
it won't just mean the implosion of Ford.
It might also be the death knell of the entire American auto
industry as we once knew it.
The world is turning electric, and so
is the biggest-selling vehicle in the US,
whether die-hards like it or not.
This is not so much the future as the present,
the here and now.
There's a sort of palpable tension in the air.
Ford CEO Jim Farley recorded a video message
asking the media to email him directly with their thoughts.
Now, in over 20 years in this game,
I've never seen that before.
It really is a big deal, this.
Question is, is it any good?
Let's find out.
Actually, before we head out, please subscribe to our channel
and click the bell.
And if you have a car to sell, head to edmunds.com/sellmycar,
and we'll make you a cash offer.
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The Lightning is instantly recognizable as an F-150,
but it's distinguished by a new grill and LED light bars, front
and rear.
It uses two electric motors, one at the front
and one at the rear, to provide all-wheel drive
with the batteries mounted in the frame in between.
The price is also comparable.
Ford is determined that the Lightning shouldn't
be seen as the luxury choice.
The EV starts at a smidgen under $42,000 for the pro version
and stretches to almost 100 grand
for a fully-loaded Platinum.
That's before federal and state tax incentives,
which could shave over $7,000 off the total.
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So we've just rolled out of town.
First impressions-- it's very quiet in here.
EVs are naturally quiet, of course.
You don't have an engine.
But sometimes that means you get more road noise, more wind
noise.
But Ford has done a really good job of suppressing all of that.
It's a very calm and relaxing place to be.
I've already activated the BlueCruise system,
which works on 130,000 miles of US highways.
So I can take my hands off the wheel.
I can talk to you.
I can gesticulate wildly if I wish as long as, from time
to time, I can keep looking keep looking forwards
and keep my eyes on the road.
Honestly, I can already tell this would be a great road trip
truck.
Technically, of course, this isn't the first EV truck
to market.
That honor went to the Rivian R1T,
closely followed by the Hummer.
But those vehicles are really wealthy people's toys built
for the Patagonia brigade.
This is rather different.
This is a proper working truck, an electric version
of the F-150, the working heartbeat of America,
if you like.
At least until the Silverado EV arrives next year,
Ford has basically got the market to themselves.
And they've already had 200,000 orders for this vehicle, which
has surprised even then.
They're desperately trying to ramp up production.
And while they do that, they've actually
closed the reservations list.
Now, the last time I drove a Ford that you couldn't actually
walk into a dealer and buy, it was called the GT.
And it was a million-dollar supercar.
Now let's lean into the accent for a moment,
because I'm pretty sure that a bunch of keyboard warriors
are going to say, well, Charlie--
SPEAKER: You don't know nothing about trucks.
ALASTAIR WEAVER: I know nothing about trucks.
Well, the reality is I've actually
lived here for a few years now.
But I think the accent is pretty much locked in place
despite the fact that the odd birdie goes into my dialogue.
But I have driven pretty much every truck
on the market over the last few years
and like to regard myself as knowledgeable, authoritative,
discerning.
So we spent the day in the truck now,
and we're cruising back to San Antonio.
So what do we think?
Let's talk driving dynamics for a moment.
Uniquely in the F-150 range, the Lightning's also
got independent rear suspension.
And it is a distinct improvement.
You don't get that poor poising that you sometimes
do in the standard car.
I'm not saying it's quite luxury sedan levels of comfort
and control, because let's face it,
it's still built to carry some pretty hefty loads.
But again, it's pretty composed over these Texan highways.
And of course, it is genuinely fast.
Ford claims 0 to 60 in a little over 4 seconds.
We haven't had the chance to test it today.
We will when we get back to the Edmunds test track.
But honestly, it feels believable from everything
that I've driven.
There is, of course, 580 horsepower,
775 pound feet of torque.
And that torque in the best EV tradition is instantaneous.
So if you kick the loud pedal-- or the silent pedal,
I should say--
you do get this instantaneous whoosh of acceleration.
Indeed, there's so much torque that it's
possible to light up these all-terrain tires that
are fitted to our test car, particularly
on this slightly greasy Texas surface after a bit of rain
earlier in the day.
You can actually feel a torque steer in the truck.
As long as you're not going so mad,
though, actually, it drives very nicely
and will be familiar to anybody who's driven a standard F-150.
The steering is nice and positive,
and it's well weighted.
And you can actually mix it up a little bit
by going into sport mode, which makes it a little bit more
direct and also changes the throttle mapping to give you
more instantaneous response, a bit more instantaneous oomph,
if you like.
On the road, it's not as overtly sporty
as the much smaller Rivian.
But I will go so far as to say this.
This is the nicest driving, nicest riding,
and most refined F-150 I've ever driven.
It's that good.
What else do you need to know if you're
jumping out of a gas-powered F-150 into one of these?
Well, you need to get ready for one-pedal driving.
What I mean by that is if you lift off the right-hand pedal,
then it automatically applies an engine braking effect which
helps recharge the battery.
And that means that you barely have
to touch the brake pedal at all.
Does it take some getting used to?
Well, in my experience, not really.
A few miles, and it'll feel like second nature.
I kind of like it.
It's relaxing.
COMPUTER: Please avoid rapid acceleration when possible.
Accelerating slowly is more energy-efficient.
ALASTAIR WEAVER: So this is really, really
starting to wind me up.
Every time I accelerate even moderately quickly,
this voice from nowhere just starts to tell me to slow down.
If I brake too hard, she also intervenes.
Accelerating fast is fun.
This car gets 0 to 60 in 4 and a bit seconds.
That's part of its appeal.
I haven't yet worked out how to turn her off.
If I now break--
COMPUTER: Unless in an emergency,
please avoid sudden braking events.
Looking ahead and braking early can help.
ALASTAIR WEAVER: I'm done.
A quick call to Ford revealed that this
was a trading mode designed to help fleet customers maximize
their range.
Apparently, it's still in beta and much too sensitive.
An over-the-air update turned it off as we drove.
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Inside, the Lightning fuses traditional F-150 cues
with a bit of inspiration from the Mustang Mach-E EV.
Attention focuses in the Laria and Platinum models on this
15.5-inch screen which complements the 12-inch
touchscreen right in front of your eyes.
This screen controls pretty much all the car's functions.
There's a Ford interface that allows you to select things
like driving modes, towing functions, cameras,
et cetera, et cetera.
But it also offers the opportunity
to couple up your phone, be it Android Auto, Apple CarPlay,
or--
which is a bit of a novelty in the automotive world--
Amazon Alexa functionality so you
can ask Alexa to turn up the heating
or play your favorite music.
Basically, it's combining the best
that Detroit can muster with the latest and greatest
from Silicon Valley.
It's also nice to see the screen complemented
by some proper physical controls for things like the volume,
and you don't have to push a button on the screen
to open the glovebox here or even here.
Well done, Ford.
What don't I like?
Well, frankly, the games were a bit rubbish.
Ford's obviously decided it has to compete with Tesla,
but you can't do a fart machine.
So what do you get? you get Sketch, Sudoku, and something
called Lane Change, which, honestly,
is a bit half-hearted.
Let's put that into the box that says could do better.
Let's talk practicality, versatility, and quality.
Now, this truck that I'm sitting in
is $82,000, so you do expect a lot.
There's plenty of gadgets, and the whole thing
feels nicely screwed together.
I like some of the detailing like this bronze design
around here, which reminds me of a new shower.
Doesn't quite feel up to the standards of a German luxury
car, but hey, it's still a working truck.
You also get a lot of the cool little gadgets
and features that you find in the latest
generation of the F-150.
You can, for example, drop the gear stick down here and open
up this tray to give you a handy little workbench if you fancy
doing a bit of work on the move.
The rest of it is pretty much standard F-150.
So you get a really nice driving position,
commanding view of the road, and plenty of variability.
So you can adjust the steering wheel fore and aft,
up and down.
You can adjust the pedals too.
I'm 6'4".
and I'm super comfortable in here.
You also get these lay-back seats
if you want a bit of sleep or if you get lucky.
In the back, it's also traditional F-150 fare, which,
let's face it, is a good thing.
This is all set up for me.
And as you can see, there's acres of space.
You also don't have that problem that you're
get in so many EVs with your knees up around your chin.
This is very comfortable for a very long journey.
Plenty of headroom too.
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Day two.
In the interests of personal hygiene,
I've changed the T-shirt.
And today, we're going to go off road.
We're going to test the payload, and we're going to tow a boat.
So towing behind me is a total of 8,300 pounds.
And let's just talk through quickly how
we set this vehicle up.
So as we go into the Features mode,
we've got an option here for towing.
We can then key in all the details of our active trailer,
in this case an A-R-C boat or ARC boat.
I can then go into Drive Mode, introduce tow and haul.
That's also changing the display in front of me,
giving me control over basic stuff.
But also, most importantly, it starts
to recalculate the range.
So the EPA rating for this car, which is the extended range
battery, is 320 miles.
Now with this boat on the back, the car
is suggesting I'm going to go 160.3 miles.
And as I said, often it reads the terrain
and reads my driving style.
It'll adjust accordingly.
Kind of half the range by sticking a giant boat
on the back.
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So first impressions, apart from the fact
that it's a pretty big boat and it's
doing a lot of slightly disconcerting creaking noises--
so Ford's research told them that 75% of F-150 customers
do tow, and 80% of those tow less than 10,000 pounds.
So in theory, this is pretty suited to all
but a handful of customers.
And towing with an EV is kind of a nice thing
because you've got so much instantaneous torque.
Remember, 775 pound feet, and it's just a tickle away
on your right foot.
Now, just going back to that range thing for a moment,
it's currently showing 143 miles to go.
And Ford's engineers are adamant that the range
is no more affected in an EV than it is
in the gas-powered alternative.
The only difference is, of course, in a gas car,
you've got plenty of gas stations.
If you're going to have to stop every 100,
150 miles to charge one of these because you're towing,
that is going to increase range anxiety.
And if you're serious about towing,
then you should forget the standard-range battery.
You're going to have to pay more for the extended range.
One other thing to note when you're towing
is that the one-pedal regen mode is actually turned off,
and you have to revert to driving it
like an old-fashioned car with the throttle and the brake
pedal.
So just a bit of mental adjustment.
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So we finished towing.
Now we're going to try our hand at hauling.
This vehicle has something called
Onboard Scales, which is another function here on the screen.
Wheels pointed straight ahead, blah, blah, blah, continue.
And immediately, what you can see here
is we've got two giant vats of wine
on the back which weigh just over 1,000 pounds.
And when the car gets sent from the factory in Detroit,
they're actually keying in the VIN
to give you a max payload according
to your specification.
So Ford is claiming 2,235 pounds is a max payload,
but that's with the shorter-range battery.
This vehicle that I'm sitting in--
1,500 pounds.
And as you can see, we're pushing up against the limit.
The Lightning's max payload of 2,235 pounds is over 1,000
pounds less than an F-150 with a V8 but similar to the 2.7-liter
Ecoboost V6.
So we're off on our hauling route.
And one thing the car is automatically doing
is trying to recalculate my Range,
taking into account not just how much I've
got in the bed but also things like weather
conditions, terrain, and even my driving style.
And the whole technology is designed
to get smarter and smarter to minimize your anxiety.
So we have basically 1,000 pounds of wine
in the bed, which, let's face it,
would be a pretty good tailgate.
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OK.
So we're now venturing out into the Texan bush.
As you can see, I'm a little off road.
Of course, Ford has groomed for the occasion, shall we say.
And this truck has one off-road mode.
So it's not like a Land Rover, for example,
where you've got different settings for sand and mud
and ruts and that sort of thing.
Just one mode, but you do have the option
to lock the rear differential.
It locks electronically but is actually
a mechanical differential.
It's not like one of those fake [? difs. ?]
And the off-road mode actually changes things
like the throttle mapping so you've got a little bit more
fidelity in the pedal movement, which allows
you to maneuver at low speeds.
Honestly, this is not the most challenging thing
I've ever done, but it's handling it pretty easily.
The nice thing about driving an EV off road--
and this all go goes for plug-in hybrids as well,
like the Wrangler 4XE--
is that you have this instantaneous torque.
You're not waiting for turbo to spool up
or a gearbox to find itself in the right place.
You can just tickle the throttle,
and everything is there on command.
The other thing is it's kind of nice to be silent off road,
you know?
I do feel a little bit more at one with nature.
It's peaceful.
It's relaxing.
The other nice thing is you've got
a 360-camera, the sort of thing you
might use for parking, that allows
you to view the landscape around the vehicle and another camera
pointing forwards which allows you to see what's coming up
and to choose the terrain.
I mean, again, pretty standard off-road stuff,
but it's nice to have it.
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Let's deal with the big elephant in the room--
EV range and charging.
If you go for the standard-range battery,
the EPA is suggesting an estimated range of 230 miles.
If you go for the extended-range battery,
then that jumps to 320 miles if you have the Lariat or XLT
or 300 miles if you have the posh Platinum
version, which has bigger wheels and tires and a bit more
weight.
Can't wait to put all these trucks
through the now-world famous Edmunds EV range test when
we get them back to the office.
Honestly, though, if you're going
to use this as a proper working truck, as we found when we were
hauling and towing, we'd really recommend saving up
for the extended-range battery, which,
thankfully, is available on the entry-level Pro Model 2.
Let's talk charging.
And this is where things start to get
a little bit complicated.
Now, I'm going to give you the overview here,
but we're also going to put a link
below this film for a little news article written which
gives you a bit more detail, because frankly, it
does get a bit complex.
The long and short of it is most people will charge these trucks
overnight at home.
And Ford is supplying with each vehicle a charging system up
to 80 amps, but you do need to make sure that your home
system can handle that.
Then, of course, you can charge on the road
through either level two charges or the more sophisticated
DC fast chargers.
Frankly, you want to be looking for the fast chargers
if you're out on a road trip.
What's the infrastructure like?
Well, it's still not quite as good as Tesla's Supercharger
network, but it is getting better all the time.
There's plenty of software on board
to help you navigate your route and make sure
that you can reach your destination,
allowing for a proper charge.
And on a fast charger, you're probably
able to fill up this truck in around 40 minutes.
So grab yourself a sandwich, grab yourself a coffee,
and away you go.
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Let's talk cargo capacity and usable power,
which, let's face it, is the Lightning's trump cards
compared to the F-150 or just about any other truck
on the market.
The front trunk, or frunk if you prefer,
can hold 400 pounds of payload and is 400 liters of volume.
400 liters is just over 14 cubic feet.
That's enough for a couple of sets of golf clubs
as you don't go for those humongous pro bags.
Power-- well, as long as you go for an upmarket Lightning,
you can have a total of 9.6 kilowatts of output.
That's 2.4 kilowatts through the sockets
in the frunk and a further 7.2 through the sockets
here, which include a 240-volt supply.
So in theory, you can actually charge up other EVs out there
in the wilderness.
Now, Ford says this can be used to power a home
if you have the right setup for up to three days.
More practically for most people,
it means if you're using it as a working
truck or even as a leisure truck,
you can take all your goodies with you,
and you're not reliant on generators
or plugging into some other external source.
So if you're out camping, you can take your massive TV,
plug it into the socket, and enjoy the big game.
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Final thoughts, conclusion.
Well, the big challenge of this EV truck
remains the charging infrastructure.
There just aren't enough fast charges
across the US for our liking, and then there's
all the paraphernalia that you need at home or the office
to charge it overnight.
But if you can wrap your head around all of that--
and frankly, things are getting easier all the time--
then you'll end up with a better kind of F-150,
a vehicle that's more versatile, more practical, more
fun to drive, and faster too.
If this is the future of the truck,
it's pretty exciting if I was the CEO of Ford,
would I be betting the company on this vehicle?
Would I be going all in?
Yeah, I probably would.
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