Ford F-150 Lightning

Ford Motor Company

How to GET Yours ASAP

N. R. Mallery, publisher of Green Energy Times

It looks like Ford is stealing a bit of Tesla’s thunder with an exciting new electric pickup truck. It is releasing the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck at a price that is very competitive, and it has some super exciting new features. In our last issue of Green Energy Times, we had an article on electric and hybrid pickup trucks (www.bit.ly/GET-EV-pickups). We knew that something was coming, but we did not anticipate anything quite like this.

The response already has been extremely positive. In fact, Ford CEO, Jim Farley, announced that 44,500 reservations had been made in the 48 hours after the F-150 Lightning was revealed (www.bit.ly/F-150-reservation-count).

Ford Motor Company

Joe Lorio said on autoblog.com, “The much-anticipated battery-powered 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pickup has finally made its debut, a moment that feels like a sea change in the U.S. auto industry. The F-Series pickup has for years been America’s bestselling passenger vehicle, and Ford’s decision to offer it as an electric vehicle sends the message with a bullhorn. The EV’s moment is upon us (http://bit.ly/Autoblog-F-150-moment).”

Jimmy Fallon, television host, is a F-150 owner. He has been talking about how much he wants the new F-150 Lightning (www.bit.ly/Ford-F-150-JF). In fact, on a recent late night TV segment, he was talking about all of their incredible statistics and excitedly said, “You can even power your home with it! I’m going to move in.” He went into detail about the ‘frunk,’ which is where a motor is normally. Instead, it uses this large space for storage.

Rachel Maddow, television news program host, also owns an F-150 (www.bit.ly/Ford-F-150-RM) and wants an F-150 Lightning. Even President Joe Biden is excited about it, as this video shows (www.bit.ly/Ford-F-150-JB).

If some of the people closest to you aren’t excited about this vehicle, they probably have not seen Ford’s video announcing it, or the F-150 Lightning commercials. If you still haven’t read all about the Lightning, you might want to see it for yourself (www.bit.ly/Ford-F-150-release).

The F-150 Lightning will come in four different trim levels

• The Basic model is priced at $39,974. It has a standard range of 230 miles and 426 hp.

• The XLT starts at $52,974 before tax incentives.

• The Lariat is another model that will be offered, though the price is yet to be announced.

• The Platinum model, which starts at $90,474, has 563 hp and a 300-mile range.

Ford Motor Company

How do you get one?

You can be one of the first to buy a new Lightning by reserving it on Ford’s dedicated reservation site: www.bit.ly/Ford-F-150-reservations. An $100 deposit is required to reserve one, the same amount Tesla required to reserve a Cybertruck when their pickup was revealed. According to Ford, deliveries will start in the spring of 2022, so it will be a year-long wait before you can expect its delivery to you, if all goes as planned.

Some of the F-150 Lightning highlights

• The F-150 Lightning comes with a dual-motor four-wheel drive with 775 pound-feet of torque. The standard-range model has 426 horsepower (hp), and the extended-range model has 563 hp.

• It is said to have the most torque of any F-150, and the 563 hp version can go from 0 to 60 in roughly 4.5 seconds, as quietly as one might imagine.

• The 4 x 4 SuperCrew four-door has a 5.5-foot bed.

• It can tow 7,000-10,000 pounds. A new Pro Trailer Hitch Assist automatically steers, brakes, and accelerates when hitching up a trailer.

• Ford is offering standard range and extended-range battery packs. The extended-range pack is included on the Platinum trim and optional on the others.

• Ford estimates 230 miles of range for the standard battery pack and 300 miles for the extended.

• The time to charge the battery depends on the type of charger and the size of the battery. The 32-amp mobile charger, which is standard for the standard battery, will charge from 15% to 100% in an estimated 14 hours. The 80-amp charger that comes with the extended range vehicle will add 30 miles of charge per hour, to bring the charge to 100% from 15% to 100% in 8 to 10 hours. With a Level 3 fast charger, the vehicle can be charged to 80% in 44 minutes or less (www.bit.ly/F-150-media).

• The F-150 Lightning is able to power an ordinary house for three days, before it has to be recharged. The basic truck has 2.4 kW of output available through eight 120-volt AC outlets in the cab, bed, and front trunk. Upper trim models can put out 9.6 kW of power, have two more 120-volt outlets and a 240-volt outlet in the bed. Ford claims that the 9.6-kW system, working through the 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and home-integration system, can supply an average house with power for three days during an outage. This is done automatically, with the system switching back to charging once grid power is restored.

• The base price is $39,974 before federal incentives of $7,500. Many states also may offer incentives.

When you are driving around in your new all-electric F-150 Lightning, you can also think of the great work you are doing saving the planet. Somehow, reconciling the ideas of being environmentally righteous with driving a hot pickup truck might eventually get easy.

As Bob Dylan sang, “The times they are a-changing.” What interesting and changing times we are living in!