Featured Ford F-150 Lightning BEV - US$39,974*

It is another death knell for fool-cell, light vehicles.

Bob Wilson

 

Fatal?
The Ford F series was, once again, the best selling vehicle in the USA in 2020.

 

Fatal for me. I'd rather own a 1973 Gremlin.

 

Fair enough.
Just wanted to be clear that your priorities don’t indicate how popular a product will be.

 

I owned two Ford's. They were *by far* the worst vehicles I've ever owned and their service departments (two different ones) ripped me off, on purpose, twice, by refusing to cover warranty repairs. Ford even admitted as such and reimbursed me for one of the ripoffs - after 6 months of fighting.

I can't believe anyone is gullible enough to buy one of their vehicles.

 

Personal experiences don’t necessarily reflect everyone’s experiences.
I personally won’t buy from any dealer if there is an option. Some dealers are crooks, others are ok, some are even fantastic.

 

I hope they sell enough to finally kill GM

forever

 

People are gullible enough to buy Toyotas in spite of the fact about 90% of the dealers are out to rip off the customer.

 

And the industry average IS?

 

OP's half hr video & (admittedly only watched 70%) nothing about how many miles per kWh?
silence is scary
.

 

I don't think that is important to most buyers.
What people, in general, want to know is what total range and what is the sticker price.
The number of cupholders is probably a more popular question than the mile/kWh.

The official miles/kWh will be a number approved by the EPA which is likely not yet determined, although they could give an estimate.

 

I heard 300 miles per 118kWh.

 

so - if true, that'd be ~ 2.5 miles/kWh. Considering pickups are shaped like bricks, that's about 18% below a hope & a prayer. maybe higher tire pressure could bring it up to 3 miles.
.

 

InsideEVs says worse - 115kWh/230 miles, 155kWh/300 miles.

Brick, as you said, and heavy brick too with the small battery weighing 1800 pounds by itself.

 

Trucks, by their nature are inefficient.
The above numbers are about 3 times as efficient as gas trucks, and even slightly more efficient than the most efficient HEV.

Imagine if we replaced all pickup trucks with a Prius? I think that would be a good thing.

 

How would you haul a load of horse manure in a Prius

 

They're only inefficient at being CARS.
While it is very true that some cars can be (statistically) quasi-efficient at being a truck....this requires some additional equipment and some lumens of brain throughput.

In the last three decades I've been without a truck for approximately 3-4 years, when I lived on the coast in a city.
My takeaway was that it would be possible to do so again only if I had a car capable of towing a trailer and with a four figure tow capacity......most of which are also...................."inefficient."

Back in the long ago, people only drove trucks when they needed to.
They were unattractive, uncomfortable, and about as fuel efficient as our current Transportation Secretary's commuter vehicle.
....they were also UNexpensive.
This is because most Farmers and Ranchers were, above many other things, PRACTICAL....especially in the long-ago when most farms and ranches were owned and operated by for-real farmers and ranchers.

Then?
Unions.
OPEC.
Tarrifs.
"clean air" legislation/CAFE
Tax Lawyers.

Trucks became very 'efficient' at not being cars....which at the time tended to be small, ferign built, more expensive, and capable of hauling only people.

The United States - whose political leadership then (as now) were influenced by labour instituted Smoot–Hawley 2.0 and tariffed ferign-built cars, AND clean air regulations were applied to cars BUT not light trucks.

The SUV was born....AND since many of THOSE vehicles were built on the same body-on-frame chassis that trucks were....many of the options and amenities (along with even more of the profit margin!) wound up on pickup truck build sheets.
A combination of a number of tax regulations and the death rattle of the small family farm and ranch eliminated the need for light trucks to be........real-world 'light.'
Finding a 'small' base-model truck in 2021 is about as easy as finding a large base model sedan.

They just don't make them any more.
The EPA classifies medium sized cars as "large" and medium sized trucks as "small" and even BASE MODEL examples of each of these will have "necessities" like automatic transmissions, A/C, Infotainment screens, cruise control, power windows, etc....etc....

So....
Now...the most expensive and profitable vehicles on most new car lots aren't cars at all, and in many cases they're not SUVs or CUVs either.
They're trucks.....which are now POPULAR for ALL of the reasons that they USED to be popular (except price,) and without all of the negative baggage that used to be a part of "Truck Life.
This which ALSO means that they will be very EFFICIENT at introducing a yuge number of non-EVangelicals to the BEV world.

 

ETC(SS), I agree with everything you said.

However, you are not using the word “efficient” as I did.

I wasn’t talking about the worth of a PU truck, I was talking about it’s fuel efficiency.

I’ve always liked the saying, “use the right tool for the right job’”.
This is one of the reasons I am so enthusiastic about the F150 Lightning. It gives those for whom a truck is the right tool, an efficient alternative.