ford f150 lightning electric truck interior

It is the equivalent of showing up at a car show with a mint-condition 1985 Dodge Diplomat. However, no one could possibly blend into the crowd driving a Cybertruck. It’s hard to use a truck to declare one’s strength when said truck is just every other one in the parking lot.

To purchase a Ford is to be just like all the others.

At this point, the rows of near-identical Fords and Chevrolets in many office building parking garages have become a parody of all-American burliness. Instead, trucks are designed to be taller than all the lesser vehicles at the drive-thru and angrily shine their headlights into other drivers’ eyes. Trucks are no longer designed to haul heavy loads and tow large trailers (though they remain capable of such things). The absurd performance I experienced during my test ride is one perk that Zhang hopes will attract buyers.The modern truck, of which the F-150 Lightning is an archetypal example, has become a caricature of itself. Ford aimed to make an electric truck that's familiar, yet brings capabilities to the table that you just can't get in a conventional pickup. Parked in a lot at the track after a too-brief test ride, the Lightning could, at a glance, blend in with the other F-150s milling about. This is largely thanks to its hefty battery pack, which sits beneath the truck's floor and lowers its center of gravity, helping with handling. There was practically none of the body roll you'd expect from a high-riding vehicle that's some six feet tall. Through sharp turns, the truck was remarkably planted. The Lightning felt oddly light and feathery as Zhang flicked it around the track. The way the Lightning zips around silently, without the familiar groan of an engine or even much wind noise, made the experience even stranger.Ī beast of a vehicle, the 6,500-pound Lightning weighs over 1,000 pounds more than a standard F-150 due to its 1,800-pound battery pack. Even knowing all this, hurtling around the track so effortlessly in something so large felt bizarre. It pegs 0-60 mph at between four and five seconds, making the Lightning its quickest truck ever. Ford promises the all-wheel-drive Lightning will produce 775 pound-feet of torque and up to 563 horsepower. None of this should've come as a surprise. But the sensation is so much more surreal in a bulky pickup like the Lightning, a truck that, by the looks of it, has no business smoking sports cars in a straight line. You can experience roughly this sort of instant, powerful acceleration in any EV, from a commuter Kia to a high-performance Audi. There's none of that hesitation in the F-150 Lightning - it takes off with all its might immediately, and it just keeps hauling. Getting up to highway speeds in a conventional truck means waiting for gears to shift as the engine revs to higher RPMs. But all that subtlety vanished the instant the Lightning's chief engineer, Linda Zhang, floored it onto one of the track's straightaways.įrom a stop, the Lightning blasted forward with breathtaking force, throwing me back into my seat. It often indicates a user profile.Ĭreeping around a parking lot, the Lightning was silent, unassuming. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Ford f150 lightning electric truck interior