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This is the Year of the Electric Pickup Truck. By the time the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning goes into production later this year, it’ll already have competition from Ford’s frenemy, Rivian (Ford invested $500 million in Rivian in 2019 and has an undisclosed stake in the company). The GMC Hummer is also slated for production this year, with the coming years bringing some certain competitors (the electric Chevy Silverado) and others that are, shall we say, a little more subject to change—from Tesla, Lordstown Motors, and Canoo, among others. Bollinger also says it’ll start production on the B2 pickup this year, but we’re betting that not too many truck buyers will be cross-shopping the F-150 and the $125,000 Bollinger. So let’s look at the two imminent competitors: the Rivian and Hummer.Power

Ford—and President Biden—made much of the Lightning’s acceleration, but even in 563-hp guise, its claimed zero-to-60-mph time in the mid-four-second range lags behind the Hummer and R1T, both of which claim zero to 60 in 3.0 seconds. The Ford offers 563 horsepower and 775 pound-feet of torque with its extended-range battery, with the standard battery bringing 426 horsepower and the same torque. GM is claiming 1000 horsepower and about 1000 pound-feet of torque for the Hummer—and good thing, since it also weighs more than 9000 pounds. Rivian’s truck will offer 754 horsepower from quad motors, while the Hummer uses three motors and the Ford two.

Rivian R1T.
Rivian

The Lightning can tow up to 10,000 pounds and haul 1800 pounds of payload with the long-range battery (7700 pounds and 2000 pounds, respectively, with the standard battery), while the R1T is rated to tow 11000 pounds. GM hasn’t put a number on the Hummer’s tow rating, but it ought to be more than either of these.All three are all-wheel-drive, with the Hummer also adding four-wheel-steering that enables “Crab mode.” The R1T has a “Tank mode” that’s enabled by spinning its quad motors in opposite directions across the axles. The Lightning? It can probably kick a nice powerslide in the snow. We can hardly believe that we’re describing the truck that does zero to 60 in the mid-fours as the slowest of any given trio, but that’s where we’re at.

GMC Hummer EV SUT.
GMC

Range and ChargingFord offered lots of range and charging stats for the Lightning without actually disclosing battery capacity. But Ford targets a 230-mile EPA-rated range with the standard battery and 300 miles for the extended-range battery. GM says the Hummer’s battery will offer “350-plus” miles of range, and Rivian’s initial trucks will deliver “300-plus” miles, with the extended-range models shooting for more than 400 miles of range.

Ford

Ford will offer 150-kilowatt DC fast charging that can bring the extended-range battery from 15 percent to 80 percent charge in 41 minutes. More intriguing, a Ford home charger dubbed Ford Charge Station Pro essentially runs two Level 2 chargers through one plug (the truck has dual onboard chargers), thus vastly improving typical Level 2 charge speed. Ford says that the bigger battery requires 19 hours on a 32-amp Level 2 charger to go from 15 percent to 100 percent capacity, while the 80-amp charger drops that time to eight hours. The Charge Station Pro (coupled with some other equipment on the home side) also allows the Lightning to be used as a backup generator, with the house drawing power from the truck. Ford figures that a Lightning could run a typical house, drawing 30.0 kWh per day, for three days. Or 10 days, if power were rationed.GM hasn’t announced a similar plan for the Hummer but says it will be able to take advantage of 350-kilowatt DC fast charging by switching its battery pack from 400 volts to 800 volts for charging. At its quickest, that should allow it to add 100 miles of range in 10 minutes. It can also use lesser chargers, of course.

That is the Hummer, in case you were wondering.
GMC

Rivian is borrowing an idea from Tesla and building a fast charger network exclusively for its owners. The Rivian Adventure Network, as they call it, will initially offer 200-plus-kilowatt charge rates, eventually moving beyond 300 kilowatts. The company plans to have more than 600 sites, with 3500 total chargers, by the end of 2023. It says that charging for 20 minutes will add 140 miles of range to an R1T. Oh, and the network will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy and offer locations near cities and highways, and in more remote locations where off-road adventures might be in store.

There is the Rivian, without its clothes.
Rivian

Clever FeaturesAs it turns out, the sameness of electric propulsion—everyone has a quiet motor that makes max torque at zero rpm—is being more than offset by the blank canvas of packaging possibilities afforded by an EV powertrain. The R1T has a full-width pass-through under the bed called the Gear Tunnel that can be used for storage or to house accessories, like a slide-out camp kitchen. The first Rivians will have a panoramic roof, with next year bringing a removable open-air roof option. There’s an available power tonneau cover, onboard air compressor and a locking cable that connect to the vehicle security system for stowing gear. A gooseneck hinge on the tailgate expands the bed to 83.6 inches long when the tailgate is down. And there’s lockable storage under the bed, too.

Rivian with camp kitchen.
Rivian

The Hummer has a front trunk that can be used to store the transparent panels of its “Sky Roof.” The front panel runs the width of the vehicle, but the rear is divided into left and right sides supported by a central support beam—that’s right, GM brought back T-tops. The Hummer also has a power tonneau cover and power rear drop glass, for the full open-air experience.

GMC Hummer SUT.
GMC

The Lightning skews more pragmatic, although its power-operated frunklid will surely be a crowd pleaser at tailgate parties (where you now might want to back into your spot). The Lightning’s frunk is also a drainable cooler and has 2.4 kilowatts’ worth of power outlets. Party central up there—or, run some tools. Total power output for Lariat and Platinum models is 9.6 kilowatts, with 7.6 kilowatts available from the bed.Both the Ford (BlueCruise) and the Hummer (Super Cruise) will offer hands-free highway driving assistance. Rivian hasn’t said anything about that particular capability. PricingThe Lightning will start at $42,000 for a base truck and climb to $55,000 for an XLT, $59,000 for a Lariat, and $70,000 for the Platinum. The only Hummer you’ll be able to buy this year will be the Edition 1, for $112,595. Later (much later: 2024) there will be models priced as low as $79,995, but we also wouldn’t be surprised if that number got adjusted upward over the next two or three years. The R1T Launch Edition starts at $75,000 and is also the only one that will be available this year. Next year will bring the Explore, for $67,500. The Max Pack battery adds $10,000; the camp kitchen is $5000. It seems like it’ll be easy to price a Rivian into Hummer territory, but the Lightning hews fairly close to the pricing of its gas counterparts. You can price a 5.0-liter gas F-150 4×4 Platinum beyond $70,000 without clicking all the options, so the electric version (and the $7500 federal tax credit it’ll enjoy, at least initially) is very aggressively priced. The F-150 is perpetually the bestselling vehicle in the U.S., and it certainly seems like Ford intends to claim the title in the EV sphere, too.
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Ford estimates that range for the 2022 F-150 Lightning electric pickup will be 230 miles for trucks with the standard battery and 300 miles on trucks with the extended-range pack.The truck uses height sensors at each corner to estimate payload and adjust range predictions accordingly.However, we estimate that towing anywhere near the Lightning’s stated 10,000-pound maximum tow rating will lead to highway range in the double digits.Range typically occupies an outsized chunk of the conversation on any new EV. But, in the case of the F-150 Lightning, which has the bestselling pickup’s usual healthy scoop of towing and hauling capabilities, things get even more complicated than normal.Ford is claiming that the range figures for its electric pickup will come in at 230 miles and 300 miles, depending on whether the standard-range (which we estimate can hold 115.0 kWh) or extended-range battery pack (150.0 kWh, same caveat) is beneath the bed. Those are EPA predictions, specifically EPA combined figures, in lightly loaded conditions.

Although the Lightning is aided by the aerodynamic effects of its flat underbody, when running at real highway speeds there’s no tricking the air molecules, and a bluff truck is going to suffer. In our highway range testing, which we conduct at a steady 75 mph, we typically see a range number that’s about 20 percent below the EPA figure. Using that same bogey, which is probably generous in the case of a full-size pickup, would put the Lightning in the 180-to-240-mile zone for what you might achieve on a road trip.In a recent towing test with another EV, lugging a 3859-pound boat at 70 mph chopped its range in half compared to a run at the same speed sans trailer. Applying these results to the F-150 means that towing a modest trailer would put the highway range at roughly 100 to 125 miles, depending on the pack. Towing anywhere near the 10,000-pound maximum rating on XLT and Lariat models (with the maximum trailer tow package and extended-range battery) at highway speeds, we believe you’d be hard pressed to exceed double-digit miles. We’d take that bet, in fact.

Utilizing the Lightning’s payload capabilities, which are 1800 pounds for the extended-range battery and 2000 pounds for the smaller pack will put you somewhere between these two extremes. And those figures both include the up-to-400 pounds that can be stowed in the large and handy front trunk.At least there’s some smart technology to help adjust the range prediction shown to the driver in day-to-day use. As launched on the 2021 F-150, the Lightning uses a height sensor at each corner to estimate the load in the bed or on the trailer hitch and preemptively adjusts down the range predictions accordingly. The old adage “your mileage may vary” is very apropos when discussing EVs. And the F-150 Lightning’s, because of its tough-truck capabilities, will vary more than most.

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The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning will be able to power a home for up three days when connected to Ford’s available Charge Station Pro, Ford says.The wall unit will require a 100-amp circuit, which could prove costly. The F-150 Lightning will arrive at dealers next spring and will start around $42,000.When the electric Ford F-150 Lightning isn’t blasting to 60 mph in a claimed 4.5 seconds or doing truck things with up to 10,000 pounds in tow, it will be able to act as a knight in painted aluminum in the event of a natural disaster or power outage by feeding its stored energy back into owners’ homes.

In previous experiments, we’ve powered a house and also fed some juice to a Ford Mustang Mach-E using the 7.6 kW available from the bed-mounted plugs of the F-150 Hybrid. Similarly, GMC recently announced the 2024 Hummer will be capable of bleeding 6.6 kW from its Ultium battery pack. The Lightning will take it to the next level. Ford’s 80-amp Charge Station Pro with Intelligent Backup Power features a CCS charging plug, which is the type found at Level 3 fast chargers. When connected to the Charge Station Pro, optional with the Standard Range battery but standard with the Extended Range pack, the F-150 Lightning can feed 9.6 kilowatts of power through the CCS plug’s larger bottom ports, through the Charge Station Pro, and back into a home’s power panel. When power is restored to the grid, the Charge Station Pro reverts to replenishing the Lightning’s battery. Ford claims that based on the national average of a home using 30.0 kWh per day, the Extended Range battery can supply a home for up to three days. Ford has yet to release the official capacity of the batteries, but we predict Ford will have some baked-in fail-safes to prevent the Lightning from being fully depleted while powering your hot tub. At a later date, Ford will reveal Ford Intelligent Power, which will use the Lightning’s stored energy during high-cost and peak energy hours. When there’s less strain on the grid during overnight hours and costs are lower, the Charge Station Pro will then recharge the Lightning.
With the 80-amp Charge Station Pro comes a yet-to-be-determined cost of installing the trick charging unit. For one, Ford has not announced how much the option will be for trucks equipped with the smaller battery pack. There’s also the complexity of actually feeding the station enough power. Most modern homes are constructed around a 240-volt and 200-amp feed from the power companies. When factoring in 30-amp draws from an air conditioner, drying machine, water heater, and anything else pulling power, there’s not enough juice left to feed the 100-amp circuit required to supply the Charge Station Pro. Older homes may only have 100 amps supplied to the entire service panel. A solution for this is costly: upgrade, or add an additional service line supplied by the power company, which can vary wildly depending on location. Also, a transfer switch will be required to backfill the home’s power supply. Ford has announced a partnership with solar supplier Sunrun to help with installation and home integration, but details have yet to be released.
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The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning will bring the biggest-selling vehicle in the United States into the EV game.By putting an electric propulsion system into an existing mass-market vehicle, Ford could attract a new kind of customer to the EV market.Demand for a pickup EV is almost entirely untested, so it’s too early to say how big the Lightning’s impact on the market will be. It’s been more than a decade since the first modern mass-market electric vehicle went on sale in the United States, the Nissan Leaf. EVs have come a long way since then, thanks largely to the influence of Tesla and its lightning-rod CEO, Elon Musk, but they’re still essentially a niche technology. That might all be about to change.
Today, Ford released the details of the F-150 Lightning, the EV version of its bestselling pickup. The Lightning is one of a recent cluster of EVs that, rather than asking buyers to sacrifice in the name of efficiency, hew close to the brand’s existing identity. The Lightning will go on sale next spring, and if even 1 percent of F-150 buyers go electric, this truck could outsell about half the existing EV field. Ford’s F-series pickups were the bestselling vehicles in the United States in 2020 for the 39th consecutive year. In addition to filling parking lots and job sites across the country with blue ovals, the F-trucks rake in mountains of cash. An analysis by the Boston Consulting Group estimated that Ford’s pickups made the company $42 billion in revenue in 2019 (a year in which almost 900,000 of them were sold). At that rate, if Ford were to spin the F-series family into its own company, that company would be one of the largest in the country by revenue.

That all makes the F-150 Lightning the perfect candidate to attract the type of interest EVs will need to make the jump from niche to normal. Stephanie Brinley, an analyst with IHS Markit, says that for EVs to become mainstream, “Electric propulsion systems have to be in vehicles that we already want.” But, Brinley says, because EVs are still more expensive than their similarly outfitted gas counterparts, a universally appealing EV would also have to offer something that gas- or diesel-powered models can’t. Ford clearly heard that message when designing the Lightning, which has more power and more torque than the rest of the F-150 lineup, plus the capability to power a job site or campsite using the car’s onboard plugs and an (optional) system that can power a home for a week or more, depending on energy use.It’s still too soon to say how many customers will be pulled in by the Lightning’s unique array of features. The Lightning is the first of its kind, so demand is untested. And so is the truck; Ford says the Lightning can tow up to 10,000 pounds but hasn’t said how many miles it can go between charges with a rig behind it. The answer could make or break the truck in the minds of curious buyers. As could the price. Ford is positioning the base version of the truck, starting at around $42,000 before any incentives, for commercial customers. We’re expecting the next-up XLT trim to start around $55,000, meaning base retail versions of the Lightning will compete on price with the gas version’s upper Lariat and King Ranch trims.

Ford has at least one interested customer. Yesterday, a visibly giddy President Biden piloted a camouflaged Lightning around Ford’s test grounds and told a reporter he would consider buying one. So far, the investments automakers have made in EVs have been directed more by regulation championed by enthusiastic legislators than by customer demand. If the Lightning’s unique package can spark interest from people who would otherwise sit out the EV revolution, it could be a game changer. But don’t hold your breath. Brinley says Ford is hedging its bets (has anyone talked to you about a new Bronco?) and is willing to wait on the Lightning’s success. “Our expectation is that [sales will be] relatively low as a percentage of F-150 for quite some time . . . It’s a long, long-term play.”
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The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning will go on sale in the spring of next year. It’ll be available as base, XLT, Lariat, and Platinum models, and this is the equipment that they get. Pricing will start at around $42,000 for the base model and $55,000 for the XLT; Ford has only announced MSRPs of $39,974 and $52,974 and has yet to confirm the amount of the mandatory destination charge. The F-150 Lightning is the electric version of the F-150 pickup truck, and it’ll go on sale in the spring of next year. When it does, it’ll be available as base, XLT (pictured in red), Lariat (blue), and Platinum (silver) models similar to its gas-powered counterpart. It’s only available as a four-door SuperCrew model with a 5.5-foot box, though, and there are two battery packs available. There’s a Standard Range pack, which is targeting 230 miles of EPA-estimated range, and an Extended Range battery with 300 miles of estimated range. We won’t know about the base work-truck model until next week, but this is what you’ll be able to get on the three other models: XLT ($55,000 est.)

The XLT model will serve as the base model for the average retail buyer. It comes standard with the Standard Range battery, but the larger pack is optional. The XLT does not get the light bar connecting the taillights that’s on the Lariat and Platinum models, but a power tailgate and LED lighting in the bed are both optional. XLT models ride on standard 18-inch aluminum wheels with black accents, and 20-inch dark grey wheels are optional. The F-150’s new 12.0-inch touchscreen powered by Ford’s Sync 4 infotainment system is the only choice. Cloth seats are standard, and heated seats are optional. The XLT gets the 2.4-kW ProPower Onboard system as standard, and the additional 9.6-kW version is an option. The Tow Technology package, which includes a trailer backup assist, and the Max Trailer Tow package are available on the XLT. Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving technology is not available on the XLT, but Ford’s Co-Pilot360 Assist 2.0 package with adaptive cruise control, lane centering, and built-in navigation is. Lariat ($59,000 est.)Like the XLT, the Lariat comes standard with the Standard Range Battery, and the Extended Range pack is optional. Lariat models have gray 20-inch wheels. All Lightning models come standard with fixed running boards, but the Lariat and Platinum have available retractable running boards and a power tailgate. The Lariat comes standard with heated and cooled leather seats and the 15.5-inch vertically oriented touchscreen that uses Ford’s Sync 4A infotainment system. An eight-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system is standard, and a function that allows you to use a phone as a key is available, too. The Lariat models come standard with the 9.6-kW ProPower Onboard. Ford Co-Pilot360 Assist 2.0 is standard, and BlueCruise and active park assist are available on the Lariat. Both tow packages are available. Platinum ($70,000 est.)Platinum models are fully loaded and are only available with the Extended Range battery pack and 9.6-kW ProPower OnBoard. They ride on 22-inch wheels with black accents. They’re equipped with Nirvana leather heated and ventilated seats with black stripes, the larger (15.5-inch) touchscreen, and an 18-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system. Ford’s maximum recline front seats are available only on the Platinum. Both towing packages are standard on the Platinum models, as is BlueCruise.
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