Ford Lightning is a ‘glorified sedan’

A recent review from New Atlas had some tough pills to swallow for the Ford Lighting, Ford’s first foray in the all-electric truck market, calling the vehicle a “glorified sedan” that fits a niche of truck buyers in urban and suburban areas.

According to the review, the truck performs well when it is being used to get from Point A to Point B in city driving conditions, but it suffers from a 20 percent reduction in range while traveling at highway speeds even when there was no cargo in the bed or trailer attached.

The review said towing reduced the vehicle range even more:

Towing with almost any kind of trailer larger than what you’d put behind your compact car killed range the most. Like most others who’ve tested the F-150 Lightning in towing, we found that nearly 70% of range was lost when towing at highway speeds came into the picture. Three hundred miles turned into 100 very quickly. A lack of access to DC fast charging and the extra time to wait for that charge to come – assuming you can afford the wallet-smash that fast charging often entails – would mean towing is nearly useless with this truck.

In fairness, hauling heavy loads with a diesel truck also reduces fuel efficiency. I can remember riding with my dad 190 miles down to Bloomington, Wisconsin, with a load of finished beef cattle getting about six miles per gallon.

But if electric trucks are going to replace gas or diesel-powered ones, then they have to be just as good, if not better, than the technology they are replacing. This means farmers will need to be able to haul cattle on four-hour trips without needing to worry about their range dropping by 70 percent and waiting for the truck to recharge on their way to the sale barn.

In short, an expensive sedan just isn’t going to cut it, which is why policies banning the sale of new internal combustion engines after 2035 are a massive mistake that aren’t going to work in the real world.