The idea of an all-electric pickup truck model F-150 Lightning for the best-selling brand of Ford seems exciting with big claims and advertising campaigns by the company.
However, many truck drivers say it is going to fail due to various reasons.
Why is the New Ford F-150 Lightning Going to Fail? New Ford F-150 Lightning will not be a pickup truck for everyone due to its shorter driving range of 230 miles. Our survey showed that Ford F150 Lightning is going to fail because it has a slow charging rate and is less efficient than its counterparts. Moreover, its charging unit is too expensive to install and integrate at home.
This article will guide truck owners to know all aspects of the F-150 Lightning before making a new all-electric vehicle reservation.
Why is the New Ford F-150 Lightning Going to Fail?
Despite various features and claims by Ford regarding the new Ford F-150 Lightning, there are certain areas that conventional pickup owners will find less attractive and can result in the failure of this model to show reasonable sales.
Shorter driving range
Ford Motor Company has estimated battery packs with 230 and 300 miles of driving range for F-150 trucks.
It is way shorter than its counterparts having a driving range of up to 400 miles for Rivian R1T and 500 miles for Tesla Cybertruck.
Moreover, EPA quoted these figures by testing the truck under lightly loaded conditions.
Therefore, driving a pickup loaded up to maximum payload or towing capacity, this range will further shorten to one-half or one-third of the mentioned figure.
It is also shorter than the total driving range of the gasoline or hybrid model of the 2021 Ford F-150.
The driving range is a crucial and most discussed aspect for electric vehicles, while the nature of your work demands long drives in remote areas.
Due to the unavailability of charging infrastructure up to the level of fuel stations, drivers are reluctant to purchase new electric pickups.
This factor will put a dent in the sales of F-150 Lightning resulting in its failure to generate ravishing sales figures like its predecessors.
Slow charging
Its company has announced the 50-55 miles of charge in 10 minutes at its fast-charging stations for this truck.
Moreover, it takes about 40-45 minutes to recharge the battery pack from 15% to 80% of its capacity.
However, it can take between 8-10 hours to fully charge the battery with a standard 80-ampere charger with the pickup.
These figures are on the lower side compared to other electric vehicles in the category of trucks.
A slow charging rate means more extended stay at charging stations and delay in your work schedule.
Therefore, F-150 Lightning is going to fail in capturing its market share of trucks.
Better competitor trucks like Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer, and Tesla Cybertruck
We have surveyed on our website to compare various futuristic truck models, including Rivian R1T, Tesla Cybertruck, and GMC Hummer with Ford F-150 lightning.
Key areas of focus were driving range, charging rate, payload and towing capacity, price, and comfort level of the truck.
A total of 1200 truck owners visiting Trucksauthority.com participated in the survey, and results were not in favor of the new Ford F-150.
Rivian R1T led in the driving range and charging rate categories by securing 47% votes, while Tesla Cybertruck outclassed the Ford truck in the rest of the fields by a clear margin of 20-30% more approvals by truck drivers.
Despite massive media and advertising campaigns, this word of mouth clearly depicts people’s reluctance to accept the electric version of the Ford F-150.
Moreover, with the launch of pickup trucks with advanced and better features, F-150 will face a significant decline in its sales due to better options available.
Here is a comparison chart among F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer, and Tesla Cybertruck.
| Features | Ford F-150 lightning
(basic to advanced version) |
Tesla Cybertruck
(Single/Dual/Tri-Motor) |
Rivian R1T | GMC Hummer |
| Driving Range | 230-300 miles | 250-500 miles | 250-400 miles | 350 miles |
| Charging Rate | 50-55 miles in 10 minutes | 200 miles in 15 minutes | 140 miles in 20 minutes | 100 miles in 10 minutes |
| Payload | 1800-2000 lbs | 3500 lbs | 1760 lbs | Yet to be revealed |
| Towing capacity | 7700-10000 | 7500-14,000 lbs | 11000 lbs | Yet to be revealed |
| Price | $40,000- $90,000 | $40,000- $70,000 | $70,000- $75,000 | $1,13,000 |
Costly trim levels
The Tri-motor model of Tesla Cybertruck has excellent features like 500 miles driving range, less than 3 seconds to accelerate from 0-60mph, and 14,000 lbs towing capacity.
Moreover, it has a reasonable price of $70,000 with all these specifications.
On the other hand, the most advanced trim level of F-150 Lightning has fewer features than Cybertruck and has a starting price of $90,000.
It is pretty much expensive to purchase these advanced trim levels.
Moreover, these are the first choices for many drivers, from milkman to delivery boys and off-road adventurers to working men.
Therefore, it will not be a pickup for everyone due to the high price. It will result in reduced customers for this new electric truck.
Expensive to install a charging unit at home
Its company has announced a 100-ampere charging unit Charge Station Pro to install and integrate it with the existing power supply at homes.
However, it requires additional wiring or a separate service wire from the power company to bear the load of the charging unit.
The company has offered this proposition to provide home power from its battery pack in power outages during disasters like storms.
However, it is an expensive solution requiring thousands of dollars for Charge Station Pro and wiring upgrade.
People will opt for standby generators rather than this costly solution to power up their homes.
Ford F-150 Lightning is Not suitable for towing heavy loads over long distances
Personally, I like the conventional Ford F-150 because of its good payload and towing capacity.
However, considering the shorter driving range and its dependence on load on the truck is its biggest drawback.
You can’t use it for towing or loading applications to their maximum capacity for a distance over 100 miles.
Moreover, standard charging stations won’t have space to accommodate the big trucks.
Its hybrid model has a driving range above 400km with its standard fuel tank.
In contrast, the new truck will provide only a 100-150 miles driving range under fully loaded conditions.
Moreover, it takes 10 minutes to add 50-55 miles of driving range. These figures are not desirable as a truck owner as you have to consume a long time at a charging station than a fuel station.
Moreover, the unavailability of charging stations in off-road or remote areas is another drawback to keep truck drivers away from opting for it as their work vehicle.
Too heavy
It has a curb weight of 6300-6500 lbs that is 30%-40% higher than its gasoline-powered model. Even the Tesla Cybertruck has less weight.
Despite the absence of an engine, the main reason for this massive weight is the battery pack.
This heavier weight has certain drawbacks like damage to the road, poor control for off-road driving, and chances of more damage during road accidents.
Increased weights will also have negative impacts on the tires, brakes, and suspension systems of trucks.
It will require heavy-duty parts; otherwise, higher repair and maintenance costs to replace these parts.
Less Advance bookings for Ford F-150 Lightning with Time
The initial booking rate for F150 Lightning was 1600-1800 registrations per hour. But the figures declined significantly to mere a few hundred per hour later on.
This declining trend is a lack of trust in this truck, whose actual figures are yet to come after public reviews from user drivers.
Most of the advanced bookings are from automobile dealers for their showrooms.
They have the purpose of earning some money by creating a demand-supply gap. Therefore, these reservation figures in advance are not an accurate indicator to judge the sales of the truck.
Moreover, the reservation was for a $100 fully-refundable deposit.
Therefore, most people can opt to cancel their bookings after the launch of other electric vehicles with better and luxurious features in the same price range.
Declining trends in reservations can also be a result of an increase in the cancellation of booking orders.
Require Special Skills to Maintain the Electric Truck
Most pickup drivers have good mechanical skills to repair the basic level faults in their pickups.
Therefore they have a special connection and tendency towards the conventional gasoline-powered trucks.
It is an electric vehicle with specific parts like motors and inverters. So in case of any fault, they will be dependent on the roadside services by the company.
Moreover, there will be a lack of workshops network alongside highways to repair and maintain electric vehicles.
Therefore, it is too early for truck owners to purchase electric F-150 Lightning. They will wait for a couple of years until the launch of other models of electric trucks.
Pioneering as an electric truck will suffer the sale of Ford F-150 Lightning until there is an established market for electric vehicles.
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