Ford F-150 Lightning Lays Down Seriously Impressive Numbers on the Dyno

By Brett Foote - August 25, 2022

It isn’t easy to dyno a Ford F-150 Lightning, but the results from this test are truly eye-opening.

It’s no secret that most electric vehicles are pretty good at accelerating rapidly, at least to a point. EVs are true stoplight-to-stoplight heroes, and some of the very quickest vehicles we can buy today, to boot. That includes the Ford F-150 Lightning, which can easily rip off low- to mid-four second 0-60 runs in extended range battery form, a truly impressive feature for a pickup. But one thing we haven’t seen is one of is a new Ford F-150 Lightning on the dyno, though the folks at Texas Truck Channel have now managed to pull that off after overcoming a number of challenges while doing so.

As most are aware by now, the Ford F-150 Lightning is rated to produce 580 horsepower and 775 pound-feet of torque when equipped with the extended range battery. In ICE-powered vehicles, drivetrain loss is a real thing on the dyno, with wheel horsepower typically coming in a bit less than crank numbers thanks to the fact that power must flow through a transmission, driveshaft, differential, and/or various other mechanical parts before reaching the wheels.

This is a real thing with EVs as well, even though there are oftentimes fewer components in between the motors and the wheels. In this case, the F-150 Lightning doesn’t experience much drivetrain loss in terms of horsepower, as it put down 560 ponies – an impressive figure indeed. The real surprise, however, comes from the final torque number here, which is actually higher than the truck’s official rating from Ford at a whopping 784 pound-feet.

That’s a truly stunning revelation, particularly since the crew at TTC went to great lengths to ensure they achieved some accurate readings in this case. Dyno-testing an all-wheel-drive pickup wasn’t an easy task by any means, as most AWD dynos aren’t long enough to accommodate something like the F-150. Dynocoms had to modify theirs to make this session work, and the Lightning cut power once it was up there, as it apparently doesn’t like all four wheels spinning at full throttle while the vehicle isn’t moving.

Regardless, after a little bit of work, this F-150 Lightning exceeded expectations big time, revealing that it makes more power than advertised, which is always a good thing. But given the truck’s better-than-advertised real-world acceleration, perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise.