I bought my truck in early November, so I've had the chance to get a decent feel for how it performs on my usual driving routine. That included 3,000 miles of road trip to New Hampshire and back, but not much towing because my boat is in storage for the winter. Overall, I’m really happy with it, but I have a few nitpicks.

1. Give me more information. Just look at the instrument cluster. It's gorgeous...and that's great. But looking pretty does absolutely nothing towards its intended purpose, and it’s sorely lacking in the amount of information it provides. They could have displayed all kinds of useful data like real temperatures, live efficiency numbers, or even the charge rate. That’s right…the truck doesn’t even tell you how fast it’s charging. It’s the first EV I’ve ever seen that won’t tell you that. You have to dig into the app for that information, and it’s mind-blowing that they haven’t fixed this with an OTA update of some sort. I know they can do it because they recently added the ability to see the battery percentage, so why not give us more? Likewise, the dummy gauges up top are meaningless. They’re glorified idiot lights that always seem to read at the middle of their range. The gas trucks can see real boost numbers, and they used to show actual transmission temps. They also have a handy efficiency screen that shows live MPG that’s resettable independent of the trip odometers. Why show us nothing?



2. The power delivery seems backwards. Most pickup trucks are RWD by default, and only provide power to the front axle when they’re asked. That’s counterproductive because they’re much heavier in the front, which leads to traction problems when 4WD isn’t engaged. The Lightning, on the other hand, has a funny-shaped battery box that’s heavier in the rear, so it enjoys a 50/50 weight distribution. So why the heck do they bias power to the front? The power distribution screen agrees with my OBD scanner that the front axle gets more power virtually all the time. This truck has an absurd amount of power; it wants to spin the front tires through 60 MPH. That penchant for burning rubber makes me a lot more ginger on the throttle than my previous rear-biased EVs. Fuel may be cheap, but rubber isn’t. It’s not a Camry; give me power in the back as God intended.

On the upside, they did an amazing job with throttle calibration. Tip-in feels natural and linear, using the pedal’s entire range of travel to apportion power. I spend all of my time with one-peal drive mode, and it seemlessly fades in the friction brakes as the truck comes to a stop. This was improved at some point along the line; the demo truck I drove 16 months ago had a noticeable delay going into regen.



3. ProPower Onboard shouldn’t require the truck to be running. I understand that most of the truck is identical to the ICE model, but why do we have to leave the truck running to use the outlets? From what I gather, it only costs about 400w to run the truck’s systems, but that’s still almost 5 kWh wasted when parked overnight. I plan on using my bed outlets to power my camper when dry camping, and it seems dumb to leave the truck running the whole night.




4. Buttons are good! I originally wanted a Lariat, but went with this XLT because the deal was too good to pass up. I can’t say enough good things about the combination of 12” SYNC4 display and physical buttons for HVAC. I can adjust my temperatures, fan speed, recirculation, and seat heaters without having to delve into menus. I also routinely smash the big, prominent camera button on top of the display to enable the slick surround-view cameras as I’m going into a tight parking spot. Big screens are great, but I wouldn’t have this any other way. Even coming from the big 15” screen in my Tesla, the 12” display has never felt small. I’d recommend anyone looking at a Lightning take a hard look at the two options before deciding to spring for the Lariat and its giant 15” vertical tablet.




5. The cabin heating is grossly inefficient. The top-center gauge in the below image is the coolant immersion heater. The Lightning uses this heater to warm coolant, which is piped through a conventional heater core in the dashboard. I’ve seen it pull as much as 12 kW when first activated, and it settles between 3-5 kW to keep me warm at 74º when exterior temperatures are in the 20’s. That’s a lot of power; my EV6 and Model Y would consume less than half as much with their heat pumps. This much consumption really adds up. 5 kW over a three-hour drive burns 15 kWh, which is over 10% of my battery capacity. This isn’t as much of a concern for my southern friends, but it’s a meaningful number in a Minnesota winter. The 2024 models will get a heat pump, and I look forward to seeing how much more efficient they are.




6. The Standard Range is probably inadequate for cold weather trips. I averaged about 1.7 mi/kWh during my trip to New Hampshire. That was with average temperatures between 25-35º, at speeds between 65-72 MPH. The truck’s EPA rating is approximately 2.5 mi/kWh, which probably isn’t possible at those speeds unless conditions are optimal. Cut that in half and you only have 160 miles of range for the ER pack, or just 115 for the SR. It takes a lot longer to charge from 80-100% than it does from 20-80%, so road trips will be painful if you need that final 20% to get to your next charging stop. I think Ford did a commendable job with the aerodynamics to get range estimates as high as they did, but there’s no getting around the physics of moving such a large vehicle through the wind. Speed seems to have a much higher penalty in my Lightning than my previous EVs. If you want to burn down the highway at 80 MPH, you’re going to pay for it at the charging stations.

This is the first EV that I’ve had that was more expensive to travel with than its ICE counterpart at $3/gal. I expect this to be significantly better in warmer weather, and the 2024 trucks should do better with their more efficient heating system.

 

Thanks for this in-progress report and impressions. Very timely as I was growing more interested in how well the cabin heating system works.

From what little I know it does seem to suck the ProPower feature can be so power hungry especially as you describe its function.

Tom you're gonna screw around and get a job offer from Ford!

 

I sure hope Ford views this post. An honest pro and con review.

If I were to buy one I would consider all the above. I went on the factory tour a year ago, they had a display of one of these down to the frame. they put some thought into it but obviously there is more to do.

 

It appears reviews like these, or at least buying power feedback are being heard at Ford.

Headline: Ford cuts planned 2024 production of electric F-150 Lightning in half

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/11/f-15...s-in-half.html

 

It's really impressive how much thought they put into electrifying an ICE platform. It's the first I've seen that has a real frunk, and that frunk is the biggest one in production today. That can't have been easy. Likewise, the powertrain is absolutely first-rate. Both of my Teslas and EV6 would make a high-pitched inverter whine under hard acceleration, but this thing is as silent as a vault. I understand the cabin heating, but why can't some of these other things be fixed with an update?

I don't think it has anything to do with criticisms or dissatisfied buyers. I'm certainly not in that camp. I almost shared a similar article from Automotive News yesterday, but I can't use the computer much, and I figured my thoughts above added more value than sharing another news story.

Tesla aggressively scaled production and had to dramatically cut prices to match demand once the line of early adopters were exhausted. Ford could either cut supply to match demand, or lower prices to increase demand to their higher production. They chose the former, which is what most responsible businesses would do. Tesla is an outlier, and I think it's the result of a mission-driven focus on hastening an EV transition over profits. That's what they say, anyway.

 

After 22 months we finally got our Pro with the standard battery. I've only driven it a couple of days and still learning it. I think your review is spot on with my initial impressions. This will go to our flagging crew and I think it will work for them. It will be interesting to see how it works in the cold/hot weather.

I will say it's one of the funnest vehicles I've driven. The power is awesome and easy to get used to. I'll be driving it for a bit since my foreman lost his 10spd tranny in his 350 yesterday so he's driving my f150 and I'll drive the lightning for the next month. This is the first EV I've ever been around. We are going to put a meter on the charger to keep track of the power used since the app doesn't seem to keep track of Kw's other than the current charge.

 

I was concerned about that going in after a lackluster experience with the heater in my 2019 Tesla. That used a 5 kW electric air heater in the dash, and it was barely adequate on the coldest days. The Lightning's method is more indirect, but it seems much more powerful. I don't expect it'll do better than the oustanding heat pump in my Model Y, but it should be able to keep me warm as long as I'm willing to pay the electric bill.

I think the standard-range Pro is a great deal, and perfect for a work truck that doesn't see long trips in cold weather. Performance in extreme temps is my favorite part of owning an EV because there's no waiting. The motors don't care if they're cold, so your flagging crews can enjoy full power seconds after starting the truck. There's a slight delay with the heater because it takes time to move hot coolant through the heater core, but it starts blasting within two minutes.

The upside to that inefficient resistive system is how well it works as a garage heater. I just roll down the windows, set climate to HI, and wait a few minutes. It belts out as much heat as my Big Buddy does, and it's cheaper than propane with my off-peak charging rate.

I'm curious to hear how well it works out for you guys!