Why the hype around the Ford F-150 electric pickup truck isn't overblown
Cars
Speaker 1: The Tesla model S was the big bang for electric cars. The first one you really wanted to buy, as opposed to feeling like you should buy one. But I would argue Ford's F-150 lightning, electric pickup truck is an even bigger bang. Here are seven reasons why it'll matter. Even if you don't plan to buy a pickup.
Speaker 1: First and foremost, this represents the intersection for the first time [00:00:30] of the best selling vehicle in America. With the future of propulsion, let that sink in for a minute. It's a big deal. Ford would not make this move lightly, not with their cash cow and their pride cow. To be honest, they have huge heritage and huge revenue riding on this nameplate to be sure they will be selling primarily combustion engine F one 50 S for a long time. But for the first time now we actually have a graph that will show to what degree that sales curve starts to erode in favor [00:01:00] of electric, a data point we never had before and a really important one Second, an F-150 electric puts legitimacy into the electric pickup market. Now sure. We have the expensive end niche Hummer, quite legit. We've got startups like Bollinger R whatever's left of Lord's town. There's the cyber truck that's over there. That's the opposite of mainstream. There'll be a electric Chevy Silverado coming as well, but by getting in there [00:01:30] first at the intersection of mainstream and electrified Ford is actually setting the table for all the rest, not just for themselves,
Speaker 1: Third electric trucks or more than electric cars. The whole idea behind electrification is to get rid of fuel consumption and get rid of emissions. That means you wanna replace one for one, a combustion engine car that's on the road or being sold in the near future that is using the most amount of fuel and putting out the most [00:02:00] emissions. That's a truck. So every time you get an F1, 50 or other pickup truck buyer to go to an electric F-150 lightning, you've achieved a bigger, good guy than getting some BMW, three owner or intender to buy a model three
Speaker 2: Fourth.
Speaker 1: This should actually work because Ford now has a proven track record of getting truck buyers to do what truck buyers don't do. And that is innovate rather radically. The whole rubric in the auto [00:02:30] industry forever was that truck buyers are the most traditional segment. Then Ford came along and got a whole lot of them to buy two point something liter V six S with turbos and direct injection that was heresy a few years ago. Now Ford gets most of their sales from so-called smaller engines. They also got truck buyers to buy trucks with aluminum bodies. That seemed more like a soda can than a work vehicle, but they did it. So they have a track record of making changes [00:03:00] in the mainstream of a tough market. Although this will be their biggest lift in that direction. For sure.
Speaker 1: Fifth is that price shockingly affordable. We call it the F-150 lightning starts at about 40 before tax incentives that that's in an era when the average new car in the us is pushing 40. Now, normally a truck or an electric vehicle or an electric truck you'd expect to radically push up the MSRP. In [00:03:30] this case, it starts right about where the average car purchases. Now, yes, most people are gonna ratchet that up with higher trim and equipment levels, but starting there is an enormously big advantage for this vehicle. I'm certain that people in Ford's finance and accounting department at headquarters are pounding Mylan shots over the pricing strategy on this vehicle, but good for us Sixth, it's utterly normal looking unless you're a car buff and around looking [00:04:00] at the badges or the somewhat different face of this thing, you might never know. It's an electric pickup truck next to you. And that's key at a time when the mainstream EV buyer is arriving in showrooms, but doesn't necessarily wanna buy a name plate or a body design that screams I'm a tree hugger, or I'm an insufferable urbanite. This is going to be Ford's big shadow advantage.
Speaker 1: And number seven, the F-150 lightning is bragable truck [00:04:30] folks like to be proud of their trucks and this one's got all kinds of numbers to help. 'em do that. Zero to 16, about four seconds used to be not long ago, you had to spend deep six figures and have something where the engine had to be removed to change the spark plugs to get that kind of performance. Now, highway crews will have it. And then there's all kinds of other numbers like 775 pound feet of torque, the most ever in an F-150 and up to 563 horsepower. If you get the big battery model, these are numbers that matter a [00:05:00] lot in the truck biz so much, maybe in compact crossovers. Then there are fun features for that pride of ownership. Like the fact you can run your house off this thing for one, two, or even three days. Ford says during the next power outage and that enormous front trunk or front, lots of EVs have something like that, but they matter much more in a truck. The where stowage, especially when it's secure and watertight is absolutely core to the game [00:05:30] Is the F-150 lightning without issues. Absolutely not. And I'll cover that in a separate video, but it is such a huge step forward in the history of electrical that it is a bolt of lightning in automotive history.
