Large, heavy electric vehicles don’t make a lot of sense. The F-150 lightning was a neat idea, but smaller EVs make far more sense for personal vehicles.
Electric vans would be much better as a work vehicle.
Electric work trucks aren’t ready yet.
Ford ends F-150 Lightning production, starts battery storage business
Submitted 3 weeks ago by along_the_road@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
Comments
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Quite the contrary, the Lightning makes an excellent work truck for those who actually need work trucks. I know a couple people who use them that way. One of them owns a boat dealership and uses it for towing large and heavy boats every day. The other owns a construction business.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Cough.bullshit.cough.
Yes, an F150 lighning can haul a boat, no, not very far, and half that distance in cold weather.
spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org 2 weeks ago
the Lightning makes an excellent work truck for those who actually need work trucks
yeah…no
the non-electric F-150 has multiple bed lengths (5.5’, 6.5’, and 8’)
the Lightning only offered the 5.5’ “short bed” length
if you actually need a work truck, the Lightning is deficient in the #1 thing that makes a work truck a work truck.
for another comparison - the “short bed” option on the F-250 is 6.75’ long, in addition to the 8’ “long bed”.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
That torque though
Floon@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I own one, and my experience disagrees with your conjecture.
Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Lots of people need a truck, not a van. You can’t haul a couple cubic yards of top soil or gravel in a van. I see dozens of Lightnings in my area.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
This is a common argument, but the vast majority of people at home do not carry gravel or sand on a weekly basis. What they need is a rental truck for those items. The cost of 100k is ludicrous. Comparing to a rental truck you would need to be carrying raw material like that on average 2x a week to even break even with the payments.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
For that you use a $1500 trailer. The bizarre justifications for pickups are hilarious.
calliope@retrolemmy.com 3 weeks ago
It wouldn’t surprise me if Ford literally produced the vehicle because of subsidies.
If they could get a portion of the EV tax breaks, they wanted it.
Now that the current administration is obviously still obsessed with burning oil, it no longer matters.
pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Not a fan of already huge trucks with giant heavy batteries all at head level to me in my 2002 subaru.
Triumph@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
They stopped making cars. How long before they also stop making trucks?
megopie@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
they’re gradually reducing the amount of vehicles sold while increasing the margin per vehicle. They’re approaching the limit of 1 vehicle sold at infinite margin.
hperrin@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
If the F-150 Lightning wasn’t terrible and expensive, I might have bought one.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 3 weeks ago
What I wanted was a nice little ranger style truck - 2 seater, can pick up some lumber, decent sized bed, for in my garage. What they made was a giant crew cab monstrosity that takes up 2 parking spaces and costs 2x what I would have spent.
Car companies keep trying to tell us customers what we want then are surprised when we don’t buy.
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Those giant crew cab monstrosities are the best-selling vehicles in America.
The problem is that F150 buyers are the very largest anti-EV meatheads. It’s the wrong market for such a vehicle.
sawdustprophet@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
What I wanted was a nice little ranger style truck - 2 seater, can pick up some lumber, decent sized bed, for in my garage.
The Telo truck looks like it has promise, but it’s far from mass production. I hope it lives up to its promises though, I would love to see small trucks make a comeback.
GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I think that’s what we all want. Id be front of line for what you described too.
I’m really paying close attention to those Telo Trucks, but they are a long way from market (if they make it, we’ve been here before, so many times now).
Midnitte@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
You might be interested in the slate auto truck
Uniquitous@beehaw.org 2 weeks ago
Damn shame. I don’t own one myself but owners that I’ve spoken to seemed genuinely pleased with it.
dhtseany@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
They promised us $45k trucks and delivered $100k trucks. No kidding it didn’t sell well.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
They actually did sell them discounted down to $50K.
The reality is pickup drivers dont give a fuck about the environment.
Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
I believe the Truck companies think people just want larger and larger trucks every year. I’m waiting until everyone is just driving monster trucks at this point lol
dhtseany@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I drive a truck, a full size one at that, I care about the environment but I needed it for work. An electric truck would’ve been useful. Also if they were selling for $50k I sure didn’t see that anywhere.