Ford has transformed the nation’s best-selling pickup truck into a quick and capable EV. We share our first impressions of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, and discuss its prodigious power, swift acceleration, strong towing capability, and impressive electric range. We also talk about whether the new Lighting is a truck for the new, greener era. Plus, we help an audience member with some tire-buying advice and explain the importance of changing out your car’s summer tires when the weather starts getting frigid.
Hi and welcome to talking cars i’m jennifer stockberger i’m jake fisher and i’m mike quincy so this week super exciting we are talking about finally our first impressions of the ford f-150 lightning one of a series of electric fully electric pickup trucks um that we’re getting our first hands on um could be game changers um certainly for the the ev market and
The truck market if if they all take off so just a little bit of specs we rented from ford in f-150 lightning lariat with the long range battery um about 87 90 000 truck at this point with the the options we had in it um dual electric motors 580 horsepower um so very very nice truck um impressions mike quincy again could be a game changer this truck well it it
It could be but and i guess we’ll get into that later because because when it when i think of trucks i think towing hauling and as we all know adding extra weight and and and loads to an electric vehicle tend to kind of lower its driving range but i know we’re getting ahead of ourselves and we are in the lightning round so we need to move forward but uh see what
You did there um but but so but talk about it buzz i mean uh a lot of people are really excited about about any electric pickups just a reminder pickup trucks are the number one selling body style in the united states and have been seemingly forever so there’s obviously a lot of built-in uh built-in audience here um i i think one of the the things that really
Struck me about the lightning is is it’s just the prodigious amount of power and torque i mean we’re talking 775 pounds feet of torque whoa um so it’s super fast i had the the pleasure of of driving this truck uh doing b-roll on on the on the track for for anatoly the great at in man this is fast but boy is it heavy i mean which which has its strengths right the
Extra weight make makes the ride pretty nice extra weight makes the steering kind of slow but uh i’m gonna i don’t want to hog the the spotlight here i mean you know lightning can only strike twice so uh jake come on man lb out here um i’m reeling over the puns yes i’m not permitting it no puns so so let’s stand way back here lightning forward lightning so so
For those of you remember about 20 years ago there was another ford lightning which was like this performance version of this of the ford f-150 and to your point mike this thing’s way more powerful than that thing ever was um so that’s first but of course that thing you know used tons of gas this thing doesn’t use any so um it’s it’s first of all i mean good for
Ford for going through the parts bin of of names to come up with lightning and how perfect for you can you be for an electric vehicle but um it’s kind of like amazing i mean how fast this thing moves how how you know it gets around so uh full disclosure last night i was driving around our rivian we have a rivian that we have a test vehicle and you know a lot of
People talk oh there’s the rivian and the f-150 and you see pictures of it so so you look online and you’ll see a picture of a rivian and you see a picture of the fn50s like oh both pickup trucks maybe similar pricing depending on how they’re equipped they’re very different i mean let’s just lay that out i mean the f-150 is lightning is a full size pickup truck
This is a large vehicle anyone who’s been an f-150 it’s like that the rivian um is not i mean it’s really more like a ridgeline the the bed is quite small in fact it’s not even as long as the ford maverick uh when we measured it out um so it’s like a different animal you get in the f-150 lightning it’s you know if you’ve ever been in a full-size pickup truck
It’s very familiar there’s lots of room there’s lots of room around you there’s tons of room for your stuff you know this is kind of like a a thing about you know it’s just useful you know whereas you get into like the rivian not so much you know it’s kind of like tesla made a a pickup truck kind of you know it’s like a different animal so like you you’ve run up
The rivian okay this is going to open up a whole game episode i handed the rivier knocked you the other day and i had i’m sure i gave you an earful of how crazy i think those controls could be an episode i i admit it but yes i had a hard time getting away from you that morning i’m like i gotta go but perspective because the the issue is that a lot of electric
Cars try to dazzle you with a lot of i don’t want to say gimmicks but like a lot of new features and it’s like hey it’s an electric vehicle hey it’s for early adopters and we’re gonna have like all everything’s gonna be different we’re gonna change the way you start the car and the way that you change your mirrors and there’ll be giant screens everywhere this
Is very conventional i mean the lightning f-150 sure it’s very fast and it’s got all those great things about electric vehicles right instant torque and just gets out of its way low center of gravity so you know around the corners it’s it’s better doesn’t use a drop of fuel all those kinds of things but it’s a very conventional experience you know it’s it’s you
Don’t feel out of place you’re not like waving this flag around look at me i’m an electric i mean it looks like an f-150 so i i got a question it’s just it just jumped out at me you know because because we we’ve driven the rivian and we we really don’t like the controls the the f-150 is much more conventional so to so it’s a question to you guys so for ford to
Bring this to market as quickly as it did they they did have to go into the parts bin and use kind of what was already there but if they had more time do you think they would have made their new lightning like tesla and super complicated to do all the party tricks that jake just mentioned i i think this is by design i think they recognize well jen agrees with me
I mean sorry jen i didn’t mean jump on that no no but i i totally agree with jake i think this is by design not only do and we i just had this discussion evs are coming with more innovation than they need to be in my opinion so it needs to be an early adopter who’s comfortable with the touch screen and the craziness in the interior to want the ev i absolutely
Think ford did this by design one to gain their existing f-150 buyer which you just mentioned there’s hundreds of thousands of them yes people like my husband who say i want it to look like a truck i want it to look like an f-150 to jake’s point in that photo you’d be hard-pressed if it weren’t for this led bar across the front of the hood to tell you that’s
At lightning versus a regular f-150 and i think that’s intentional it looks and it feels like your f-150 but you get now these ev advantages they’re talking again on this longer range battery over 300 miles of range game changer there um and getting over 300 240 on the regular length battery but feels very much like the truck you’re leaving but to me with some
Amenities you know the gas is just the big one obviously but better ride this is a different suspension than the regular f-150 feels tremendous in terms of not being a truckee ride um power obviously the frunk this huge power power hood frunk with all this capability including um power ports that you know they show pictures on ford’s site of you know all these
Tools and things in that front you think of you know somebody who’s uh working on a house or something who’s setting up a generator every day what if the truck is the generator every day some really nice things that could make this not just a truck for the early adopter but for the contractor for the truck guy who has the truck now um quiet mike monticello wrote
Our preview i don’t know on the website which everybody can read consumerreports.org and the lead is this story of him pulling up to next next to one of our facilities guys in his 2500 series diesel and pulling up next to him in the f-150 lightning and one not being able to talk to him because the diesel was so loud and then literally launching away from him
Like it was effortless you know so truck to truck you know is that enough quiet powerful great ride i don’t know could be so so you yeah i think it is a you brought up truck to truck which you know i’m looking over my notes and i’m thinking you know when you want to do trucky things and i mentioned this when i started talking is you’re putting stuff in the bed
You’re putting people in the back seat you’re towing a trailer electric vehicles of any shape or form are still going to be behind the curve when it comes to doing trucky things now the question is are the lightning buyers going to actually used it to do trucky things right like our our work our maintenance colleagues uh with their with their two 2500 series
Diesel trucks you know and you know the elephant in the room is are they gonna do trekkie things in the cold with an ev right well so so so here’s the thing and you start you started it out you know how many trucks are sold in the us i mean right the top one two three vehicles i mean they’re always seem to be full-size pickup trucks the issue is is that not
Everyone wants to do the same trucky things right so look if i want to go tow a trailer across the states this isn’t my vehicle no but there are plenty of people who could use this for what they need to do um you know you got a boat you want to take it down to to to to launch it you’re you’re towing around locally i mean even like you talk about the facilities
Guys i mean if you’re working but you’re you’re on a site i mean even contractors depending on how far they’re going i mean you think about how many you know you know lawn guys are are using their pickup trucks around town they’re not going very far but wow it would be nice to have that kind of onboard power so i think there is definitely a segment and i am
Sure this thing is going to be sold out until eternity because i think there is enough people who are doing that and again let’s go back for just being really unique about not waving that flag look i’m ev look i’m different you know and i think we’ve already seen some some evidence that there is definitely that market i mean in terms of electrification i mean
Let’s talk about the maverick right the maverick no it’s not a full ev but it’s a hybrid that’s a very fuel efficient hybrid um it’s it looks like a pickup truck you know and it doesn’t really scream and when you drive the maverick i know it’s not the maverick episode um but i mean it drives conventional you know it drives like a normal vehicle right and and i
Think that is something magic about that because like what the hyundai came out with their santa cruz and it looks like you know something that you’re driving around the moon with or something but then it’s like there isn’t that excitement about it so i think you know ford almost using that like we’re the pickup truck guys making these pickup trucks that also
Are you know don’t use gasoline and some people are getting a little tired of you know the gas prices where there are so i get it particularly when you’re driving an f-150 with a giant tank right it’s 100 that’s 100 to load to fill that trust me right so right but but i mean and i and just so you guys know and talking car’s audiences i’m not anti-evs i’m not
Anti-electric trucks but before i i was in automotive journalism i was a landscaper and and i was using trucks for trucky things i’m not just hauling around bicycles you know all around lawn mowers and and like all kinds of heavy tools and and and towing wood chippers and stuff like that and and and so if if we’re going to be consumer reports and we’re going
To talk to our audience we need to say this isn’t one of those trucks and i think that’s i think that’s fair i mean ford is talking looking forward marketing for the lighting they do talk about its towing and they say oh we took it out in the cold and it’s awesome and and i’m just we haven’t done actually formal tests for this yet but but i’ve got to think that
That this is not going to be one of those vehicles so so certainly range is going to get hurt in terms of the cold and certainly range is going to be hurting when you’re telling there’s no question about that but again it’s you know if you’re the landscaper and maybe you’re doing 50 miles a day because you’re doing a bunch of yards that are in your town why not
Mike this could be great for that again if you’ve got some accounts that are you know across the state right you know it all depends on what your usage is and i think for a lot of people this is going to work yeah i don’t i don’t i don’t disagree with that premise of keeping keeping it local absolutely absolutely yeah i think it does you know again i think when
We first talked about the lightning they had me ask my husband who’s an f-150 driver would you buy this truck he said what will it do for me that was the question not whether he would um buy an ev but will it do something for me so i think it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out and what it gives and what it gives up in terms of the traditional truck buyer
And the ev adopter who says oh now i can have a truck and not be over complicated with you know controls or any of that as well so very interesting of course we already have our f-150 lightning on order um so we will be following all those things range cold towing day-to-day living regen breaking we didn’t even talk about regen breaking but all those things that
Are eb-ish and and whether this strikes that balance between the two so stay tuned for that testing so yeah super exciting obviously we are all passionate about that truck and it’s and this whole line of ev pickups is is gonna thread that balance very differently thus the rivian etc so moving on to your questions we love them talking cars at icloud.com written
Or video clips this question this week is from mark in oakhurst california take a listen hey talking cars uh excuse the lighting um i was trying to get my mustang in the background but i think the sunlight has escaped me um i have a 2014 v6 manual and i need to get all new tires for the car so i’m looking at the uh continental extreme contact sports um the
Thing is those are summer tires and so i kind of have a two-part question uh the first part is can i use those summer tires year round because most of the time it’s uh it’s above 40 to 50 degrees and that’s kind of uh cold for over here about two months of the year we’ll get mornings at about 25 to 35 degrees but by noon those are kind of warmed up so the first
Question is can i use those uh tires year round and the second question is uh those continental extreme contact sports they seem to have really good ratings but they weren’t and as far as a high performance summer tires go they weren’t in the top of the list and so are there metrics that i’m missing i think something that’s really important to me is the rolling
Resistance for fuel economy as well as the handling just because these uh these 2014s didn’t quite handle quite the best so anyways hoping to get your input on this and keep talking cars all right so before we actually answer mark’s question i got a question for you and i might be dating myself do you remember the movie the blair witch project oh yeah early early
90s win mark’s video and he says i didn’t get the lighting quite right no mark made fun he didn’t even make fun of himself but he knew his life but anyway that’s all i think so maybe we should answer his question the first was can i use them year round so i had to look up where oakhurst was mark it’s kind of central california so when you alluded to that you do
Get some cold temperatures so i think yes you can use your continental um extreme contact sport year-round as long as you are aware of the limitation so that’s a summer tire when you’re talking 25 to 40 degrees you have to know that those tires are not gonna grip as they are when it’s 50 60 70 if not even hotter so you gotta probably drive a bit differently i’m
Thinking you don’t get snow and ice but maybe you do they’re going to be useless in snow or ice but you need to drive much more carefully i don’t know if you guys agree i know we’ve had performance cars here that even won just the temperature tanked that that we saw differences in performance yeah i mean it’s it’s you know temperature is a funny thing right so
I mean you know and we we do see this on the track so i mean there’s air temperature there’s track temperature there’s tire temperatures there’s a lot of things i think you know on on a cool day um they may wear they may warm up quicker pretty quick you know so i mean if if it’s a cold if it’s a cold road for sure you’re going to have some issues but the truth
Is is that with a decent sun load it can warm up and you’re probably gonna be depending on where you are they could be okay but again just keep that in the back of your mind first thing in the morning you know you don’t have the sun out um cold tires you might be uh have a little bit of surprise if you’re not ready for it yeah and i just think ryan pizzlakowski
Is relieved because you can do the tire answers and he’s off the hook yes we could have brought him in brought him in and and and and mark was considering the continental extreme contact sport that’s a very highly rated um ultra high performance summer tire um so just be aware of the temperature conditions and for everybody’s benefit we do have new ultra hyper
Performance tire ratings coming out very soon so there’ll be others to choose from as well so as always thank you mark we didn’t really mean to make fun of you it just struck me as similar and to keep your questions coming talking cars at icloud.com uh this episode was produced and edited by david abrams and anatoly shimsky um keep watching keep listening and we’ll see you next week
Transcribed from video
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning | Talking Cars with Consumer Reports #379 By Consumer Reports
