Ford’s new F-150 Lighting is already changing the mind of longtime pickup truck owners who thought they would never go electric.
The vehicle is the electric version of America’s best-selling truck, the Ford-150.
It features an $11,000 131 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion pack battery, which is nearly ten times more powerful than a Tesla Powerwall.
Additionally, the battery can charge an average American home for up to three days, according to Ford engineers.
‘That’s a house like my house with AC, Xbox, kids going crazy leaving lights on everywhere,’ Linda Zhang, the chief engineer of the Ford F-150 Lightning, told Bloomberg.
This makes the F-150 Lighting the first electric vehicle sold in the US with bi-directional charging, which means it has the capability to both power the vehicle and send power to a home or the grid.
Prices range from $40,000 for versions of the car aimed at commercial fleets to luxury models that reach the $90,000 price tag.
Though in order to have those all perks, potential buyers must also splurge on the Ford 80-amp charging station, a $3,895 home integration system from Sunrun Inc., and installation costs that vary depending upon location and type of home.
In May, President Joe Biden paid a visit to the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, with a surprise stop to speed his way around the test track.
‘This sucker’s quick,’ Biden said, sticking his head out of the window, and wearing his signature aviator sunglasses.
Ford’s new F-150 Lighting, the first car sold in the US with bi-directional charging, is already changing the mind of longtime pickup truck owners who thought they would never go electric
Its battery is nearly ten times more powerful than a Tesla Powerwall, and it can charge an average American home for up to three days, engineers who modeled the impressive vehicle assure
In May, Biden paid a visit to the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, with a surprise stop to speed his way around the test track
Jason Glickman, vice president for engineering PG&E Corp described the vehicle to Bloomberg as a ‘mini powerplant for your home.’
When the vehicle is plugged in during a blackout, the home draws electricity from it. After the power is back on, the vehicle continues charging.
‘It can support the grid on a hot summer day, when we have demand spiking,’ Glickman told the outlet. ‘At scale, when these vehicles are enabled to send energy back to the grid, flex alerts and notices of grid emergencies will be a thing completely of the past.’
The car boasts a 240-volt outlet in the cargo bed, which provides power to heavy-duty machinery and two 120-volt outlets in the cab.
It has four additional outlets in the bed and four in the front trunk.
But the one feature that could potentially convince buyers is the savings from not having to fill up at the gas station.
‘The real value right off the bat is the gas savings, as California gas prices are out-of-sight,’ ranch co-owner Steve Dutton told Bloomberg.
‘As we get the trucks and put them into service, we’re going see more and more opportunities where we can use that electric power for equipment out in the field.’
The car boasts a 240-volt outlet in the cargo bed, which provides power to heavy-duty machinery and two 120-volt outlets in the cab
The nationwide average gas price is now just under $4.62 per gallon, the most expensive ever recorded by the American Automobile Association (AAA)’s gas price tracker. In California, gas prices topped $6.
Ford’s pilot program, which provides local farmers in California with options to finance commercial pickup fleets, has been a success.
Sonoma County Winegrowers president Karissa Kruse told Bloomberg that grape growers were reticent to change to electric trucks, but have since come around.
‘Now they’re like, ”Can I get in on the pilot program? I heard you could get us a truck,” she told the outlet.