Ford Halts Lightning Production for Battery Issues

Torrid said:
I think there is a lot of truth to that. I have talked to a couple of people looking to replace their full size trucks with F150 Lightnings, but only one that had an order in. I think it's a hard market and it's the reason why crossovers will continue to be king electric cars just like the regular car market.
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Agree and to take it a step further I just don’t see a majority wanting an EV pickup or large SUV in many of these states. It almost at the present time doesn’t make sense to me, but that not to say one size fits all. They are all trucks. Pick your engine type. It is interesting to watch.

Actually GM right now building a new ICE plant for big V8s in its trucks.
Vehicle and engine choice, gas, diesel, EV will be up to the buyer.

https://www.iseecars.com/which-states-drive-the-most-pickup-trucks-study
 
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Shel_B said:
A few moments ago I'd not have doubted that statement, but then this popped up,

https://www.iseecars.com/which-states-drive-the-most-pickup-trucks-study

putting California way down on the list. Maybe your statement needs some context?
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Sheer numbers, not percentages. Wyoming has a population of about 580K and about 3,500 vehicles, CA has 40M and 15M cars.
I think you know CA is the biggest car market in the world.

Edit: I should have said United Stares, not the world.
 
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Jimmy_Russells said:
They are probably asking 20k over sticker or something
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The problem is... the one is a 2022 Lightning Platinum... and the sticker price is already $96,000.

The other one, they've had since the initial roll out from several months ago... so maybe they're still not allowed to sell it.
 
JeffKeryk said:
Sheer numbers, not percentages. Wyoming has a population of about 580K and about 3,500 vehicles, CA has 40M and 15M cars.
I think you know CA is the biggest car market in the world.
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Read the footnotes at the bottom Jeff:
  • Texas, which leads the nation in pickup truck sales volume, ranks 25th in the nation for the state’s total vehicle share.
 
mrsilv04 said:
The problem is... the one is a 2022 Lightning Platinum... and the sticker price is already $96,000.
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That's correct. My 09 F150 5.4 lariat 4x4 was under $40K. Adjusted for inflation, That's $55K. 180K trouble-free miles. Still looks great.
The Lightning, with far less range and difficult to deal with trip charging, is pushing double that.

Clearly, I'd enjoy a Lighting's good qualities (if it used a good battery technology) but getting less than half the range for twice the cost does not balance the books properly.

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jhs914 said:
Read the footnotes at the bottom Jeff:
  • Texas, which leads the nation in pickup truck sales volume, ranks 25th in the nation for the state’s total vehicle share.
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I see that's what the article says, but historically CA has been the biggest truck market in the US. I believe we have the most registered trucks as well.
 
Funny the common debate here is whether Ford will sell many of these when from all accounts they are all sold out through the 2024 production run. Food for thought.
 
JeffKeryk said:
Sheer numbers, not percentages. Wyoming has a population of about 580K and about 3,500 vehicles, CA has 40M and 15M cars.
I think you know CA is the biggest car market in the world.

Edit: I should have said United Stares, not the world.
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Yes, seems to be some confusion which happens with stats.
The link I posted is percentage of truck registrations compared to other vehicles in a state. This is not sales volume.
CA is number one in sales but way down the list on the number of people who actually drive pickup trucks compared to other vehicles in CA population.
Texas is Number 2 in sales but again, way down the list compared to the number of people who drive them.

I think the link I posted is much more accurate. Many parts of the country prefer pickup trucks over vehicles compared to places like CA and even Texas comparing the population of what they drive in those states.
Hope this makes sense, time to eat dinner! *LOL*
 
alarmguy said:
Yeah, I dont think big EV trucks and SUVs will be in high demand. Im almost certain those drivers will place convenience of the ICE over all else.
If course not everyone but I suspect more than most think only because I certainly feel that way.
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The Rivian trucks are all over my area. Never seen one doing anything "truck like" but never underestimate people's willingness to waste money.
 
JeffKeryk said:
The biggest pickup truck market in the world is Southern California and the buyers are lifestyle buyers. Ford knows its customers, hence the Lightning.
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Ford also knows the fleet and commercial market is going to buy a lot of them. For many, not all but many, fleet applications EV's in Class 1-8 fit the job perfectly.
 
UncleDave said:
Although certainly not for everyone, it simply isnt that cut and dried it isnt a good choice for everyone.
It totally depends on the type of hauling and towing one does. There are plenty of short hop half tons out there living full and busy lives.
If all you do is pick up a bit of feed from town 20-30 miles away, or tow horses 20-30 miles to a trailhead, and drive to and from town with people Its a fantastic platform.
It would not work for me towing a 30ft boat to a lake 400 miles away for a 4 day weekend.

Whatever this is i hope ford nails it quick.
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I don't know anyone in this area that just drives 20-30 miles with a truck for stuff like this. Anyone that uses a truck for real work ends up doing a lot more driving than 50 miles a day, regardless of the tasks. And since these EV truck drop into less than 100 miles of range when doing real work, I don't see this being a "fantastic" platform for anyone other than someone who just uses their truck to drive around town. Especially when these things cost $100K+. There is also the issue with charging as even at the 240V charging these huge batteries in these trucks can take many hours to fully recharge before they can be used again. No one is going to drive for 60 miles and then wait for a 1/2 days for the truck to be charged back up to use it again for another 60 miles.
 
2strokeNorthstar said:
The Rivian trucks are all over my area. Never seen one doing anything "truck like" but never underestimate people's willingness to waste money.
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Well that must be where they send them all then, I've only seen a couple Rivian in my area and I live less than an hour away from the plant here in IL. And yes, they are never doing anything that a truck does, just one person driving them around. I suppose enjoy them while they last, the people I know who work or have worked at the plant say it won't be around much longer.
 
LDM said:
I don't know anyone in this area that just drives 20-30 miles with a truck for stuff like this. Anyone that uses a truck for real work ends up doing a lot more driving than 50 miles a day, regardless of the tasks. And since these EV truck drop into less than 100 miles of range when doing real work, I don't see this being a "fantastic" platform for anyone other than someone who just uses their truck to drive around town. Especially when these things cost $100K+. There is also the issue with charging as even at the 240V charging these huge batteries in these trucks can take many hours to fully recharge before they can be used again. No one is going to drive for 60 miles and then wait for a 1/2 days for the truck to be charged back up to use it again for another 60 miles.
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There are all kinds of use cases where it fits, and as many more where it doesn't.

I know plenty of poeple in my area that do make constant short hops and make numerous short range tows and pretty much every small farm has at least a a 50 amp outlet somewhere so you can start every day "full".

Doesn't sound like you have any actual experience with BEV charging.
On trips you dont charge to full but closer to 80% and its fairly quick 1/2 hour 40 minutes or so.
It's not remotely "many hours" and not even close to half a day before it can be used again as you claim.

The lightning is far from the fastest charger, but it's way better than your claim.
This group has been watching it and I posted speeds in a different thread.

The other big problem beside range with long distance towing and Ev's is the lack of pull through architecture forcing trailer disconnect at most places even if it had the towing range - this issue makes it untenable more so than charging speeds.
 
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