—Ford revealed its all-electric F-150 Lightning Wednesday night that CEO Jim Farley is convinced will propel the nascent EV industry ahead fast.
“There’s nothing that will move America faster into an EV future than #F150Lightning,” Farley tweeted Wednesday morning 12 hours ahead of tonight’s 9:30 p.m. reveal.
Fleets may well lead the charge for the low maintenance, 563-horsepower truck that starts at $39,974, or roughly $12,000 less than the competing Lordstown Endurance and $35,000 less than Rivian’s R1T Launch Edition.
“If you’re a commercial customer, we have an F-150 Lightning just for you,” Farley said on stage during the reveal. “It offers the lowest cost of ownership of any truck we’ve ever made. It needs less maintenance because it has 40 percent less moving parts in the powertrain and of course you never have to stop at the gas station.”
A 40% reduction in moving parts translates into big savings. When revealing electric Transit in November, Farley said the van “should save about 40% on operating costs tied to scheduled maintenance versus a gas-powered Transit during each vehicle’s lifetime. Customers should see more uptime too.”
While Ford has not released towing numbers on the E-Transit, F-150 Lightning Chief Engineer Linda Zhang said the truck will tow up to 10,000 pounds (on XLT and Lariat trucks with the extended-range battery and Max Trailer Tow Package.)
If towing performance is anything like Rivian’s R1T electric pickup, which is set to roll out next month, then Lightning’s range will be cut roughly in half during max towing.
