Ford F-150 Lightning Reservation

If Cybertruck shape is not that radical, I still prefer it. 500 mile range is one thing, the other benefit is supercharging network.

I just drove 1000 miles from Sacramento to San Diego and back during the weened. With a Tesla I just need to have an extra 30 min stop to charge (another stop with lunch as well). But with a non-Tesla EV, the trip could be a nightmare.

 

Ditto, I put mine in the second the reveal was over.

 

My reservation is in. Currently drive a Ram 1500 and a Model 3. Looking forward to combining the EV and Pickup into one vehicle.

 

Yes, I reserved a F150 Lighting. At first I made the reservation on a whim thinking I wouldn’t miss the $100 and I could cancel the reservation for a full refund any time I wanted. Now that I have the reservation I keep getting more and more excited about the F150 Lighting the more I learn about it and it looks like it is going to be very hard to give up the reservation if I have to.


Anybody that has read many of my posts over the years knows that being able to tow trailers is a big concern of mine. My 2019 Niro EV is a terrific EV but I still need my 4WD 2004 GMC Envoy to tow heavy trailers up steep hills and to get through the worse winter weather. Not only will the F150 Lighting be able to tow thousands of pounds more than any EV on the market but it will have the advanced trailering features like trailer hitch assist that autonomously drives the truck to the hitch.


The thing that is really pushing me over top is being able to power the house with the F150 Lighting. Anybody that has been following weather in Texas knows that over this last winter most of Texas was without power for many days. My wife has always been very critical of my EV purchases but, when I told her that the F150 Lighting could power the house in a power outage, she told me I sould buy one.


Two other features on the F150 Lighting that are important to me are hands free driving and extended range. I drive between Texas and Colorado several times a year. The reduced stress of hands free driving and being able to manage the long distances between changing stations is pretty much a must on those trips.


The biggest hurdle is going to be paying for a F150 Lighting. I know that a F150 Lighting with all the options I want is going to be expensive. Conciliations to the expense of an F150 Lighting are I should be able to reduce my vehicle inventory since the F150 Lighting should all the tasks I use several vehicles for now and I will have the security that I can avoid power outages.


I had a bad experience on a factory vehicle order in 1994. I have stated ever since then that I would not place another factory order and would stick to buying off the lot where I will have some leverage over the dealer. If it starts to look like I’m going to get burned again with another factory order I will cancel the reservation and try to find an F150 Lighting with the right options on a dealer lot.

 

I reserved a Cybertruck when it was announced but now also have a Lightning reservation. Tesla may have a good network for cross country and major metro areas (and growing even here in central Illinois), but I don't know if the store that's an hour away will have service capabilities like my existing Ford dealers (3 of them within 15 miles of my house). I won't be putting a ton of miles on anything except for local commuting, but when I travel, it's often on interstates far from Tesla stores, so I'll definitely be keeping my AAA membership active.

I know not every Ford dealer will be able to service a Lightning in the beginning, but I like my odds.

 

Having just navigated my Niro to Colorado, around and about the moutains away from the interstate, and back to California, I can say that having Tesla access would have made it a bit easier, but it was still quite workable without Tesla..

Tesla is making noises about throwing their charging network open to other vehicles too. The speculation is they want access to Federal Infrastructure funds.
https://electrek.co/2021/08/03/tesla-opening-supercharger-network-access-7-billion-ev-funding-us/

 

Between that and the existing charging networks, there will be little range anxiety fear, but I-80 in Wyoming and I-90 in Montana will remain charging deserts.

https://www.plugshare.com