My Lightning Driving Experience - From A Tesla Owner

Now that the media embargo is off, I'd like to share my impressions of riding in and driving a Lightning. In seeing the reviews today, I see that the media had a lot of hands on time with the truck. I only had a few minutes in the truck, so my impressions are going to be a bit briefer than the in-depth reviews. My riding and driving was done in a Platinum trim Lightning.

Riding Experience
The Ford team did not allow for the Friends of Ford attendees to floor the pedal on the Lightning, rather this was only a ride along experience. It was a relatively short "track" in a parking lot, so I assume they didn't want any non-professional drivers launching into the wall at the end of the straight away. A few quick thoughts from this experience.

• For anyone who hasn't driven or rode along in an EV, the Lightning ride will be life changing. The acceleration was smooth as butter and 0-60 in 4.3ish seconds is no joke. For long time truck drivers, this will become the new favorite toy in your garage.
• We've had a few trucks in my family over the years and they always served a purpose for hauling, but I've never thought a truck was fun to drive and I never liked using one outside of times where I needed to (sorry truck fans!). The Lightning will change all of that, because it will do all the truck things you need, but you won't be arguing over who gets stuck with the Lightning as the daily driver.
• Originally my girlfriend stated she didn't want to drive the truck once we take delivery, she'd keep the Tesla and the truck would be for me. After the 0-60 experience, she changed her mind and said we will share both vehicles. Truth be told, she was against my Lightning purchase for months, and now she's just as excited for it as I am.
• My Tesla Model 3 Performance does 0-60 in 3.1 seconds, which is noticeably quicker than the Lightning. In all honesty, the M3P is stupid fast, drinks are spilled and I've had people complain they are about to throw up. The Lightning was fast, but didn't give the same uncomfortable jerk I get in my M3P. 4.2-4.5 seconds is really a sweet spot for fun, comfort, and practicality, it won't be as jarring for passengers when you floor it.
• The fact the Lightning is so large compared to my M3P made the speed feel more impressive, even if it's not as fast. Plus it looks so unsuspecting, you will confuse a lot of people when you quickly pull ahead of them at red lights.

Diving Experience
If I am being honest, this part of the day was a mixed bag for me. I was able to do 2 laps in a tight course in a parking lot, where cones and barriers were setup like I was taking a driver's test. The two laps probably took less than 2 minutes to complete. It was amazing to be one of the first drivers of the truck, but my experience didn't really give me enough time or space to form a thoughtful opinion, it just left me wanting more. A few thoughts though:

• The Lightning is very quiet. My M3P has some whistling and creaking noises to it, there was none of that in the Lightning. Noise may have been somewhat controlled due to my drive speed being so low, but it was nearly dead silent.
• I'm not sure if the external low speed speaker alert was off during the event or if the sound was being drowned out by the overpass, but I couldn't hear it. With my M3P, the spaceship noise at low speeds is very audible.
• If you are a truck novice, the driver assistance should make maneuvering fairly easy. The cameras were impressive, the 360 view on the large screen will make life easy for those with tight garages. Going from a smaller car like a M3P to the Lightning shouldn't be too hard to adjust.
• The truck was set to two pedal driving when I did my short drive. The braking was very similar to any ICE vehicle you are accustomed to driving. For those who are newly going into the EV world and want to take baby steps, the Lightning will be very easy to adapt to. Personally, I've really gotten to love one pedal driving and I am hopeful the truck more closely mirrors my Tesla in this mode, I unfortunately didn't get to try it out. Unlike the Tesla, I will say it's good Ford is giving people options, as I know some people that hate the fact the Model 3 regen even on its lightest setting doesn't allow for much coasting at all.
• When riding in the car on the short distance to the 0-60 launch spot, I asked the driver how one pedal driving felt. He turned the setting on and braked a few times lifting his foot. It's not necessarily the same feeling as a passenger, but the one pedal braking felt fairly strong, which is exactly what I'm hoping for.

If anyone has any questions, let me know!

Here are the beautiful trucks we got to ride in and drive.



...and here is a look at the dumb wall that Ford didn't trust me not to hit. The brakes worked very well though, this guy gave us the Evil Knievel experience to prove it.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up! When do you expect your 150.?

dirtdiver said:

Thanks for taking the time to write this up! When do you expect your 150.?

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After being moved back three weeks, my XLT SR is holding strong with a 7/11 build week. I'm hoping for delivery by mid-August, if all goes as planned.

That was a really good write up. Thanks!!

I test drove the M3 and Y and loved the speed of the 3. I ended up going with the Y, due to being a little more comfortable for long distance commuting and my bad back, getting in and out of it. I can’t even imagine what the Model 3 performance would feel like. Since I do a 360 mile turn around, for two days at the office every week, I find myself daydreaming about what the ride will be like in my Lightning back and forth. I also daydream about tackling the list of projects at my house and not having to order delivery for lumber, soil and other large items. It’s definitely going to be put to use more than my Tesla!
Oh yeah and powering my house during the California power outages too!

Which trim level have you ordered and why?

dandanthetruckman said:

Which trim level have you ordered and why?

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I went with a XLT SR. My main consideration was value for money, the XLT is really loaded for what you pay. I actually paid around $18k more for my M3P with Full Self Drive than I will for the XLT SR (with tax rebate considered), so the XLT SR is a shocking amount of vehicle for the cost. I second having a bad back after someone ran into me when I was in a small Audi a few years back. Stepping up into a truck and feeling like I'm less likely to be totaled on impact are more general reasons i wanted a truck.

To show I'm fully transparent, I am not knocking Tesla. Part of the reason I am comfortable with the SR is that I have a longer ranged Tesla and the Tesla supercharger network availability near me is great. This makes it easy to consider the XLT SR my local vehicle. If I didn't have the M3P, I probably would've sprung for the ER, but now it would just be redundant and the extra range would be wasted. I think having vehicles that compliment each other is the right idea, Lighting and M3 is an unbeatable pair in my opinion.