Important Update: Ford EV Roadmap & Future of F-150 Lightning (EREV Next Gen Model) - ⛔️ ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS

[LightningDan]

I didn't buy the Lightning to have my next truck be a step backwards.. this is silly and reactive. Shame on the United States for this crap.

100% agree.
This is just going a step back. I dont want a gas generator on my truck lol.
Toyota is going to prob make an electric tundra and corolla and ford is out of the game.

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[MrRoo]

Disappointing but not entirely unexpected. The full size EV truck market had a very limited total market share to begin with and is likely near saturation. Without some kind of substantial breakthrough upgrade it's unlikely to see much growth. Now factor in the other players in this market space and it's getting kind of crowded. Extremely poor resale value also works against this market. While in other markets it may only X amount to get in to a newer version of a vehicle, with the Lightning, it's multiple times that amount making you really question what exactly the benefits of getting a newer one would be. It would have to be a really substantial upgrade to make it worth it. That doesn't help that limited EV full size truck market either. Current owners have no good reason to upgrade so they aren't buying new again anytime soon. Going to an EREV throws them in to a much larger market share that will hopefully allow them to invest and grow the technology in to something better. The EV market truly is a limited market. If you can't do the majority of your charging at home than you're probably not in that market.

 

[astrand1]

It is 100% the United States. They are taking off in the rest of the world, and we've now ceded that market (amongst many others) to China due to our own short sightedness and love of oil.

Stupid is as stupid does.

EV sales are up everywhere in the world — except North America

Ok so answer this. Why did ev sales plummet? Answer because the tax credit ended. So what does that tell you? It means that good or bad many Americans don’t want an ev. The average ev costs in many cases thousands more than a comparable ice vehicle. You say evs are “taking off” in other countries. You realize that many of those countries have subsidies like we used to. I wonder if they stopped that would their sales drop? You also have to keep in mind that the culture in other countries is quite different than ours. They tend to drive less miles and have smaller cars. Everyone here wants an suv or a truck. Different strokes.
My opinion is that I don’t think the government should be artificially creating the market.

 

[htobin]

At least they're not planning on crushing them (so far)

The EV1 Era (1990s)

• 1990: The "Impact" concept car, an advanced electric prototype, was shown, leading to the production EV1.
• 1996: GM launched the EV1, the first mass-produced, purpose-built electric car for consumers (leased in select cities).
• Technology: It featured advanced tech like regenerative braking and efficient AC motors but used lead-acid and later NiMH batteries, facing "range anxiety".
• Discontinuation: Despite passionate drivers, GM ended the program in 2003, citing high costs and low demand, famously crushing most returned cars, a decision later regretted by some leaders

 

[COrocket]

Hopefully Ford realizes that the product wasn't the main problem, their dealership network is THE major problem. FMC knows from telematics that 300 miles of daily range is good for an extremely large majority of their F-150 customer base. They are gonna have to do a much better job educating and marketing the EREV if it has any chance of survival.

Ive had multiple friends buy Lightnings once they test drove mine, and I took the time to explain how cheap and convenient home charging is. The truck pretty much sells itself after dispelling some outdated EV myths. Plenty of people are initially unaware that the Lightning even exists.

The few dealers I visited didn't have a clue about how anything EV works in regards to home charging, DCFC, maintenance intervals, battery longevity/warranty etc... If they can't explain how those items will work in the EREV, I doubt it'll sell any better than the current Lightning.

 

[sotek2345]

People who say this is a step forward have never owned a PHEV that's broken down. It's more complicated than an EV and less reliable.

i3 REx was less reliable than the i3.
Volt was less reliable than the Bolt

I've been covering this industry for 20 years, and seriously, it feels like everything we've done in the last 20 years has just been wiped out by [redacted] wanting to [redacted] POTUS.

100% agreed. Also, the climates doesn't have another 5 years for us to move backwards.

 

[jefrank]

It depends on the engineering strategy.

1. Keep the existing battery pack size and structure. Replace with LFP packs and put the gas tank and engine below the trunk bed.
2. Reduce the battery size means re-engineering the pack size and manufacturing tools. Gas engine can go somewhere in the frunk and gas tank in the traditional spot. This would give a larger gas tank.

A gas F150 is either 23 gal or 26 gal. Makes sense to re-use the existing gas tanks.

• At 19MPG, new Lightning would get 437 gas miles, the additional 263 electric miles gets to 700 miles. That's about the same 131 kWh battery.

• If the range extender gets 28MPG, then we're talking 644 miles on the 23 gal tank and a tiny 25kWh pack with 60 electric miles (2.4mi/kWh). At that point might as well call it a PHEV.

Those are some upper and lower bounds I'm having fun calculating.


All fun theory crafting. Kinda pointless until Ford announces specs.

Doesn't the current pack take up virtually all of the room under the bed that isn't spare tire? A small tank could go where my spare is and losing the frunk could give room for the generator, but I still expect the battery will be shrunk to offset the weight of the generator and gasoline along with reducing the cost. All speculation, as you say, though.

 

[richy]

We are a no gas family for about 2 years.

Five years here, two EVs. But like I say, just because it has a gas tank doesn't mean you have to put gas in it? Sounds like it still plugs in..

 

[astrand1]

100% agree.
This is just going a step back. I dont want a gas generator on my truck lol.
Toyota is going to prob make an electric tundra and corolla and ford is out of the game.

Agreed! I don’t think I ever want to go back to gas. I love my lightning. I would not count ford out of the game. Now that they have the tech down etc. if batteries get better/cheaper etc. they could probably easily pivot back to a BEV at a future date. But I’m glad I have mine now. That’s for sure.

 

[explosive0]

@Ford Motor Company Please offer something substantial to any current ( 22-25 ) Lightning owner to trade / sell the truck back to you. While you can write of billions, most of us can't just write off the cost of our trucks. Give us 80% of original MSRP towards another ford product or something to that affect.

You lost me at "another Ford product"

 

[Deleted member 21405]

Will you take trade-ins of Lightnings on the new trucks, with a fair value for the Lightnings since the resale market on our Lightnings has likely plummeted with this announcement?

It plummeted long before this…

 

[Shmoe]

Ok so answer this. Why did ev sales plummet? Answer because the tax credit ended. So what does that tell you? It means that good or bad many Americans don’t want an ev. The average ev costs in many cases thousands more than a comparable ice vehicle. You say evs are “taking off” in other countries. You realize that many of those countries have subsidies like we used to. I wonder if they stopped that would their sales drop? You also have to keep in mind that the culture in other countries is quite different than ours. They tend to drive less miles and have smaller cars. Everyone here wants an suv or a truck. Different strokes.
My opinion is that I don’t think the government should be artificially creating the market.

I hate it when government does what it's supposed to do by promoting the adoption of new technologies through incentivizing both the consumer and manufacturing sides...

 

[TimeHater24]

You lost me at "another Ford product"

I'd gladly get something / anything now, vs nothing in a few years when these things are out of warranty

 

[cyberious]

I can understand an option of this, but many of us will not be going that direction. I would have preferred to see them double down and provide a BEV Ranger or Maverick with decent range. This market is severely under served and would have been a great throwback and segue into smaller pickup trucks that the weekend warrior wants and needs.

To say I am disappointed is an understatement, Jim Farley, I am disappointed.

 

[WXman]

People like @Shmoe need to understand how business works. In business you make products that are profitable. What you don't do is build products that you will bleed money on so that you can appease a handful of people.

Why did Ford and GM stop making extended cab midsize trucks? Why did they stop offering manual transmissions on ALL of their trucks? Why can't you get a 6' bed on a midsize? There are myriad formats that people wanted and still want to this day, but the OEs don't build them because there isn't a business case for it. IT'S NOT PROFITABLE.

The Lightning is the best selling EV pickup truck in America, and even the Lightning accounts for less than 5% of F-series sales. If you look at the entire electric pickup segment, it's a tiny fraction of overall truck sales.

So like it or not, this is a brilliant move by Ford Motor Company. "American consumers are stupid." No, we're not. China and much of Europe is a completely different market. Those people don't enjoy loading up a camper and driving hours to a remote site to spend a weekend with their families. They embrace EVs over there because they work better over there. In the U.S. it's a different ballgame. TRUCKS here need to haul heavy and tow heavy for distances. EREV is the answer.

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