General Public reactions to our trucks? {⛔️NO POLITICS}

[johaanryberg]

I had a gentleman (in a lightning) who people might tag stereotypically as a mountain/rural/ICE driver pull a quick U-turn on the highway a couple weeks ago to come chat with me at a coffee shop in the mountains. He just was thrilled by the way his truck has performed in the snow and said he was never going back. I’m sure he was unique in the area to be driving in an electric truck and we had a really pleasant chat.

In that same area, a couple of grocery store workers thought I was pouring ice on my radiator. I was actually just loading ice into the frunk. And they thought that was super cool.

I was at the hardware store the other day, and when I was swapping my empty propane tank for a full one, the store employee complimented my truck. I thanked him and said how much I enjoyed it. When it came up that it was a Lightning , he said he'd Never own one. I replied that I loved the tech and the 'Silent' running, and how different it was vs my Semi where i'm always battling the noise at work.
I let it go, but it stuck with me...
I saw an ad for a Cruise In coming up, and i'm planning on shining up Storm and going to hang out with the Ice-powered enthusiasts for the day.

Sponsored

 

[DNap4]

- I was out in the country and made a stop to drop something off. A guy with an F150 ICE saw me pull up and said to me "I like yours better". He then asked me if it was full electric and I said "yeah, they stopped making these".

- I was in another area of town and pulled up by a house I was visiting. There were two guys outside talking and then they saw me pull up and they said "nice truck", "is that electric? we could barely hear you pull up". I again said "yeah, it's full electric" "Ford stopped making these models". One of the guys said "well man, it's going to be a classic, you better hang on to it". I was a little sad because even when I hang onto it for 10 years, I hope nothing will break or go bad because parts may be hard to find.


Those were the two most memorable. I keep getting people complimenting me on my truck when I randomly park for things like at the grocery or go out to pick up some food. The most common comment is "nice truck" "that's a good looking truck".

 

[DavidYo]

I also live in a very rural area and get the question of “wow is that a fully electric truck?” I think that goes to demonstrate the lack of outreach Ford had with the Lightning. After I explain that it is fully electric I the get the standard “how do you like it?” To which I reply I love it and that I have had a truck as my main vehicle for about 30 years and this truck is by far the best at everything but long distance towing which I almost never do. I explain the power functions and the quietness and comfort level and they are surprised. They then ask about how far it will go on a charge and how long takes to charge on the road and are again surprised in a good way. We always finish the conversation with “it costs how much?” And I explain that Ford made some unfortunate decisions with scaling and development and has since discontinued the line.

Adding in that I have had a few people comment that “oh gawd, I’ll NEVER own an electric vehicle!” That seems to just be the luddites and not a response to the truck.

 

[Joe Dablock]

I happened to be finishing up towing a car with a car dolly and a person said “Would I be able to do him a favor and tow his diesel pickup truck?” I said sure. While towing his truck up a steep grade I said “watch this!” I pressed down the accelerator pedal and we accelerated up the hill. He said “Holy crap!”

Reality is, most people really have no idea.

 

[FreshDaddyE]

In 3 years, I've only ever had pleasant experiences. There's a lot of interest and fun conversations. Most are unaware that the truck is even a BEV until they don't hear me approaching or get blown away by the acceleration (I'm not shy with acceleration).

I would say half a dozen people have followed me to a destination to ask about it. Which is fine. I always enjoy talking about vehicles of any type.

Granted, I have been coal rolled twice, but that's because I raced them from a light and embarrassed them badly, but lacked the willingness to exceed the speed limit to 'win' as much as they did. I imagine I would have gotten 'rolled' even if I was driving an ICE truck just so they could feel better about themselves.

 

[djwildstar]

I've had mostly-positive reactions. I enjoy when I'm using the frunk and make people do a double-take. Some of my favorites:

A woman walks by as I'm loading groceries into the frunk at the store. As she goes past, she mutters "I never knew pickup trucks had a trunk in the front ..."

Checking into controlled-access parking at a conference center, the gate guard mentioned "Your truck kinda looks like a Lightning", and I said "Yes, it is a Lightning". He nodded and waved me through, but as I was pulling away from the guard shack, I heard him say "You've got a frunk!".

At a (different) hotel -- one of those fancy ones where you pull under the portico and they have bell staff standing by -- my wife and I were checking in for a week. I pulled up and got out, and a bellman came around to the tailgate to help me unload. There was just one suitcase in the bed. So he goes "Just the one suitcase, sir?" in a tone of voice suggesting that we'd be crazy to try to pack that lightly for a week in a place like this one. I said, "Oh, no, the rest are in the frunk". He looks at me like I'm crazy, but follows me around front. I open the frunk (which has something like 3 suitcases and a couple of duffel bags in it). He does a double take, and then calls the rest of the bell staff over "Hey guys, look at this -- it has a frunk!".

 

[davehu]

driving through our neighborhood a few weeks ago, I had to slow down to get through a half dozen pickup's backhoe, trencher, and an electric company service vehicle. I stopped to ask (four of) them what they were doing. After discussing their progress on their digging, one guy had been staring at my truck noticing that is was dead silent. He asked "is that electric". I said yes. first question was how far can you go. second was how much can it tow. Well they were collecting their thought I popped open the Frunk and 20 minutes later they finally let me continue on my way as they all stood in amazement. I drove away smiling broadly!

 

[Randys Lightning]

Had a Harley Davidson Live Wire, Loved it almost 9000 miles on it People hated it till they rode one. My wife thought I was making a mistake, she admits the Lightning is great now. She loves to drive it.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Had a Harley Davidson Live Wire, Loved it almost 9000 miles on it People hated it till they rode one. My wife thought I was making a mistake, she admits the Lightning is great now. She loves to drive it.

I like your stable of rides, fellow speed freak !!

 

[TaxmanHog]

driving through our neighborhood a few weeks ago, I had to slow down to get through a half dozen pickup's backhoe, trencher, and an electric company service vehicle. I stopped to ask (four of) them what they were doing. After discussing their progress on their digging, one guy had been staring at my truck noticing that is was dead silent. He asked "is that electric". I said yes. first question was how far can you go. second was how much can it tow. Well they were collecting their thought I popped open the Frunk and 20 minutes later they finally let me continue on my way as they all stood in amazement. I drove away smiling broadly!

Similar story, the summer I got my Lightning we were also having our gas meter moved from the basement to outside the house.

I had the entire Eversource work crew in my driveway inspecting the truck, eventually the foreman had to shoo everyone back to work.

 

[DavidS]

I had a gentleman (in a lightning) who people might tag stereotypically as a mountain/rural/ICE driver pull a quick U-turn on the highway a couple weeks ago to come chat with me at a coffee shop in the mountains. He just was thrilled by the way his truck has performed in the snow and said he was never going back. I’m sure he was unique in the area to be driving in an electric truck and we had a really pleasant chat.

In that same area, a couple of grocery store workers thought I was pouring ice on my radiator. I was actually just loading ice into the frunk. And they thought that was super cool.

I had a similar experience in West Virginia last summer.

 

[richguy82]

My favorite interaction was with a very sweet elderly couple at Costco. They were in their car and slowly pulled up behind me as I was loading the frunk and just parked there. When I finished I turned around and they said “are we being pranked?? Are we on candid camera? We were looking for the cameras all over, but we didn’t see any!! What are we looking at?”

 

[roddiaz1]

If my frunk isn’t open, 90% of the people think it’s just another F150. Which is fine.

That is EXACTLY what attracted me to the Lightning.

 

[Wendy]

My favorite thing to tell people is that it cost me $5 to drive to the ski area!

And then at lunch I open my frunk and microwave a bowl of soup as people drive by gawking.

 

[BluesClues]

"DAMN IS THAT THING ELECTRIC?"

most days

Sponsored