Ford F-150 Lightning: What it’s like to drive the all-electric truck

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reviews his road test of Ford's latest all-electric pickup truck and the consumer incentives to purchase a full-utility EV.

Video transcript

- What things changed? Will they stay the same? America's best selling truck for more than 40 years running is now electric. Unfortunately for you, Ford had stopped taking orders for the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning due to demand. While the rest of us will have to wait till next year, Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian did not have to wait to drive this baby. He's joining us now to talk about it.

Now, I'm curious because Ford F-150 owners, which I know a lot of, they don't really care how it goes on the highway. They care how this thing tows and how it drives off road. So that's what I want to hear about first, if you don't mind.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So yeah, we had the opportunity to drive both on road, off road and tows as well in a two-day test that I had. And let me start with the on road impressions where I thought the truck actually surprised me when I thought it was like, am I in the normal F-150? Very smooth power delivery, quiet.

I think that's on purpose. That's on design. They want you to feel like you're actually in a normal F-150, but it's quieter. It's very smooth and very powerful. So on road, it was great.

But I was really impressed with the off road, Brett-- I mean, Dave, I'm sorry.

[LAUGHTER]

- I get.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, it breaks. So it breaks. So off road, it was amazing in terms of just the sheer ability to have instant torque right off the bat on rocks, on loose terrain. You can lock the differential in the back. And it can just basically get you out of anything.

So in my opinion, it was super impressive from that point of view because of the fact that it's no slip. There's no whining. And the transmission kind of struggling. It's just straight power immediately.

And, of course, towing-- you mentioned towing. I had a $5,000 pound trailer in the back. You couldn't really feel it. It like you're just driving normally. Now, your range comes down by about half, right? But that's, I guess-- Ford said that's what happens when you normally drive a truck with a big payload or trailer in the back too.

- Now, obviously, this looks huge. So in terms of sort of the bells and whistles, the interior, what are we looking at in terms of like cool features inside?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: You know, they did a really good job of keeping that interior sort of very welcoming and presentable to what most owners would have expect. But they actually added a couple of electrified elements like the big vertical tablet screen in the front that you've seen the Ford Mach-E.

You can basically control everything with that-- your climate control, your radio, infotainment, everything, navigation. And it's very informative too because it's got that big screen, very clear legibility. And also the fact that you can actually type in where you want to go, and it'll tell you where to actually charge up when you need to.

- Pras, so it sounds like you're a fan of this. I think initially when it was laid out there from Ford, lot of people were questioning whether they would want to buy or people would want to buy an electrified F-150. It sounds like you think it's a huge hit.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: You know, from my point of view, I think it's a big win for Ford. They really had some things-- some key things in mind that they wanted to hit capability, utility, power, and also fun, right? I mean, it's not just a truck that you take to the worksite, also to the campsite, and to maybe a tailgate.

And I think they really succeeded at that. Because Rivian is their big competition, and they're more of an adventure, fun, go anywhere kind of truck. This is actually a truck that you can actually power your home in, power a worksite, power a campsite. So I think they really kind of hit it out of the park making a truck that's so-- has so much utility but also can be used for that fun offering that we all want to do.

- And unlike Rivian, that does appear you can get one at some point. But when can you get this new truck? They've stopped taking orders for this year's model. Will you be able to get one this time next year?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: If you're lucky. Now--

- If you're lucky.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: --they're making them right now in Dearborn. You can actually-- you know, if you go to a lot, you might find most of them are spoken for. They might have some of that trickle out to the lots that you can actually buy at retail, if you're lucky. But for the most part, you're not going to get your hands on one until like maybe 2023.

- Wow.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I don't think.

- You have to be willing to wait. But, hey, there's long lines to wait for any new car out there right now.

- Yeah, sure.

- So we'll see. All right, Pras Subramanian, thanks so much.