2023 F-150 Lightning EV truck

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by LimaCharlie

I applaud Ford for keeping it on the same F-150 chassis and making it look normal. They could've changed everything and make it look stupid (i.e. Tesla..). The frunk under the 'hood' is a great idea and the price is attractive too.
Overall, I don't see this selling well. The 300 mile distance is not really impressive and the miles must drop quickly if you tow/haul anything with some weight. I just don't see this EV trend catching on until the infrastructure increases to support long-distance EV travel. I can definitely see most gas stations sometime in the future having charging stations that can charge EV's quickly but, until that happens, EV's won't be successful.

Keep in mind that they did that only because they needed to get to market fast and they had not yet developed a skateboard architecture. They invested in Rivian in order to gain access to a skateboard architecture, but soon after realized that they were too far along with development of Lightning to melt and repour. So the Rivian architecture will likely be used for something else and also possibly a next gen of Lightning.

[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by 90503

The price seems reasonable I guess for a new truck....Just wondering how it compares to comparable ICE Ford trucks...

One thing irks me about EV pricing is if it's higher than usual, it gets explained away by stating in general what you will save in gas. This is too arbitrary and should not be a justification for what EVs cost.

All we have heard is how much less complex and inexpensive to build, and becoming less expensive over time to build better batteries, less required maintenance and operating expenses, etc.,etc.

These major changes to EVs over ICE should show up in a less expensive vehicle to purchase and not be based on what a comparable ICE vehicle costs.

Pass these supposed savings on to the customers with a better, significantly lower MSRP than ICE vehicles, and EVs will be even more popular.

The nuance to the part I bolded is that all things considered they are less complex and less expensive to build. The current F150 platform has a several million units headstart on contributing to the offset of development and capital costs (the equipment used to make the components and assemble the vehicle). If they were both starting on Day 1, the EV would have the advantage. But since the tooling to produce the EV is new and the cost has to be attributed to the cost of each vehicle built, that cost per vehicle is higher. As the equipment yields more and more vehicles, the attribution of capital costs per vehicle is reduced.

[snizzle]

Originally Posted by Martinjlm

The nuance to the part I bolded is that all things considered they are less complex and less expensive to build.

This is the reason the automakers are moving towards EVs. In the long run, it'll be cheaper. Don't mistake this move as zero emissions motivation. In short, they'll receive incentives from gov market intervention, and reap the benefits of public perception.