I appear to be pondering rather a lot about Ford’s electrical pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. Earlier this week, we acquired the information of value cuts and value will increase. Earlier than that, there was a pending lower to deliberate manufacturing output. Taken as it’s, it is simply the all-electric model of America’s favourite pickup—and arguably the most effective model until you must pull one thing on the top of a trailer hitch.

However the Lightning does not exist in a vacuum. Relying on who you discuss to, it is a intelligent try to get Individuals to go electrical, an completely acquainted wrapper on a slab of recent expertise that, sure, nonetheless requires the proprietor to regulate their mindset a bit from the gasoline-powered mind-set. To others, it is a white elephant, one which prices an excessive amount of and languishes on dealership forecourts, proof optimistic that electrification is a factor different international locations would possibly hassle with, however neglect that right here at residence, cowboy.

I’ve by no means discovered life to be fairly that easy, and neither is the Lightning. Right here in Washington, DC, the car stays a uncommon sight—the one time I’ve seen one within the wild, it belonged to the DC authorities’s fleet of autos (its job was inspecting deserted autos). Out west, it is far more widespread to see electrical F-150s on the highway, and final yr, Ford bought about 40,000 Lightnings, regardless of halting manufacturing for a fireplace after which once more to retool a part of the road.

As a result of I final drove yet one more than 18 months in the past, it appeared prudent to guide per week with an instance from Ford’s press fleet to see how the pickup has matured since its launch. The Monroney sticker did little to bust the concept this stuff are costly—$97,374 is a excessive value, though with the latest adjustment and an ongoing $7,500 incentive from Ford, a 2024 mannequin could be simply over $10,000 cheaper, in response to Ford’s on-line configurator.

I had greater considerations than the sticker shock—fairly actually. In spite of everything, you do not have to purchase a Platinum trim Lightning; a search on vehicles.com exhibits 823 Platinums on the market across the nation out of a complete of seven,531 new Lightnings. Most of the remainder of these electrical F-150s might be cheaper, however all of them would be the identical measurement. And that measurement is simply too darn massive for my life within the metropolis.

Measurement issues

This was instantly obvious as I backed into my parking area. The Lightning dwarfed my neighbors’ SUVs because it jutted out into the car parking zone, virtually solely filling the area between the white traces. There is no hiding a car that is 237 inches (6,020 mm) lengthy and 80 inches (2,032 mm) broad earlier than you embody the mirrors.

A part of the explanation it is so massive is that the four-door, five-seat pickup truck someway grew to become the alternative for a sedan within the minds of so many American males. On 4 wheels, with at the least eight inches of floor clearance, you might drive it on an overlanding journey, however in follow, you may simply impede the views of everybody else on the highway. The one option to see round a giant truck is in one other massive truck, and earlier than you understand it, the nation is shopping for a number of million full-size pickup vehicles yearly.

For folks dwelling in newer properties in suburbs or exurbs who commute to jobs in workplace parks surrounded by huge expanses of floor parking, the scale factor may not even be that noticeable. Garages are constructed large enough to deal with brodozers now, and homes out in these components are set again from their neighbors. Climb up into the motive force’s seat of a Lightning in the midst of a dense metropolis, although, and it is on stark show.

Though I tailored to the Lightning’s measurement, it was actually solely as soon as I ventured into the suburbs of Northern Virginia that I began to really feel really comfy behind the wheel. The multilane roads in locations like Fairfax and Tysons Nook had been far more the Lightning’s ingredient. No highway diets right here, nor folks on bicycles to be ever-vigilant for. Driving within the metropolis, I used to be at all times conscious of its measurement, though the view from the high-up driving place was principally glorious, and the one-pedal driving mode made it easy to stay to the 20 mph pace limits.