Yahoo Autos 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning First Drive Review: Worth the wait
SAN ANTONIO — The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning had already proven to be a success before we even had a chance to drive the thing. The order books already closed for its first model year, so for 2022 at least, this review is basically for all those folks who are already getting one. And it’s easy to see why they jumped at the chance to stand in line. The formula consists of taking the best-selling vehicle in America — the F-Series pickup — and giving it an all-electric powertrain. If that weren’t enough, Ford also made it the most powerful F-150 and the quickest to accelerate, and packed it unique benefits like a front trunk and means to power your entire house in the event of an outage. The question is, then, does that formula translate into an electric truck that’s as good as it sounds? Ford invited us to heart of truck country, San Antonio, Texas, to find out.
The F-150 Lightning has two powertrain options, but no matter which you pick, you get two electric motors — one front, one rear — providing all-wheel drive. The Standard Range version features a 98-kilowatt-hour battery good for 230 miles of driving range between charges. This powertrain provides 452 horsepower and 775 pound-feet of torque. Ford claims this will do the 0-60 sprint in 5 seconds.
A 131-kWh Extended Range Battery is optional on the fleet version of the Pro trim, the consumer versions of the XLT and Lariat, and standard on the range-topping Platinum. This provides a driving range of 320 miles in Pro, XLT and Lariat, and 300 miles in the Platinum. Choosing this battery also ups the output from the electric motors to 580 hp, maintaining the same 775 lb-ft of torque. This shrinks the 0-60 time to the mid-4-second range.
All trim levels have a few standard features in common. The only Lightning configuration is a SuperCrew cab with a 5.5-foot bed, 4x4 powertrain, and an electronic locking rear differential borrowed from the regular F-150. Each has at least eight 120-volt outlets spread throughout truck, a 12-inch digital instrument panel and a 20-foot mobile charging cable capable of both Level 1 (120 volts) and Level 2 (240 volts, 30 amps using a NEMA 14-50 plug). There’s plenty of shared standard equipment as well, including the Ford Co-Pilot 360 suite of driver assistance tech, but there’s ultimately so much to tell you about the various trim levels, that we thought it was better to break it down in a separate article here.
Our first driving stint in the F-150 Lightning took place on public roads in and around San Antonio in the Platinum trim with the Extended Range battery. After our first ride in the Lighting prototype last September, Autoblog Road Test Editor Zac Palmer noted that “Any F-150 owner could hop into the Lightning and instantly feel at home.” While he was speaking about the experience as a passenger, it holds true from the driver’s seat of the production truck as well. The 15.5-inch infotainment screen shared with the Mustang Mach-E is the interior’s headlining feature (and we generally like it), but the rest of the interior is very much common with other F-150s. That includes the fold-down shifter and deployable workspace borrowed from the regular F-150 that’s perfect for when you need to stop to take some notes (or enjoy a tidy meal) inside your truck.
Firing it up, we headed out from downtown San Antonio, creeping silently through the streets. There, the driving felt similar to other electric vehicles — instant, smooth acceleration and supremely quiet operation — but, just, bigger. On the expressway, the Lightning’s powertrain really began to set itself apart from the F-150s we’re used to. Despite its size and weight, this pickup can hustle. It gets up to speed in what feels like an instant, making merging easy as you just pick your gap and seemingly teleport into it. The motors are so potent that there was never a situation during our drive when we actually needed to put the pedal to the floor.
The electric motors aren’t the only revolutionary thing about this F-150, though. It is the only full-size truck to come equipped with an independent rear suspension rather than the usual solid rear axle. It also has coil springs, which is something . This packaging, Ford says, was to better accommodate the battery, as well as the full-size spare tire below the bed. That said, the Lightning still felt like any other F-150 going down the road. It still exhibited a truck-like ride, though a premium one. It would trundle over imperfections with a cushy rebound, more of a soft bounce than a crashy jolt. We didn’t notice much vibration through the frame structure either, perhaps thanks to the high-strength steel frame encasing the rigid battery pack, with a suspension designed to handle the extra weight of it all.
After a couple dozen miles of highway driving and safe, uneventful BlueCruising (see our separate review of the semi-autonomous driving system coming soon), we made our way onto some more meandering rural highways, where the steering wheel would get some exercise. The steering felt direct, but electronic and artificial. There wasn’t a lot of play on-center, and the weighty feeling builds quickly when you dial in more angle. It’s able to hustle through the corners, building lateral g forces without an excessive amount of lean, though we were still pulled to the sides of the wide seats of the Platinum. We later found the softer seats in the lesser trims held us in place better, but did miss the fancier thrones’ massaging capability.
