#2022 ford lightning pro

But unless you’ve got an IC pickup with large or even twin fuel tanks, more than 160 miles before refueling can be a stretch – although the refueling time is a fraction of the 41 minutes required to take the extended battery from 15% to 80% capacity at a DC fast-charger, according to Ford. High-speed highway towing probably would consume more. The impact is “very similar to what you get on the F-150 gas,” said Jim Caruso, vehicle engineering supervisor. The handy functionality of the Lightning’s Intelligent Range feature (program your trailer’s weight and other environmental effects are calculated), generated a forecast, backed up by on-the-fly mile-per-kWh figures that indicated the extended battery pack’s 320-mile range might be cut in half by a heavy trailer. The Texas hill-country test roads were rolling but fairly low-speed. And without any driveline “windup” or fuss, no blaring exhaust (a downside for the coal-rolling crowd, I suppose), just the crisp and smart step-off of 775 lb-ft applied instantly and silently.

With trailers ranging up to 9500 lb (4309 kg), the Lightning yanked them as easily as you’d pull a toddler across the snow on a plastic toboggan. Towing and hauling capability are the “real-truck” metrics, however, and Ford gamely set up journalists with plenty of options to test the Lightning in order to dispel what some engineers called “myths” about towing’s derogatory effect on driving range. Engineers at the media drive program in May said 75% of current F-150 customers tow, but fully 80% of that number do not tow more than 10,000 lb.

Either battery pack facilitates a max payload rating of 2235 lb (1014 kg) – the late-arriving increase mentioned earlier over the 2000-lb (907-kg) payload capacity Ford originally listed. Not to say the standard-range battery precludes genuine work duty: its maximum tow rating is a chunky 7700 lb (3493 kg) and the extended-range battery enables towing up to 10,000 lb (4536 kg).

#2022 ford lightning pro

The standard-range battery, then, appears adequate for those users who, like many light-truck owners, don’t have rigorous hauling or towing demands – or, in the case of the fleet operations targeted by the base-model Pro trim, might have specifically defined duty cycles and routes that reliably return to a central charging location. Ford engineers said just eight easily accessible mounting points allow the entire battery pack to be removed. The battery pack is situated between the rails of the Lightning-specific high-strength steel frame and is protected by a steel skid plate in the event the Lightning’s 8.4 inches (213 mm) of ground clearance isn’t sufficient (conventional F-150 4X4: 9.4 inches). The extended-range battery’s 131 kWh hikes maximum range to 320 miles (515 km) and allows 580 hp to be extracted from the twin drive motors torque output for either battery pack is the same. The standard range battery powers a maximum driving range of 230 miles (370 km) and means the twin traction motors – one at each axle for full-time all-wheel-drive (AWD) – deliver a combined 452 hp and 775 lb-ft (1051 Nm). The choice of battery packs is important in two chief ways and effectively defines the F-150 Lightning for users. Not only does the F-150 Lightning accomplish that, adding either the 98-kWh (standard range), SK Innovation-made lithium-ion battery or the 131-kWh extended-range battery offers all manner of new capabilities linked to having so much electricity onboard. If the F-150 Lightning is the standard we can expect from “electrifying” what we’re already familiar with, nobody will need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the EV future.įord planners and engineers took the bull by the horns when it was decided the EV variant of a pickup that’s sold some 40 million copies had to fulfill the same product brief – that is, offer essentially the same work-ready capabilities as every F-Series that’s come before. The freshly-extracted extra horsepower and payload are useful, but hardly necessary: the F-150 Lightning would’ve been plenty spectacular regardless. Just before the media test drives of the 2022 F-150 Lightning, the battery-electric variant of Ford’s market-dominating light-duty pickup truck, the Lightning’s specs were updated to reflect modest last-minute enhancements in horsepower and payload capacity.

One-pedal” driving is a delight using it, owners might not need brakes for years.”