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Electric trucks are finally ready for prime time. Could high oil prices speed up the shift? (theconversation.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/environment@aussie.zone
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[–] 3 points 7 months ago* (10 children)

Now all those folks that bought into the Ford F-150 Lightning are looking pretty chippy and smart, eh ?

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    The article is talking about real trucks, like freight hauling. Not pickups.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    The Lightning is the worst one you could buy. I say that as someone that put down a deposit on it when it was first announced. The Chevy Silverado is an actual electric work vehicle. I’d never buy Chevy though, US car brands are horrendous.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    What's wrong with the Lightning? I got one because it has the best frunk and it's compatible with standard ladder racks, and it's been working pretty well for me.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    The Lightning is fine from an EV perspective, besides ford’s software, but fails at basic truck things. Their tow ratings never got close to their claimed distance, and against other trucks are so so terrible. If you aren’t putting weight in the bed of your truck, you do not need a truck.

    So if you bought a Lightning and you aren’t having mileage issues then you should have gotten a Hyundai or Kia or Rivian, all of which have better software, better mileage, and aren’t at risk of being discontinued (which was clear was a possibility for ford when they first released the Lightning) because you clearly didn’t need a truck.

    If you bought a ev truck because you didn’t want to own multiple vehicles and you needed to tow something every once in a while, well you still should have gotten something else, because EV SUVs can still tow.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    I'm curious where you got the data that it tows worse than the other EV trucks, because its larger battery option is pretty big, only meaningfully overshadowed by extremely expensive trim levels of the CT and Silverado, from what I remember. Is there some way it doesn't just boil down to battery size for long hauling? You pretty much get what you pay for when it comes to battery banks.

    For my use-case, I don't tow much, and when I do tow heavy, it's across the farm or across town. The trailer I go places with only drags me down by 25% and I can still get three highway hours with it. I got my Lightning for carting lumber and tools around. I don't put a lot of mileage on the hitch, but there's always something in or over the bed.

    The Rivian's bed is too short to throw plywood in unstrapped. If they made a two-door option for it with a longer bed, it would have been ideal. The Lightning has just enough bed for that, pretty much down to the inch. The Silverado looked like a solid choice too, but it has those wings that interfere with overhead racks, and predatory software practices, so I passed on it. Then the CT needs a special rack and has no frunk space, plus it costs more and Elon is evil, so I passed on that too.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    Except it's still a wank yank tank. We're (Australia) not that far behind you in this stupid arms race, sadly. More and more of these stupid pick up trucks are on our streets.

    Fuck uncessarily big cars.

    The only solution to traffic is viable alternatives to driving.

    Sorry to be such a downer, but cities designed for massive personal vehicles should be called out at every opportunity.

    All the folks who don't need to drive and can take public transport are much more chippy. And it saves fuel for the vehicles that actually need to use it (for freight, emergency, disabled, farms etc)

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    I'm a Yankee, but my lifetime cost analysis has been up and down since I got it. Gasoline went down, power went up, and it wasn't looking good, but now gasoline is back up and it's positive versus a similar normal F-150 again. But it's been a better truck for my use-case the entire time, so I'll have that anyway.

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