How the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Electric powered Truck Is so Darn Low cost

Weeks following the electrical Lightning was unveiled to the community, people today are nevertheless talking about it, many thanks to its rather inexpensive pricing and sound efficiency. In simple fact, the Lightning is established to acquire the title as the quickest F-150 design thanks to its approximated 4.4-second -60-mph time. Credit history the truck’s two electrical motors, which provide 563 hp and 775 lb-ft of torque. The Lightning’s perfectly as its prolonged-range battery pack, meanwhile, offers an approximated driving assortment of 300 miles on a solitary demand.

How, then, did Ford manage to make the Lightning so economical?

The F-150 Lightning’s Been a Lengthy Time Coming

We had been stunned to master that Ford has prolonged wished to do an electric powered truck but required a higher density battery than these it experienced offered. “We could do passenger autos, not vehicles,” Darren Palmer, Ford’s common supervisor for electrical automobiles, mentioned at the Reuters Motor vehicle of the Long term 2021 convention.

The Lightning relies on a pouch-style lithium-ion battery pack and the substantial-density cells use a nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode chemistry with especially minimal cobalt loading. Ford shopped close to before going with SK Innovation, which is developing a new battery cell plant in Georgia. Ford is also establishing and tests its possess battery cells, with ideas to manufacture the important elements itself in the potential.

It is All About Scale

To achieve its focus on starting up selling price for the Lightning, Ford is leveraging the clout of the F-150—the very best-marketing truck for 44 decades. The important to transforming a legacy enterprise is to engage in to its strengths, Palmer reported, which in Ford’s case is scale.

The Lightning has considerably in common with the common F-150, such as the overall proportions of its taxi and bed. It also employs the identical seats and gearshift that folds out of the way to make area for a workspace amongst the seats. By maintaining the Lightning’s cargo box dimension’s the exact same as other F-150s, Ford affords fuel- and diesel-run F-150 owners the prospect to transfer their equipment and instruments to the Lightning, ought to they pick to buy the electrical truck.

The 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro is an entry-degree trim intended for professional shoppers who switch about 15 p.c of their fleet on a yearly basis. Palmer reported the same telematics from other F-150s carries in excess of to the electric work truck.

Long term Ford EVs Will Share Components

Ford designs to establish new electric car components (such as batteries, motors, regulate units, inverters, and chargers) to scale, and it will spread these items across a quantity of its upcoming electric powered autos. Even better for Ford is the actuality the enterprise is earning quite a few of these new parts in-home.

Extra savings occur courtesy of Ford’s selection to increase the Rouge Advanced in Dearborn, Michigan, which now will make other F-150 variants. The addition of a production line for the Lightning also permits Ford to tinker with the truck’s trim-specific capabilities, this sort of as its skateboard-like chassis and unbiased rear suspension. “We could modify the body and however get a great price from suppliers,” Palmer mentioned.