Stop Worrying and Love the F-150 Lightning

1. Start with the price—how could you not? The Ford F-150 Lightning, the new electric version of the ur–American pickup truck, will go on sale next spring for $39,974. Because Ford vehicles still qualify for the federal EV tax credit, most Americans will pay a little less than $32,500 for this truck.

Thirty-two grand after subsidies—an astonishing price. For years, climate-concerned transportation experts have sought to make electric vehicles cost the same or less than their internal-combustion cousins. The F-150 Lightning is nearly there. In January, the average new car purchase in the United States crossed the $40,000 mark; the Lightning is well below that bar, and inhabits the same neighborhood as Toyota’s RAV4 Hybrid, Jeep’s Gladiator pickup, and the Honda Odyssey. After subsidies, the electric F-150 is only about $4,000 more than its gas-burning twin. The entry-level electric model claims 563 horsepower and a respectable 230 miles of range, and it immediately sits among the least expensive electric vehicles on the market: Tesla’s Model 3, with 260 miles of range, sells for $39,490 (but does not qualify for federal subsidies).

2. But it isn’t any electric car. It’s a Ford F-150, the country’s best-selling vehicle in every year since Donkey Kong debuted and Ronald Reagan entered the White House. One in every 16 vehicles on American roads is an F-150, and it is the most used vehicle in 39 states, according to a Boston Consulting Group study commissioned by Ford. “There’s lots of different kinds of sodas; there’s only one Coke. There’s lots of different electric pickup trucks, but there’s only one F-150,” Jim Farley, Ford’s chief executive, told me, which may sound immodest but actually borders on understatement: Receipts from F-Series trucks alone exceed Coca-Cola’s annual corporate revenue; that of every major U.S. sports league, combined; or Disney’s global theme-park business. According to the same BCG study, 8 percent of the U.S. labor force uses an F-Series truck in their daily job.

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