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The truck was fine. The expectations were wrong.
Ford discontinued the F-150 Lightning last December, citing weak demand. Today it's one of the fastest-selling used EVs in the country at a price roughly double the other top sellers.
Those contrasting points help to illustrate that the Lightning may have failed to engage its intended customer, but it didn’t fail as an electric truck.
Sam Vesely sells Ford trucks in Cookeville, Tennessee, midway between Nashville and Knoxville, where pickups are 40% of the store's volume. His customers are construction crews, pipeliners, and farmers, so he seemed like the right person to ask what happened, because his customers are exactly the ones the Lightning was built to convert.
His read on the product itself isn't what you'd expect from a truck dealer in Tennessee.
"The driving experience of a Lightning is miles better than a regular F-150," Vesely told us. Smoother, quieter, faster, and far less tiring in traffic. "It makes driving a truck in the city a completely different experience. It feels like you're driving a way smaller vehicle."
Then what went wrong?
"It could tow, but only 100, 150 miles when you're towing," he said. "Whereas a regular F-150 can do 400 to 600 miles." In summary: "It was a full-size pickup truck that couldn't do full-size pickup truck things. And if you're trying to target that buyer, it's just not going to work.”
The Lightning was engineered to convert the existing F-150 owner. Same body, same trim ladder, an interior Vesely describes as copy-and-paste from the gas truck. "The average regular truck buyer doesn't want this completely different vehicle."
But full-size truck buyers judge a truck by its hardest day, not its average one.
Compare that to other companies building an electric pickup:
Rivian went after the outdoor-lifestyle buyer at a premium.
Slate is taking reservations for a roughly $25,000 truck with about 200 miles of range and no screen or radio.
Telo is building something tiny and clever for people who need a bed in a city-sized footprint.
None of them is trying to talk an F-250 owner out of their F-250.
Ford's next attempt doesn't make that mistake. The mid-size electric truck, called Fathom / Ranchero, is Ranger-sized with RAV4-ish interior room, 300-plus miles of range, and a $30,000 target. Vesely doesn't see it as a Lightning replacement at all, rather seeing it land with Maverick shoppers and people cross-shopping a CRV or an IONIQ 5.
"It is going to be one of the most popular products that Ford is going to sell.”
From the Market
The Lightning's second job.
A used F150 Lightning is especially attractive right now when you look at what you get.
The extended-range Lightning holds more than 130 kWh. A Tesla Powerwall holds about 13 kWh and runs about $9,000 in hardware, more than $12,000 installed. Matching the truck's pack takes about ten of them, north of $100,000 installed.
Today the average used Lightning sells for $44,200. Add the home integration hardware and the truck backs up a typical home for 3+ days.
The battery that made it a hard sell as a truck is the reason it's a bargain as a used vehicle + giant generator.
Ask Recurrent
Question: "How much range does towing actually cost me?"
Manufacturers generally rate towing range at about half of normal range, with a load up to 80% of capacity. While that compares to what Recurrent employees see with their electric trucks, other testing sites (Consumer Reports, Car and Driver, Edmunds) warn that it can be worse depending on towing weight and terrain.
Keep in mind where the charging port is located while towing. Rivian and Ford put it toward the front of the truck, so you can nose into the charging station, while Chevrolet put it near the back wheel.
What’s your EV worth this week?
The Lightning is the loudest example, but it isn't the only EV whose value moved this year. Discontinued models, lease-return waves, and gas prices are all pulling in different directions, and the only way to know your number is to see real offers.
Get competing bids from vetted buyers in hours.
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