Ford F-150 Lightning review

And so to the fairground attraction part. Ford reckons ‘one-foot rollout’ 0-60mph standing starts (as is convention in the US) are possible in around 4.0sec. Far more importantly, it claims little-compromised, hard-grafting, truck-typical utility for the Lightning, too. While the toughest ICE F-150s have flatbed payloads ready to carry close to 1.5 metric tonnes of cargo and are rated to tow up to six tonnes, the Lightning is itself ready to carry a little over 800kg of load and can tow up to 4500kg.

The weight of the vehicle’s batteries is, of course, the biggest factor limiting its working capability. The F-150 Lightning is available exclusively with a ‘supercrew’ five-seater cab and a 5.5ft load bed. Our car weighed just over 3.1 tonnes, just over a tonne heavier than an equivalent V8.

But those batteries also grant the Lightning special abilities as a utility car – in serving as a high-output, de facto mobile power bank, which we will explore shortly – that other F-150s can’t match.

For suspension, independent axles appear front and rear, the EV junking the regular F-150’s live rear axle, and coil springs feature all round, with conventional passive gas-pressure shock absorbers (monotube at the front, twin tube at the rear) and anti-roll bars. 

So, while there are notes of pleasing sophistication about the F-150 Lightning’s ride at gentler speeds, there’s no great dynamic revelation to be experienced here simply for the replacement of this truck’s cart springs and live rear axle. Big is big, heavy is heavy – and, on UK roads especially, there’s no getting around either.

Comfort and isolation

You can still find surprising dynamic crudeness from some European-market pick-ups, many of which don’t approach a standard on ride comfort you would remotely associate with luxurious travel. The F-150 Lightning, however, isn’t so encumbered.

Rated as it is only to carry around 800kg of load, and running with coil springs and independent rear suspension, the Lightning clearly couldn’t be registered as a commercial vehicle in the UK in its current form, but that wouldn’t stop it serving as a fairly mild-mannered and pleasant passenger car.

Even in unloaded form, it feels soft and quite settled on the road, and in normal driving rides with little of the jostle and fidget of more ordinary pick-ups. There’s suppleness to the way the car deals with bumps and low and medium speeds, and quite good isolation from road surface noise too.

Bigger, sharper-edged inputs, as well as those taken at greater speed, remind you that you’re driving something with a separate chassis by clunking or shuddering just a little, however, and can also set up some gentle vertical body heave.

Off-road notes

The fitment of standard Continental ‘mud and sand’ tyres to our test car shows how committed the F-150 Lightning has been made to the right kind of off-road use.

Like most trucks it is intended for mixed surfaces, on dirt trails and when crossing fields, towing as necessary, but not for more extreme mud-plugging and rock crawling. You can see proof of that in the vehicle’s off-road clearance angles, which roughly equal those of a mid-sized SUV.

The Lightning’s sheer size and weight prevent it from go-anywhere-style off-road work. Its width is a significant factor in deterring you from narrower tracks and green lanes, and its weight a constant concern on steeper gradients with loose surfaces.

But traction was in generous supply when we tested the car on gravel and dry mud, the electric motors and electronics making it easy to mete power out accurately.