Ford F-150 Lightning: Would We Buy This Electric Truck Again?

• We put 20,000 miles on a Ford F-150 Lightning over the course of 2.5 years.
• In that time, we did everything you can do with a truck: towed, hauled, road-tripped and used it as a daily driver.
• Would we buy the Lightning again? Read on to find out.

What we got

We preordered our F-150 Lightning as soon as Ford's order books opened. Our truck was a loaded Lariat trim level with the extended-range battery; standard equipment included things like LED headlights, a power tailgate, power front trunk, 60/40-split fold-up rear bench seats, a 360-degree camera system and a Class IV trailer hitch. We also had Ford's BlueCruise hands-free highway driving assistance tech, which required upgrading to the 511A equipment group that included things like heated rear seats, a towing tech package, a power-adjustable steering wheel, a moonroof and more.

All told, we spent $80,014 on our generously equipped 2022 F-150 Lightning. (Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.) A comparable F-150 Lightning costs around $82,000 today.

What we liked

The dual-motor powertrain in our F-150 Lightning produced 580 horsepower, which was more than enough oomph for city and highway driving alike. Several editors praised the Lightning for its, uh, lightning quick acceleration. At our test track, we recorded a 0-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds — not bad for a 6,745-pound pickup. The F-150 Lightning also ran through the quarter mile in 12.6 seconds at 105.8 mph.

The Lightning was also great when it came to towing. Ford equips its trucks with a lot of helpful towing tech and the Lightning is no different. In our truck, we could adjust the specs of the attached trailer in the touchscreen infotainment system so the truck could adjust its range calculations accordingly. You do lose a lot of range while towing, but it's not as bad as we expected — with a large 7,500-pound box trailer, we observed 130 miles of driving range.

Speaking of range, on the world-famous Edmunds EV Range Test, we observed 345 miles of total range — a 7.8% improvement over the EPA's 320-mile figure. Efficiency was also a boon; our truck used 43.7 kWh of energy per 100 miles, while the EPA estimated 48 kWh.

During charging stops, we appreciated the F-150 Lightning's fold-out center console table. It's a small workspace, but it's perfectly sized for typing on a laptop or eating a bit of lunch. Ford knows its truck owners use their pickups as work spaces, and the console table leans into this functionality.

What we didn't

Quick and smooth as our F-150 Lightning was on the road, it wasn't exactly pleasant to drive all the time. Several editors commented on the bouncy highway ride and noted that you'd feel every single pavement imperfection on city streets.

Our only other real complaints had to do with the realities of full-size electric pickup truck ownership. For starters, the Lightning's 131-kWh battery took for-ev-er to charge — though it's nothing compared to the 205-kWh Ultium batteries General Motors is using across its lineup. It's also complicated to charge while towing; you often have to disconnect the trailer to drive the F-150 into a charging space since pull-through options are rare.

Worry-free ownership

Over the course of 2.5 years, our F-150 Lightning ownership experience was largely worry-free. We had to take it to the dealership twice to have two recalls addressed, but aside from that, nothing else broke.

Electric vehicle residual values aren't great right now, so we expected to take quite a hit when it came time to sell our F-150 Lightning earlier this year. Remember the $80K we paid in 2022? We sold our truck for $40,000 with only 20,000 miles on the odometer. That's a pretty big hit. And to put that in context, our old Ford F-150 Hybrid — which was one year older than the Lightning and had twice as many miles — actually sold for slightly more.

Speaking of the F-150 Hybrid ...

Editor Jake Sundstrom published a story in April 2024 that expressed a sentiment many of us felt: We liked the Lightning just fine, but we'd rather live with our F-150 Hybrid. The Hybrid was plenty powerful, nicer to drive, easier to refuel, cost less to purchase, and was worth more in the end. Ford really nailed the F-150 Hybrid, and most of us would rather buy that.

But that's not to say the Lightning was in any way bad. It held up through 2.5 years of hard use and abuse and proved itself to be a work-ready pickup that just happened to be electric, rather than a lifestyle-focused vehicle like the Rivian R1T.

The electric truck landscape has certainly changed since we bought our Lightning, with newcomers from Chevrolet and GMC now on the road, and Ram's electric truck looming. Ford's first effort at an EV pickup was a stellar one, and we look forward to seeing — and testing — what the company is working on next.