This week on the show Car guideour animators Antoine Joubert and Gabriel Gélinas test drive the Ford F-150 Lightning on the Mécaglisse track in Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci.
The 100% electric pickup is ahead of its rivals, the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and the Ram 1500 REV, which are slow to hit the market. Sure, there’s the GMC Hummer EV, but that’s more of an ostentatious vehicle than a consumer-focused one.
Photo: Antoine Joubert
Powerful and balanced
The trial version has a 131 kWh battery. It gives it a range of 515 kilometres, which is equivalent to an energy consumption of 29.8 kWh/100 km. Dynamically, power is 580 horsepower and torque is 775 lb-ft.
“The 0 to 100 km/h is done in [seulement] 4.8 seconds! It’s exceptional, especially considering the weight of 7,000 lbs,” says Gabriel. It underlines the balanced road behavior thanks to the distribution of the masses: 50% at the front and 50% at the rear.
Photo: Antoine Joubert
“It’s an extremely comfortable and well-balanced vehicle,” adds Antoine. The independent rear suspension does a wonderful job.” This configuration provides increased stability compared to gasoline models, he believes.
And towing?
This Lightning can pull up to 10,000 lbs. For the purposes of the exercise, a trailer with a load of 6,600 lbs. was attached in order to test the autonomy.
“After just over 70 km of travel, I can tell you that the Lightning is able to tow with greater ease than other Ford F-150s. For what? Because we have an instant couple which is very impressive”, explains Antoine.
Photo: Antoine Joubert
30 km further, Antoine makes a first observation: the autonomy drops twice as fast as expected. The average consumption, meanwhile, rose to 56 kWh/100 km…
For all the impressions of our experts, see the video capsule at the top of this article. Don’t miss the show Car Guide which takes place every Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on TVA!