![]() The electric Mustang Mach-E takes Ford in a whole new direction Ford is almost ready to take new F-150 Lightning orders - with a $7,000 price hike Regular F-150s have a 12-inch landscape center screen running Ford Sync 4 the Mustang Mach-E and the Lightning have a 15.5-inch portrait center screen running Sync 4A, which is the same as Sync 4 with the addition of touchscreen climate controls and widgets that fill out the vertical height of the display. That means, for now, we’re looking at Ford Sync, which, well, it’s Ford Sync. That new Android-based software isn’t shipping on any Ford vehicles until sometime next year, though, and probably not on this generation of F-150s at all. The Lightning is in some ways a dazzling technical achievement - a reliable mass-produced EV pickup truck that claims 300 miles of range and acceleration that let me keep up with a new Corvette Stingray in an impromptu highway showdown - but also a stopgap as Ford resets its entire software strategy around Android in partnership with Google. ![]() Reviewing the Lightning like a computer on wheels makes it clear that while there might be a lot of code in modern cars, there still isn’t a lot of thought about what makes a great user experience for a rolling computer. Ford’s Farley was explicit about it in his last Decoder appearance, saying that his goal was “a fully networked vehicle… like you said, a computer on wheels.” I talk to a lot of car CEOs on the Decoder podcast, and there’s a big idea that comes up consistently in all of those conversations: the notion that cars are becoming smartphones on wheels. ![]() The Lightning display can automatically switch between dark and light mode, which is nice. This is a very fast truck that is also a maddeningly slow computer. If you can find one to buy for a reasonable price and you’ve got a handle on charging for how you’ll use it, it’s clearly a better choice than a gas-powered truck.īut the Lightning is not without its issues - Ford can’t make enough to meet demand, just raised prices, and is still trying to get dealers to stop marking available units up by tens of thousands of dollars. Happily, the F-150 Lightning is a terrific F-150 - and a terrific truck. And, of course, there’s the little problem of convincing American truck buyers that an electric F-150 is still… an F-150. ![]() It’s also completely resetting its software strategy in a partnership with Google, with a big transition to Android Automotive and Google services coming in the future. Farley is cutting jobs from the gas division and investing in the EV division it’s no secret where he thinks the future lies.īut there are a lot of steps from here to there, and Ford still has to handle some of the basics, like expanding the charging network for the Lightning and Mustang Mach-E so it can compete with the Tesla Supercharger network. Ford CEO Jim Farley recently restructured the company into two divisions: Ford Blue, which will focus on gas-powered cars, and Ford Model E, which will be led by ex-Apple and Tesla exec Doug Field and develop EVs and software. The F-150 has been the bestselling vehicle in America for over 40 years now, which means an EV F-150 is a big step toward electrifying cars, period.īut it’s mainly a big step for Ford, which is rapidly undergoing a massive transformation into an electric car maker. The new electric F-150 Lightning is a big deal for Ford and, really, for the car industry at large.
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