The Ford F-150 Lightning is a huge hit. The vehicle is marketed as model year 2022 and won’t reach customers until 2023, but the launch has been an unqualified success.
Ford’s stock price, which has languished for as long as I’ve paid attention to it, reached a five year high. That’s a low bar for a raging bull market, but a real accomplishment for Ford. Perhaps more impressively, Ford’s stock has tripled in the last twelve months.
Ford started to gain momentum last year, with the announcement of the Mustang Mach-E, an electric SUV that wows. The F-150 Lightning shows Ford is serious about the future of electrification.
My Forbes.com colleague Sam Abuelsamid writes, “It is quicker off the line than any model in the history of the F-series,” and praises both its towing strength and off-road capabilities.
Reilly Brennan, arguably the highest-profile automotive venture capitalist is impressed.
“Not only is the price [starting under $40,000] surprising but the ideas around vehicle-to-home charging, frunk and power outlets speak to the utility of the truck in a way beyond typical EV announcements.”
Reilly Brennan, Future of Transportation
Alex Tabarrok, who is an economist and blogger, not an automotive gearhead, calls the Lightning, “An Electric Vehicle for Red America.”
I agree.
Ford is building an electric truck that Red America won’t just have to settle for, but one that will actually excite all of us.
David Silver 