- ford adds details on the base work-truck version of the just-announced f-150 lightning electric pickup.
- picture sawing wood from your truck with the pro power onboard built-in ac power source, which offers up to 9.6 kilowatts of power that can be accessed through outlets in the bed, the cabin, and the locking front trunk, or frunk.
- the f-150 lightning pro will start at $39,974 plus a destination charge yet to be named, while the truck with the extended-range battery pack starts at $49,974 plus destination.
since unveiling its first all-electric pickup last week, ford has been repeating the message that the f-150 lightning does work. no where is that more obvious than in the f-150 lightning pro, a commercial customer trim version ford is announcing today.
unsurprisingly, most of the lightning pro’s technical features are shared with the consumer lightning. that means the same battery options of either the standard pack that should get 230 miles or an extended-range battery for 300 miles, the same 14.1 cubic feet frunk, and, perhaps most important for fleet operators trying to get jobs done (other than the vinyl seats) is the ability to run tools right from the truck.
pro power onboard is a built-in ac power source for the f-150 lightning and lightning pro. in talking up the standard lightning, ford is happy to explain that the truck’s pro power onboard can improve tailgates or power your home during an outage. for the lightning pro, ford said a single charge of the extended-range battery has "enough power to rip up to 30 miles of half-inch plywood." same hardware, different message.
in the lightning pro, the standard pro power feature offers 2.4 kilowatts of power through four trunk-based outlets, two in the cabin and two in the bed. the available 9.6-kilowatt pro power onboard option adds two more 120-volt and a 240-volt ac outlet in the bed. personal lightning owners can set limits so that their campsite usage won’t drain the battery too much to get home or to a nearby charging station. with the lightning pro, fleet managers can do the same for their trucks out on jobs, so that they can always make it back to the garage or somewhere where they can recharge.
the lightning pro comes as dual-motor with four-wheel drive. it will produce an expected 426 horsepower with the standard-range battery. with the extended-range pack, this number jumps to 563 horsepower.
the lightning pro will come in one body style: a full-size, four-door, five-passenger supercrew configuration with a 5.5-foot bed and a standard class iv hitch. inside, the lightning pro uses an intelligent range system that takes terrain, weather, cargo, and trailer load into account when it calculates how many miles are left in the battery. thanks to cloud connectivity and sync 4, the truck will recommend a visit to a charging station if the state of charge drops.
how much energy you can put into the pack depends on the charger used. with the standard-range f-150 lightning pro and the included 32-amp mobile charger, refilling the battery from 15 to 100 percent at 240 volts takes 14 hours. the time drops to 10 hours with the optional 48-amp ford connected charge station or the 80-amp ford charge station. on a 150-kw dc fast charger, going from 15 to 85 percent full takes 44 minutes (all times are longer with the extended range battery).
the f-150 lightning pro with the standard-range battery will start at an estimated $41,669, assuming the as yet unannounced destination charge is the same $1695 as that for the gas-powered f-150. choosing the extended-range pack adds $10,000 to the price. electric-vehicle incentives may also be available.
it’s not like ford’s commercial customers have been without any electric options. around a decade ago, ford and azure dynamics worked together on the transit connect electric, a plug-in version of the gas-powered transit connect delivery van. in late 2020, ford announced an all-electric version of the larger transit cargo van, which also offered pro power onboard and other features found in the lightning pro. but here's a solid additional choice.