I haven't read much into the reveal yet, but I have a good bit of ownership experience with plug-in hybrids and EVs. I am surprised the effiiciency seems to be as low as 500~ Wh/mi. Ford did a good job accurately rating the Mach-E, so hopefully the Lightning gets the same treatment. Tesla on the otherhand consistently overestimates its cars using optimistic figures that are rarely achievable real-world. Owning the Lightning as a grocery getting dad-mobile will be fine, but if you are trying to do any towing with it, good luck is all I have to say. EVs are terrible at towing, and you will be lucky to get 100 miles of range near its max load (extended-range version). Even less if it's cold. And as others have mentioned, the EV charging infrastructure is an absolute joke right now. That's one nice thing about Telsa - how seamless and broad their charging network is to use. Not exactly an abundance of public chargers around, and many are on proprietary networks where you'll need multiple accounts set up to use them. A lot of these networks charge stupid prices per kWh as well (nowhere near the rates you pay to charge at home). Traveling/charging an EV on networks as they are priced right now is no cheaper than gas, and likely more expensive than gas when towing. Chargers are typically placed in highways and urban areas as well, so good luck towing your boat or camper out to BFE - it's just not going to happen.
I'm not an EV hater. Between my wife and I, we've had 3 Teslas and a few PHEVs (she currently drives a Pacifica PHEV, and we love it). EVs will work well for a lot of people, particularly those who can charge at home. But in terms of the worker who needs a vehicle they can reliably and quickly keep "fueled" or the family who wants to tow their toys around, the tech and infrastructure is nowhere near there yet.
I’m curious about how well the A/C system works and how much drain it has on the overall distance that can be traveled in summer months. Most of my travels are in and between Houston and New Orleans so pretty hot and humid most of the year. What is everyone’s experience with EV A/C performance, especially in traffic?
EV A/C works far better than combustion engine A/C because they're all using electrically driven variable speed compressors. Power draw is quite low since it's variable, and it works just as well at 80 MPH as it does idling in traffic, unlike an engine belt-driven A/C where the A/C performs noticeably better when you aren't idling.