On the other hand, I wonder if it will be able to compete with ICE trucks for pretty standard truck-things like towing. If it's anything like my Tesla, the range is going to fall off precipitously the moment anything touches that hitch, and if you're not graced with a California winter, doubly so (it's really a shame Tesla puts so much of its engineering in one locale or else it might've been more pressing to solve for this). And I'm guessing public chargers with room for a trailer/boat/etc are few and far between.

One test[0] put it at roughly half the range (150-160 miles) when towing near its rating of 10,000 lbs.

Personally I don't tow anything, I just use the bed to haul stuff, so I would probably see a minimal loss of range. Also, inter-city travel is unlikely to be affected as long as you can get back home at the end of the day.

[0] https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2022-ford-f150-lightning-...

> One test[0] put it at roughly half the range (150-160 miles) when towing near its rating of 10,000 lbs.

That's not bad.

> Also, inter-city travel is unlikely to be affected as long as you can get back home at the end of the day.

Agreed, but stuff like camping and boating is going to be limited, which is too bad because a giant battery would really open up the options for camping.

This isn't a truck for people gallivanting across the country with a camper in tow or the kind of guy that the local Sunbelt Rentals manager is on a first name basis with.

This is a truck for someone who has a commuter sedan and a Toyota Tacoma or Honda Odyssey parked in their garage somewhere the houses cost a million bucks and there are more Black Lives Matter signs than black people, i.e. the kind of person who would have bought a crew cab half ton a decade ago if daily driving one didn't make them feel like a backwards hick poisoning the climate.

I'm sure it will "do truck stuff" as well as any other F150 (OEMs don't play fast and loose with the reputation of flagship products like the F150) but the range will obviously be subject to the same tradeoffs as every other EV. but these are demographics that break out in a cold sweat at the idea of cramming five people in a compact car. They're gonna use the thing at a fraction of it's capability. Towing 10k will be a once a year thing if that. That should be fine for now as most buyers will just want to tow to home depot or the boat ramp.

The range will creep up over the coming years as batteries get better until finally the EV truck also makes sense guy who's towing the camper cross country.

I definitely know a lot of people who have felt torn between their guilt about ruining the planet with their gas guzzling SUVs and buying an electric vehicle from a company whose founder--though he supports gay marriage, drug legalization, environment, immigration, science, etc--says snarky things on the Internet. They would leap at the opportunity to buy a large electric vehicle from a company whose founder merely bought a newspaper and used it to spread racist propaganda.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford#Antisemitism_and_Th...

Actually this is a great truck for people "that the local Sunbelt Rentals manager is on a first name basis with." They often are working on projects with a generator, and typically are not far from where they sleep at night. The truck hauls tools from the hotel where they spent the night to the job and that is about it. Then they plug the tools into a generator - which this truck is.