2025 Ford Lightning "Flash"

Joined
Feb 26, 2019
Messages
139
Location
Central Kentucky
I would never buy one. WAY too many expensive components on these. Yes, all trucks are getting expensive. But the BlueCruise cameras, battery pack, electric motors, one-off construction, etc. etc. etc. on the Lightning are all things that are probably insanely expensive. And, these have zero resale value. Even my lease is projected to lose $40,000 in value (!) So owning one of these long term is a huge no-no for me.

However, I did lease one. 2025 Lightning in the "Flash" trim. Window sticker shows 5-21-25 but door jamb placard shows 06/25 so the truck rolled off the line around two months ago. It's FRESH. I had no intention of getting an EV when I showed up at the dealership Saturday. Actually went there to look at Broncos and Rangers with the 2.3L EcoBoost. But after they showed me the numbers and I realized how much I could save with the Lightning I started to entertain the idea. And then they told me that Ford will pay to install a 240v fast charger at my house which sealed the deal.

I only have one weekend of driving under my belt, so this opinion is very early, but....

Things I do not like :

- 15" screen sucks. I would MUCH prefer to have the 12" screen and its associated physical buttons. The 15" screen makes it far too distracting to perform basic functions like adjusting HVAC controls, etc.
- Apparently in "Job 2" production the Flash trim level lost a lot of standard equipment, and that equipment is stuff that I would have used a LOT. Tailgate step, door entry keypad, wireless phone charging pad, electronic locking diff, etc. etc. Sigh...
- Too much redundancy in the driving aids. I hate the "lane centering", but there's also "lane keeping". So which do I turn off to make the truck stop controlling the steering wheel?? It's maddening how long the driving aids list is to sift through.
- The adaptive cruise is apparently tied to the BlueCruise hands free stuff, so that I can't use adaptive cruise without keeping my hands at the 10 and 2 position on the wheel constantly. This is annoying and fatiguing on longer drives.
- Steering/handling has a lot of "torque steer" present. I don't yet know if this is because of the AWD, the regenerative braking, or a combo of both. But it feels disconcerting at times.
- No Homelink buttons in a $72,000 truck??
- I'm still very concerned that our 150 to 250 mile one way trips to camp sites are going to be a disaster with the camper behind us, because charging stations are hard to find, hard to navigate with a trailer in tow, and take 45 minutes minimum for charging.

Things I do like:

- Seats are SOOOO much better in the 2023+ trucks. Even the wife loves the comfort and that's really saying something because normally she would b*tch about it if they hung her with a silk rope.
- Ride quality is very good.
- Lots of power for passing or merging onto the interstate. Feels almost just like the tuned and diet planned diesel I traded for it.
- No more oil filters, oil changes, etc.
- 2,003 lbs. of payload is very good for a "1/2 ton" truck.
- I feel like the gauge cluster provides very good information to the driver about what's going on with the battery capacity and range.
- 360° camera system is so nice and truly useful.
- Being able to see the charge status, lock the doors, unlock the doors, etc. via the Ford Pass phone app is very convenient.
- The Frunk is very useful and adds real cargo space for our needs.
- Drivability (throttle response and linear feel, brake feel, etc.) is perfect and is exactly like my Ford diesel truck which was also perfect. Ford nailed it.

At the end of the day, you know that it's a nice truck when my wife openly and verbally praises it. However, she and I both are reserving our final thoughts until we see how daily life goes with this truck over a long period of time. If charging stations were on every corner like diesel stations are, and if those charging stations would accommodate a trailer, and if those charging stations would fully charge the truck in less than 30 mintues I would have no fears or reservations about this truck at all. But unfortunately that's not the case so there will be sacrifices made to use this EV and only time will tell if those sacrifices keep us from enjoying the activities in life we'd normally do.
 
So the touchy-feely stuff is kinda a wash but of the 2 truck things you mention, towing range and payload, you're apprehensive about the towing range and that's important to you. Hope it works out, time will tell how the plusses and minuses stack up. Hope the good deal outweighs the inconveniences long term.
 
Congrats on the new vehicle. Plugshare has a filter that will allow you to search for pull-through charging sites. Just know that EV charging will take a bit more planning, especially if you plan to tow. Assume a 50% range cut with the camper hooked up if it's not a pop up or aerodynamic design. I would have recommended a Silverado or Sierra because the batteries on those are much larger. But if you're only going 250 miles that should be doable with a single charging stop if you keep your speed down. Plan on charging to 100% before every towing trip. Get a Tesla Supercharger adapter and create a Tesla account. Their chargers are more ubiquitous and more reliable. With home charging, you can save a lot of money on fuel, but since it's a lease I'm guessing you're not doing a ton of miles. See if your utility offers an off-peak charging rate for even bigger savings.
 
Congrats on the new Lightning!

Just picked up a new 2025 Lightning Lariat yesterday, also took advantage of the phenomenal lease deals and traded in my '22 F-150. Ended up with a 48 month lease with 19.5k miles per year, the price was almost too good to pass up, especially in conjunction with the "free" home charger install, and cheap electricity ($0.13/kWh here).

Been very impressed so far, the Lariat hits the mark on all of the "nice" features and creature comforts. We shall see how things pan out with regard to the home charger install, along with charging on road trips, etc.

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Tesla Supercharger Adapter will solve your charging concerns on road trips. You can go with the OEM or name brand aftermarket like Lectron or A2Z. Avoid cheap no name ones on Amazon.
 
Tesla Supercharger Adapter will solve your charging concerns on road trips. You can go with the OEM or name brand aftermarket like Lectron or A2Z. Avoid cheap no name ones on Amazon.
I was surprised to see that mine came with the Ford OEM NACS to CCS adapter. Was not disclosed at all, but I'll take it! Combine that with early morning Supercharging being only a few cents higher than we pay Entergy for electricity, this'll be nice until I get my "free" Ford charger installed at the house.

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Well a few weeks in I'm liking this truck more than I expected. Die hard and old fashioned gas and diesel guy here. But I have to say, this Lightning is so nice. Electrician is coming tomorrow to mount my level 2 charger in the garage. I'm also going to put a 40 amp 240 volt outlet in my barn so I can charge the truck down there if I want. I have to shoe-horn the truck into my residential garage and it's a bit of a pain.

Just took a 4 hour round trip to the lake with some friends last weekend and then drove the truck to work the next day 40 miles round trip all for a total of $13 in electricity. That's SO much better than paying $3.20 a gallon for diesel.

The power this thing has is ridiculous. If you stomp it, it'll spin front and rear tires as it fights for traction up to 60 MPH in around 4 seconds. After that it keeps pulling like a train until you let out of it. Crazy....

The "Dynamic Bending" LED headlights are the best I've ever seen in a production pickup truck. They light up the night like a search light. And the auto high beams are nice too.

It's probably the best riding truck I've ever had too, despite having just shy of 5,000 lbs. of rear axle weight rating and 2,030 lbs. of payload. Wife love it and that's really saying something!

So far, every road I've been on and every place I've gone has averaged 2.7 to 2.8 miles per kWh which ain't bad for a pickup truck!
 
Congrats on the new Lightning!

Just picked up a new 2025 Lightning Lariat yesterday, also took advantage of the phenomenal lease deals and traded in my '22 F-150. Ended up with a 48 month lease with 19.5k miles per year, the price was almost too good to pass up, especially in conjunction with the "free" home charger install, and cheap electricity ($0.13/kWh here).

Been very impressed so far, the Lariat hits the mark on all of the "nice" features and creature comforts. We shall see how things pan out with regard to the home charger install, along with charging on road trips, etc.

View attachment 298084
When you day free home charger install in quotes does Ford roll it into the price?
 
When you day free home charger install in quotes does Ford roll it into the price?
From the surface, no — I had a choice between a home charger with installation including permitting, etc., or a $500 rebate. I guess that makes the turnkey charger install $500, which is a pretty good deal.
 
Well a few weeks in I'm liking this truck more than I expected. Die hard and old fashioned gas and diesel guy here. But I have to say, this Lightning is so nice. Electrician is coming tomorrow to mount my level 2 charger in the garage. I'm also going to put a 40 amp 240 volt outlet in my barn so I can charge the truck down there if I want. I have to shoe-horn the truck into my residential garage and it's a bit of a pain.

Just took a 4 hour round trip to the lake with some friends last weekend and then drove the truck to work the next day 40 miles round trip all for a total of $13 in electricity. That's SO much better than paying $3.20 a gallon for diesel.

The power this thing has is ridiculous. If you stomp it, it'll spin front and rear tires as it fights for traction up to 60 MPH in around 4 seconds. After that it keeps pulling like a train until you let out of it. Crazy....

The "Dynamic Bending" LED headlights are the best I've ever seen in a production pickup truck. They light up the night like a search light. And the auto high beams are nice too.

It's probably the best riding truck I've ever had too, despite having just shy of 5,000 lbs. of rear axle weight rating and 2,030 lbs. of payload. Wife love it and that's really saying something!

So far, every road I've been on and every place I've gone has averaged 2.7 to 2.8 miles per kWh which ain't bad for a pickup truck!
That’s pretty good efficiency for the Lightning!
 
From the surface, no — I had a choice between a home charger with installation including permitting, etc., or a $500 rebate. I guess that makes the turnkey charger install $500, which is a pretty good deal.

Yeah. The charger they sent me is the Emporia 48V hardwired unit. I looked it up and it normally sells for around $500. Then they had two electricians come to my house and spend 3.5 hours of labor installing it. Then you've got materials (conduit, wire, breaker, etc.) which are expensive items these days too. When it was all said and done I did not get to see the total invoice, but I'm betting that it would have been around $2,000. Ford covered it all. I paid $0.00.

On top of that, between the tax credit, Ford discounts, and dealer discounts they took about $13,500 off the MSRP of the truck.

To me it was an outstanding deal.

The fact that my insurance decreased $350/year was just a cherry on top.

Last night I charged from 52% to 90% and the Emporia app showed that it cost me about $8 bucks. Absolutely fantastic.

What will be intriguing is winter. How will this truck handle below zero temps, snow, and ice? Will the cabin be warm enough? Will the range suffer greatly? That'll be interesting. But for now I'm loving this thing. It might end up being the best truck I've ever had.
 
Yeah. The charger they sent me is the Emporia 48V hardwired unit. I looked it up and it normally sells for around $500. Then they had two electricians come to my house and spend 3.5 hours of labor installing it. Then you've got materials (conduit, wire, breaker, etc.) which are expensive items these days too. When it was all said and done I did not get to see the total invoice, but I'm betting that it would have been around $2,000. Ford covered it all. I paid $0.00.

On top of that, between the tax credit, Ford discounts, and dealer discounts they took about $13,500 off the MSRP of the truck.

To me it was an outstanding deal.

The fact that my insurance decreased $350/year was just a cherry on top.

Last night I charged from 52% to 90% and the Emporia app showed that it cost me about $8 bucks. Absolutely fantastic.

What will be intriguing is winter. How will this truck handle below zero temps, snow, and ice? Will the cabin be warm enough? Will the range suffer greatly? That'll be interesting. But for now I'm loving this thing. It might end up being the best truck I've ever had.
Just got my email from Qmerit about the charger, they are sending me the same model. Setting up the install quote was pretty easy, hopefully it is smooth sailing from here. I am not a big fan of how costly the level3 charging is, but I should only have to use temporarily.
 
Things I do not like :

- 15" screen sucks. I would MUCH prefer to have the 12" screen and its associated physical buttons. The 15" screen makes it far too distracting to perform basic functions like adjusting HVAC controls, etc.
- Apparently in "Job 2" production the Flash trim level lost a lot of standard equipment, and that equipment is stuff that I would have used a LOT. Tailgate step, door entry keypad, wireless phone charging pad, electronic locking diff, etc. etc. Sigh...
- Too much redundancy in the driving aids. I hate the "lane centering", but there's also "lane keeping". So which do I turn off to make the truck stop controlling the steering wheel?? It's maddening how long the driving aids list is to sift through.
- The adaptive cruise is apparently tied to the BlueCruise hands free stuff, so that I can't use adaptive cruise without keeping my hands at the 10 and 2 position on the wheel constantly. This is annoying and fatiguing on longer drives.
- Steering/handling has a lot of "torque steer" present. I don't yet know if this is because of the AWD, the regenerative braking, or a combo of both. But it feels disconcerting at times.
- No Homelink buttons in a $72,000 truck??
- I'm still very concerned that our 150 to 250 mile one way trips to camp sites are going to be a disaster with the camper behind us, because charging stations are hard to find, hard to navigate with a trailer in tow, and take 45 minutes minimum for charging.
  • My wife's Mach-E has the 15" screen and I prefer it. There's too many buttons on my truck with the 12" screen. Buttons for buttons. Give me the big screen.
  • I agree on the de-contenting, Ford's been taking stuff out ever since they started making these trucks.
  • I like the lane keeping when it turns me away from the fog line. But I'm a technologist, not everyone likes it.
  • Adaptive cruise works on steering wheel side to side torque. Just keep a finger on the wheel and if it starts nagging you, a very slight tug will fix it.
  • Torque steer is because of the AWD and it is very noticable on the Lightning, especially if you give it the beans and you're not going straight. Hardly noticable at all on the AWD Mach-E though, as a contrast from the same manufacturer.
  • Homelink can be a security threat. You should only have it if you park in the garage 100% of the time. IMO and $0.02. I'm glad it's gone. I can open the garage door by voice using Alexa if I want, with a little bit of back end integration. My truck is parked outside so I don't really care enough to do it, I have to get out anyway.
  • You're going to need an intermediate charge on a 250 mile trip with a camper. Use abetterrouteplanner.com to map out your stops, it's the best tool out there, way better than Ford's built in stuff. Set the consumption in the 1.2kwh/mi range and go from there.
  • I agree on all your likes.
 
  • My wife's Mach-E has the 15" screen and I prefer it. There's too many buttons on my truck with the 12" screen. Buttons for buttons. Give me the big screen.
  • I agree on the de-contenting, Ford's been taking stuff out ever since they started making these trucks.
  • I like the lane keeping when it turns me away from the fog line. But I'm a technologist, not everyone likes it.
  • Adaptive cruise works on steering wheel side to side torque. Just keep a finger on the wheel and if it starts nagging you, a very slight tug will fix it.
  • Torque steer is because of the AWD and it is very noticable on the Lightning, especially if you give it the beans and you're not going straight. Hardly noticable at all on the AWD Mach-E though, as a contrast from the same manufacturer.
  • Homelink can be a security threat. You should only have it if you park in the garage 100% of the time. IMO and $0.02. I'm glad it's gone. I can open the garage door by voice using Alexa if I want, with a little bit of back end integration. My truck is parked outside so I don't really care enough to do it, I have to get out anyway.
  • You're going to need an intermediate charge on a 250 mile trip with a camper. Use abetterrouteplanner.com to map out your stops, it's the best tool out there, way better than Ford's built in stuff. Set the consumption in the 1.2kwh/mi range and go from there.
  • I agree on all your likes.
Interesting that the F150 exhibits a bit of torque steer. I've heard that being the case with the new Y AWD, but I haven't really pushed my wife's car. The Y Performance will actually go into a hint of power over steer with hard throttle in a corner even in sport mode with no track settings or reduced traction control.
 
Emporia 48V hardwired unit.

I meant to type 48 amp. The electrician wired up a 60 amp circuit, the charger only uses 48 amps of that. The truck apparently can handle a maximum of 48 amps on AC charging.

As far as torque steer, it's VERY noticeable on F-150 Lightning. Even when turning at low speed in a parking lot. The feeling reminds me of having a traditional 4x4 that's in 4-high. You can feel the front trying to resist your hands a bit. I don't consider it a problem, just something to get used to.

I bought a 15' generator cord with NEMA 14-30 male and female ends from Amazon for around $25 bucks. My house is already set up with a NEMA 14-30 outlet. So, I can plug my truck into the house during power outages. That'll be nice.
 
I meant to type 48 amp. The electrician wired up a 60 amp circuit, the charger only uses 48 amps of that. The truck apparently can handle a maximum of 48 amps on AC charging.
80% of the circuit's rated capacity is NEC for the 100% duty cycle you get when charging an EV. You can have 60A for a short duration but only 48A perpetually.
 
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