Besides, I don’t understand how the power grid can handle so many electric cars. As we saw in Texas last year, peak power usage can cause extreme problems.
by comparison beefing up the grid should be easy, especially since it is easy to incentivize off peak car charging which drastically reduces how hard this is to do
A sharp increase in the number of electric vehicles will pose a very heavy strain on the grid at night when they recharge.
Washington state has plenty of hydro, but it’s a west coast market for the energy produced (surpluses can easily go to California) so our electricity prices are increasingly normal. A lot of wind production along the Columbia river, however.
Probably not what the new F-150 is aimed at then. I think they’re trying to show they can break into a rural off-road user. Not suburbia.
Most of the pickup trucks in the Lightning form factor (four door, short box, half ton) are bought by people living in suburbia because they make great family vehicles: comfortable passenger space, tons of storage for luggage and toys, good for the home renovation project, good in winter, can move a boat or jetski or ATV, ample power and braking for a comfortable drive.
Suburbia owners tend to only rarely combine cold weather travel with long distance travel. EVs can do each of those, but not both at the same time very well. Suburban owners don't tend to tow heavy often and usually not long distances (if they do they don't own an F-150, but rather something larger).
Rural and off-road users (which are distinct groups) need more range to handle inclement weather, longer average driving distance, more towing, rougher roads, and poor charging infrastructure. For example, many rural homes have electrical service that cannot be depended upon (outages are frequent and sometimes long) and may be weak (old houses may only have 65amp service). There may be no way to park the vehicle close enough to the house to access L2 charging. Parking a pickup truck in a garage is normally impossible.