GRANITE FALLS, Wash. — The signal within the Verlot Ranger Station defined to guests an necessary backcountry rule, and it answered the query of why Sasquatch stays so elusive: “Bigfoot’s been doing it for years: Depart no hint.”
The signal additionally made us understand we have been having fun with this Saturday afternoon lap of the Mountain Loop Freeway within the North Cascades in a leave-no-trace automobile: a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT.
The absence of emissions from the truck would usually assist us really feel one with nature out right here among the many rocks and bushes. However on this present day, what we prevented spewing from a tailpipe was negligible in comparison with what else was taking place round us. This being late summer season/early fall within the Northwest, a wildfire had sprung up in a single day alongside U.S. Freeway 2 west of Stevens Cross. That’s about 20 miles south of the place we have been on the Mountain Loop.
The Bolt Creek fireplace was not shut sufficient to be a direct risk, however the regular restorative dose of crisp mountain air and clear vistas on a backcountry outing wasn’t going to be doable. The peaks have been shrouded in smoke, and at one level within the afternoon the sky glowed an ominous purple. This eased as we headed north, away from the fireplace. As of this writing, the Bolt Creek fireplace has burned greater than 13,000 acres, is way from contained, and a pall of smoke hangs over the Seattle space for weeks.
The F-150 Lightning received sprinkled with falling ash, which stood out towards its darkish Antimatter Blue paint. Which made me understand one bizarre benefit of EVs that perhaps nobody has thought-about earlier than: If ever one other volcano blows round right here — Rainier, Baker, Glacier Peak, take your decide, we have loads — electrical vehicles don’t have engine air filters and internals to foul. Again in 1980, Mount St. Helens ashfall trashed lots of autos. EVs, the vehicles of the apocalypse!
Authorities say the Bolt Creek fireplace seems to have been brought on by people, quite than by lightning — simply as mankind has had a hand in creating the new, dry local weather situations that feed the flames. It is a reminder why the auto business is transitioning to EVs within the first place. I’ve lived within the Northwest for practically 40 years. Solely prior to now 5 – 6 years have Western Washington summer season skies been choked with wildfire smoke. It is now an annual occasion. The brand new normal-not-normal.
This Lightning was in XLT trim. We’ve written loads about Ford’s EV truck, however that is the primary XLT we’ve gotten our palms on for quite a lot of minutes. It is a step above the essential Lightning Professional work truck, with the 2022 XLT beginning at $54,769 together with the $1,795 vacation spot charge. That’s $7,500 greater than the Professional, and it buys you extra customary gear that features the BoxLink cargo administration system, 360-degree cameras, the distinctive Lightning entrance lighting, working boards, heated facet mirrors, cabin fold-out work floor and extra. The Professional, being a piece truck, has vinyl seats, whereas the XLT has material. And the XLT has the potential so as to add fairly a couple of extra choices — specifically, the extended-range battery.
This explicit XLT had that 131-kWh battery, a $10,000 improve that gives an EPA-estimated 320 miles of vary in XLT (300 miles in Lariat). Including the large battery requires including the 312A gear group for one more $9,500, which incorporates 20-inch darkish carbonized wheels, 9.6-kW ProPower, extra superior Co-Pilot 360 driver assists, approach-detection cabin entry, heated steering wheel and 10-way driver seat, and an influence tailgate with step and work floor. Different choices have been the Tow Know-how Bundle at $1,395 (which you’ll hear extra about in our upcoming Tech of the Yr testing), lockable underseat storage at $225 and spray-in bedliner at $595.
Grand whole, $76,484.
That’s proper, $76K, and material seats. Ford says the Lariat is the extra standard trim, as a couple of grand extra will get you leather-based. Should you’re consuming a cow, why choke on the tail?
However wait, this simply in: Ford final week introduced large worth will increase on 2023 Lightnings that can change the entire equation. Base worth for a Professional will likely be over $54,000 with vacation spot charge, MSRP for the XLT is a bit below $62,000, and should you have been equipping this explicit 2022 press truck as a 2023 mannequin, it might value $85,484 — that is a $9,000 worth improve over the truck we’re driving on this assessment.
One different merchandise of word: For 2023, Ford’s configurator now lists the charging wire as a $500 prechecked “possibility.” It was merely customary gear earlier than.
The Lightning is eligible for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score, although the foundations would seem to exclude the Platinum trim, whose $98,219 beginning MSRP exceeds by a mile the brand new $80,000 worth cap for vehicles and SUVs. You are an possibility or two away from a $100,000 truck.
With the dialogue of worth unpleasantness out of the best way, let’s resume our drive. Now, the XLT has good material seats, and the Lightning was gratifying to drive and spend time in, seemingly no totally different than some other F-150 so long as you didn’t count on engine noise, do not electronically elevate the hood to find the huge frunk, and weren’t wanting ahead to blowing a hundo on a tank of gasoline.
Although the Lightning was a clean-air machine on a dirty-air day, there have been different causes to benefit from the journey. Regardless of the smoke scent and occasional flurry of ash, it was good to drive the Mountain Loop Freeway with the window down. (It’s not what you’ll name an precise freeway; an extended stretch of the Loop is unpaved.) With no sound apart from an often audible whine of motors and the crunch of tires on gravel, you might hear the Sauk River flowing alongside — and even birdsong. It was very similar to the expertise of driving a convertible, the place extra of your senses are engaged together with your environment in a manner they usually aren’t.
The GPS readouts of the nav display screen instructed us that the highway rose to 2,300 ft of elevation earlier than pacing the river downhill towards the logging and bluegrass city of Darrington. The Lightning’s dashboard EV gauge doesn’t inform you a particular battery proportion alongside the best way; presumably Ford does this on goal, as a result of with a 320-mile official vary estimate, a driver shouldn’t must sweat each proportion level like we used to with different EVs. Hoisting the Lightning’s 6,000 kilos up and down the hill expended a median of two.5 miles/kWh over a visit of 205 miles. Arriving residence and checking the truck’s startup animation, which is when the pc does briefly reveal a exact battery proportion, confirmed 40% cost remaining, with an estimated extra 125 miles of vary to go. Collectively, that’d be a complete of 330 miles on a single cost, beating the EPA estimate. With out elevation achieve and with the advantages of extra regen throughout around-town driving, it’d certainly do even higher.
With no 240-volt charger at residence, it took the XLT practically three days to sip its manner again to full cost from a 120-volt outlet — that’s the draw back of getting such an enormous battery. Clearly should you owned this truck you’d need to get an electrician in for an replace to your storage.
As soon as the Lightning was topped off, I pulled it again out of the barn to take some photos. It nonetheless had flakes of ash on it, and was typically soiled from the roadtrip. However a grimy truck is a cheerful truck. And a truck with clear emissions could be a comfortable factor too.
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