2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is a brawny, battery-powered bargain | Hacker News Reader

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is a brawny, battery-powered bargain

cnet.com

22 pointsrawgabbit8 comments

Don’t bother if you’re looking for journalism. They just made all that shit up based on the press releases, with absolutely no evidence of weather in the yard, including the pricing, will be anywhere close to what they claim. The vehicle won’t be available for at least a year and it’s full of “will“ and “could” and “promises”. And the vast majority of the features they discuss are of course upgrades which will bring it far past the so-called bargain price, as in the $70-$90k range.

I felt dirty when I finished the article.

It reads exactly like a paid article. The higher end rags are more subtle than this nowadays. They inject the narrative in passing, offhand, as if it was a given. Like a pill shoved in the middle of a treat. This marks CNET as a low end rag.

On the other hand, the Tesla oriented sites are often like this on Tesla’s side. The difference is that they aren’t institution sanctioned unlike the above article.

I hate that we are no better culturally than the shit periods of history that I read about. No better than the ancient Greeks and their wars between classes. No better than the yellow journalism period when we created fake news to start wars.

“weather in the yard” was meant to read “whether anything in the article“. Sorry, recovering from an operation this morning and did not notice Siri’s transcription error.

It does sound good… but remember software quality and charging networks matter for most people.

Also, how will the range actually be when you tow something. Curious how this will pan out

Would be great to get some controlled estimates. There are many anecdotal tests, YouTube videos, etc. Here[1] is a typical example where a Tesla Model Y tows two bikes and trailer (totaling 1000lbs/450kg) and the range drops to around 40% of normal.

[1] https://www.carscoops.com/2021/02/you-can-tow-with-a-tesla-m...

I'm guessing that has more to do with the aerodynamics of the trailer than its weight. Electric vehicles are much more efficient at getting power to the wheels than gas-powered ones [1], so aerodynamic drag plays a larger factor in range. The Model Y has a super-low drag coefficient of 0.23, and I wouldn't be surprised if the trailer adds considerably more drag than the car itself.

[1] https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv-ev.shtml

> charging networks matter for most people

Yes, best to go with the common charging standard so you can easily use (almost) all charging networks with no adapters. The F-150 is CCS so it's got that covered.

> Also, how will the range actually be when you tow something.

Probably poor. Engineering Explained did a good video on EV towing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4W-P5aCWJs

Nice ad.

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