As Earther ’s occupant Guy Who Has Opinions About Cars , I have take much pridefulness and joy sing Irish bull about the Cybertruck ( dystopian trash ) and the Hummer EV ( warmongering throwback nobody wants trash ) . With Ford officially unveiling its galvanizing interpretation of the F-150 , I am here once again to pass judgement .
That judgment is : let ’s goooooo !
The F-150 Lightning delivers something that neither the Cybertruck nor Hummer did : A fomite people might really require to drive . Yes , there are issues here such as the fact that you could make350 e - cycle batteriesforevery 1,800 - pound ( 815 - kg ) F-150 battery . And electrifying truck does n’t alter the fact that most the great unwashed do not actually need a pickup arm , that we could make do with minor cars or even the aforesaid tocopherol - bicycle for most personal trip ( to say nothing of public transit ) .
Image: Ford
But the realism is Americans like to push back motortruck . The Ford F-150 is the most pop fomite in the state and has been for multiple decades ( the second and third most popular vehicles in 2020were also trucks ) . Do I think this is silly ? Yes . Have I driven a pickup motortruck and thought it was fun ? Also yes . Do we need to electrify everything ASAP to have a shot at stave off the speculative impacts of clime modification ? Also yes .
aim more people ’s butt in the seats of galvanic car now can help keep off carbon emissions . That matters greatly ; a gross ton of carbon that does n’t make it into the atmosphere today mean one less fraction of a degree of heating plant in the future . It bring down the chance of us having to overly swear on unproven technology that sucks carbon paper from the sky or a rogue governance decide we require to jam the sun for chill the major planet . I ’m not saying electrifying the F-150 is exit to save us all . But making a vehicle that Americans are used to seeing galvanizing normalizes the idea that cars and truck do n’t need to run on gas ( and in fact , they should n’t any longer ! ) . That can help speed up the decarbonization of what is now the large informant of U.S. emissions .
That normalization could also depoliticize at least one facet of climate alteration . Polling shows thepopularity of pickupswith cautious elector in particular . An electric truck like the F-150 could start the room access slightly for , if not button-down clime activity , at the very least less opposition to function of it . Far be it from me to assume just faith will be the de facto Republican response , specially after President Joe Biden took anunder wraps Lightning for a spinand what we ’ve seen around theBurger Discourse . But we ’re doing optimistic today , hunky-dory ?
The F-150 also has features that make it attractive beyond “ large truck to drive to Home Depot . ” It has a long ton of power outlets to plug away things into , making it a giant battery on wheels . Ford claims the battery is so declamatory , it can in reality cater juice to your house for three days if the powerfulness goes out . During the Texas deep freeze and blackout this winter , a numeral ofelectric vehicle ownerstook to their cars to warm themselves up without the risk of carbon monoxide intoxication , so this is n’t some theoretical benefit .
finally , the F-150 is one piece of a puzzle of thefuture of transportation where everything is electrical . As Carnegie Mellon engineer Costa Samaras put it in atweet , this is a “ yes AND office . ” We need an electric hand truck , a vastly upgrade public transportation organization , tocopherol - wheel rebates , a Brobdingnagian flying charger web , dedicated wheel lanes in short neighborhoods , hell , whole street scheme closed to vehicle traffic . We need rooftop solar and biotic community wind . We need good zoning for more dense and walkable neighborhoods , improved proximity to said elevate public transit . We need Ford to barricade producing a throttle - power F-150 . We want the electric Humm … OK , actually we can stop there .
FordHome DepotJoe BidenTesla CybertruckTransport
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