MKBHD Explains Why Ford’s F-150 Lightning Is The iPhone Of Pickups

After spending one week with the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, tech vlogger Marques Brownlee declares himself very impressed with the electric pickup in his latest video.

He sampled a top-of-the-line Platinum model fitted with the extended range battery and a 580-horsepower dual motor powertrain that can unleash up to 775 pound-feet (1,050 Newton-meters) of instant torque to all four wheels.

Priced from $90,874 before a $1,795 destination fee and state and federal incentives, the F-150 Lightning Platinum surely doesn’t come cheap as it’s fitted with pretty much all the bells and whistles available on the series.

Brownlee says the Lightning is the biggest power bank you’ll ever own, thanks to its 131-kWh battery pack, and is impressed with how many power outlets (120-volt and 240-volt) and USB ports the truck has in the cabin , bed and frunk.

Speaking of the frunk, its 400-liter (14.1 cubic feet) capacity is very impressive, giving truck owners something they’re not used to: a generous covered and lockable cargo space where the internal combustion engine would be; on the Lightning, the frunk more room than the trunk of a Toyota Corolla.

Brownlee also makes the point that the F-150 Lightning offers a clearly superior driving experience than the gas-powered F-150 as it’s much quieter, much smoother (he loves the one-pedal-driving mode), and clearly faster than the faster gas-powered F-150.

He also mentions other cool stuff about the Lightning, such as the ability to power a home, other electric vehicles or simply double as a backup generator at worksites.

But probably the most interesting and valid point Marques Brownlee makes in the video is that years from now, people may look back at the F-150 Lightning as the most important electric vehicle. This model may enter the history books as the one that made the biggest contribution in the auto industry’s switch to EVs by convincing F-150 owners to go electric.

He argues that Ford F-150 owners are, in a way, like iPhone owners, in the sense that most iPhone owners will eventually upgrade to another iPhone. People who drive F-150s tend to upgrade to other F-150 models, and with the F-150 Lightning being the coolest of them all, it has enormous potential to convert a huge demographic—the F-150 is America’s best-selling vehicle overall year after year—into EV adopters.