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The Ford F-150 Lightning and the EV Identity Crisis Nobody Asked For
The headlines are buzzing again: Ford has effectively pulled the plug on its most hyped attempt at social engineering on four wheels—the F-150 Lightning. The electric truck that excited almost no one has quietly become a rolling case study in everything that’s gone wrong with the modern EV push.
Because the future, it turns out, isn’t paved with “the government told you so” and refrigerator-shaped appliances with a lifecycle suspiciously similar to your smartphone. Cars now age like iPhones—perfectly functional until the manufacturer releases the next model and your current one suddenly feels obsolete, unsupported, and quietly doomed.
The Lightning isn’t just a product failure; it’s a market reckoning. People still want to choose what they drive. Change by force—no matter how well intentioned—usually comes back wrapped in resentment. Was the Lightning good? Maybe. Does it matter? Not anymore. When something is delivered with enough theater, mandates, and moral scolding, people will reject it on principle alone—logic be damned.
Towing with my Ford Lightning EV Pickup was a TOTAL DISASTER!
Don’t Blame Ford—They Did Exactly What Ford Does
To be fair, Ford did what it has always done: take a wildly popular vehicle and adapt it for a different market. On paper, it made sense. In a vacuum—without government subsidies, forced timelines, and taxpayer-funded battery plants—it might have even worked.
But that vacuum doesn’t exist.
Instead, Americans watched governments here and abroad prop up an industry not based on feasibility, infrastructure, or organic demand—but desire. And force doesn’t overcome physics, economics, or common sense. The result? People didn’t just lose interest in EVs—they learned to hate them.
Not because electric vehicles don’t have a place. They do.
Not because they don’t make sense for some buyers. They absolutely do.
But because common sense was replaced with performance art, and the entire rollout became a very expensive train wreck.
Tesla Worked Because It Didn’t Care About Your Grandpa
The irony is that the EV blueprint already existed—and everyone ignored the lesson.
Tesla succeeded not because it was better, but because it was different. They followed the Apple playbook: don’t compete within the category—reinvent it. The iPhone didn’t win because it had buttons; it won because it eliminated them.
Tesla didn’t have to honor tradition. Your grandfather didn’t drive a Tesla in 1942. There was no heritage to protect, no sacred cow to electrify. The Model S only had to be new, strange, and cool—and for a long time, it was all three.
That novelty created an electric segment that worked. It opened the door. Everyone else rushed in… and then tried to electrify icons people already loved.
That’s where it all went sideways.
Legacy Matters—Whether Executives Like It or Not
Not everyone wants a Tesla, even if an EV fits their lifestyle. And what’s emerged from billions of burned dollars is a painfully obvious truth: you have to build what people actually want to buy.
What has worked?
- Cars with no history
- Cars that stand out
Hyundai—free of deep American legacy—has quietly found success. Ford eventually figured out that calling the Mach-E a Mustang was a branding grenade. Once they softened the nonsense and let it be a Mach-E, it found footing.
GM? They cracked a different code: make it enormous, expensive, and unapologetically excessive. Efficiency optional. The Hummer EV sells because it’s absurd. It weighs as much as a city bus, makes no environmental sense whatsoever, and somehow that’s exactly the point. (Can’t wait for those batteries to age gracefully.)
Side Note: The Hummer EV Battery
Quick reality check: the Hummer EV’s battery pack weighs about 2,900 pounds — roughly the same as an entire Toyota Corolla.
That’s not the truck. That’s just the battery.
“The Chinese Are Coming!” …Are They?
Sure, someone will always buy cheap. Maybe some of the products are even good. But again—legacy matters.
We want a Mustang to be a Mustang.
We want an F-150 with pushrods and torque.
A Model S can be anything because it only has to be a Model S. Put a gas engine in it and no one would buy it—for the exact opposite reason. Identity matters more than powertrain.
The Missed Opportunity: Flair Over Fear
While GM executives debate resurrecting the Bolt (again), others are learning that EVs don’t need to be sensible—they need to be desirable and what works for a gas car does not apply.
Tesla was the iPhone. The next evolution needs to be Android:
More flair. Less containment. Fewer rules. More personality.
People forgive imperfections when something is exciting. They always have. Flair sells far better than common sense—assuming common sense still exists….
Luxury Got It Right (Mostly)
Jaguar, unfortunately, chose brand suicide.
To be fair, they needed something new. Their sedans couldn’t compete, the best cars were aging out—the F-Type (still excellent) nearing the end—and the F-Pace losing relevance as little more than a re-bodied Land Rover. The moment was actually ripe for a reset. An electric pivot could have been refreshing. It could have made sense.
Instead, Jaguar did what Mercedes didn’t.
Where Mercedes evolved—doubling down on luxury, presence, and identity—Jaguar detonated its own history. The brash British brand didn’t reinterpret its legacy; it erased it. They attempted a clean-sheet reinvention, but rather than refining the formula, they jumped off a cliff and expected applause for the boldness on the way down.
Mercedes new concept offers something futuristic that still feels unmistakably Mercedes. Jaguar walked away from everything that made it Jaguar and called it progress and may never recover.
That difference matters.
The Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic doesn’t abandon being Mercedes—it doubles down. It’s effectively an electric Rolls-Royce that isn’t a Rolls-Royce. Art-Deco futurism. Monumental presence. Loud elegance.
It doesn’t need a Nürburgring lap time. It doesn’t need to explain itself. It’s cool enough that none of that matters.
Jaguar erased its past.
Mercedes has leveraged it.
Big-money luxury for people who want to be seen. Front-row valet energy. Ideally with a charger.
Final Thought: Build What People Love—or Build Something Cool Enough to Forgive
So yes—good riddance to taxpayer-funded battery plants feeding cars nobody wanted. To the electric toasters destined to rot in landfills after a decade, aging worse than an iPhone.
Build the V8s.
Build the supercars.
Put pistons in my truck.
And for those who don’t need them—build something so undeniably cool that I can respect the choice, not smirk at it. Something that makes me nod, not roll my eyes at another joyless appliance pretending to save the planet while its driver texts, trusting the car to do the thinking because staring out the windshield has become too boring.
That’s the future worth buying into, the 1920s and 1930s cars had style the secret sauce bring back style and keep the toasters
How far can an American go with out charging… something? Mobile phone charger of course with solar: https://amzn.to/4j82V74
