MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow noted the other night that Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup could be game-changing for green energy. Ford’s F-Series has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for 39 years. The F-150 going electric steepens the curve for the decline of internal-combustion-powered vehicles. “Mass consumer adoption of a better product,” an already popular one, “instantly renders everything else obsolete.”
Catherine Rampell concurs that sales of the (potentially) least expensive full-sized pickup may just put to rest culture-war rhetoric from conservatives:
This is no pokey, jelly-bean-shaped car designed for tree-huggers. Nor is it a spaceship-like ride for Bay Area tech bros. This is not a vehicle designed for virtue-signaling concerns about climate change, though it absolutely does broadcast the virtues of a bright, decarbonized, lower-pollution future.
The Lightning will be a better, faster, more functional and more affordable truck that can appeal to red-staters and blue-collar workers. If produced and purchased at scale, trucks such as this one could revolutionize car culture and eventually shrink the country’s carbon footprint. Tesla has already worked wonders in making electric vehicles (EVs) cool and more widely available. It produced about 500,000 vehicles in total last year; but as a share of the auto market, Ford’s F-series is in a league of its own, with about 800,000 trucks sold last year.
Republican lawmakers could still try to stomp the brakes, Rampell writes:
Republican officials have cast EVs as a lefty pet project that Democrats want to “push” upon an unwilling public, “whether they are ready for them or not,” as one GOP lawmaker recently put it. Republicans have pooh-poohed President Biden’s request for funding for EV subsidies and charging stations in an infrastructure package, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggesting the initiative is wasteful and part of a “liberal wish-list.”
Worse than withholding funds to accelerate electric-vehicle adoption, Republican officials push policies that could slow it down. They’ve argued, for instance, that any infrastructure package should be funded through new fees or taxes on electric vehicles — policies that would diminish the financial benefits of going electric.
But political market zealots are less wedded to what “The Market” wants than they are to financial support. And the fossil fuel industry, one of their steady benefactors, is weakening. Count on it: like country fans growing mullets after a decade of beating hippies, these late-adopters will be joined at the hip to green-energy producers once their biggest campaign donations transition away from fossil fuels to renewables. Death and taxes are not life’s only certainties.
Ford is not hedging its bets promoting this electric vehicle. With the engine gone, the front compartment is now a “frunk” for carrying cargo or groceries. With enough battery to power a house for several days and 110V outlets standard, no inverter is needed. Motor Trend adds, “It’s enough for the ultimate tailgate party complete with lights, music, maybe a TV, crockpot, and more.” Good luck messaging around that, Frank Luntz. You’ll need it.
Once them old boys start mounting gun racks in Lightnings, watch how fast Republicans run to get in front of the renewables parade.