Welcome to the Hooniverse News! As always, this is a weekly recap of the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or bull. This week: Ford shows off the more affordable Lightning Pro, Hyundai reveals Ioniq 5 to do battle with the Mach-E and ID.4, Ford is building two new EV platforms to expand their EV range with, McLaren puts a windshield on a car designed to not have one, and some rich guy got a coachbuilt Rolls-Royce for his favorite champagne and pen.
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro
One of the biggest surprises during last week’s F-150 Lightning announcement was its ~$40,000 starting price. But we knew from the beginning that this would be the bare bones “worker-spec” truck. Just how the cheapest F-150 on the lot nowadays is a utilitarian model with black plastic bumpers and steel wheels, the cheapest Lightning on the lot will be meant for those who don’t care about leather seats and power sunroofs and truly just need a truck.
That’s the role the Lightning Pro aims to fill. Ford says it’s built for commercial and government customers but did not indicate that it wouldn’t be available to the public as well. This work-ready Lightning Pro has all of the same underpinnings as the more premium XLT, Limited, and Platinum Lightnings we saw last week. It even has some of the same styling. But while it isn’t completely barren, it’s definitely not going to be built for luxury for the whole family. Buyers will have to make due with a 12″ LCD touch screen, a sound system with at least two speakers probably, and easy-to-clean vinyl seats.
What isn’t bare bones though is everything else you care about. From the totally “military grade” aluminum body and high-strength steel frame to the gigantic battery and dual electric motors, it’s all the same goodness you get on the higher grades. The same two battery options are available as well with the standard range battery being the ~$40k option and the extended range upgrade commanding a $10,000 fee. Power ratings are 426 horsepower with the standard battery, 563 horsepower with the extended battery, and 775 lb.-ft. of torque between both. Towing capacity ranges from 5,000 lbs. to 10,000 lbs. – this depends on the battery and other towing packages. Payload for both trucks remains 2,000 pounds. The EPA estimated driving range, which I just learned from Marques Brownlee is calculated with a 1,00o-lb. payload onboard, is 230 miles for the standard and 300 miles for the extended range battery. While those ranges may not sound terribly impressive on paper, considering that’s with half the truck’s payload capacity taken up is quite impressive. Your range while empty could be significantly greater.
Other huge benefits like the frunk, Pro Power Onboard, Onboard Scales in the bed, and loads of power outlets should make this highly attractive for fleet customers. Ford’s onboard power generator alone is a huge deal for anyone who may need to power tools on a jobsite that’s off the grid. And in case someone gets carried away with their work, Pro Power Onboard will know to shut off access before there’s not enough range left to reach a nearby charger. All of these benefits on top of the reduced operating cost of an EV should make the Lightning Pro a compelling option.
One thing that might be a turn off for many fleets though is that it’s only available, at least for now, as a four-door SuperCrew cab with a 5.5-foot cargo bed. This configuration makes sense for the general public but perhaps less so for contractors who need the bigger bed. It’s unclear when or even if the Lightning will expand to other cab and bed configurations.
The Lightning Pro will enter production sometime next year. Other Lightnings will be built in the Spring so the Pro version is probably due around the same time.
[Source: Ford]
Hyundai IONIQ 5
Hyundai Motor Group plans to introduce 23 new battery-electric vehicles and sell one million of those worldwide by 2025. Here’s one piece of that puzzle. What was the Hyundai ’45’ EV concept is now the Ioniq 5, an all-electric crossover utility vehicle that goes on sale this fall to compete with the Ford Mach-E and VW ID.4. From the photos it looks more like a 5-door hatchback than a CUV so I’m just gonna pretend that’s what it is so that I like it more.
With funky and futuristic styling, the Ioniq 5 is a departure from past norms which explores new design freedom offered by a dedicated EV platform. It features Parametic Pixel LED lighting elements, a V-shaped front bumper, flush door handles that I’m sure will never malfunction or get frozen over, and a heavily sculpted body with a striking side crease. The interior on this thing is just as futuristic. Flat floors allow for more space and all the steer-by-wire and shift-by-wire systems mean they can package it exactly how they wanted to. The center console “island” can be slid back and forth 5.5 inches as needed. If needed, you could use this to enter the driver’s seat from the other side of the car if a BMW parks next to you.
Like any good EV there’s a plethora of screen space for instruments and infotainment. Like all EVs should, they’ve used sustainably sourced materials wherever they could. The seats, headliner, door trim, floor, and armrest are made from materials including recycled PET bottles, plant-based yarns and natural wool yarns, “eco-processed leather with plant-based extracts”, and bio paint with plant extracts.
It seems there’s one battery size to fit all but there are a few different motor configurations to choose from. Power comes from a 77.4 kWh battery pack and propulsion is done by a single rear motor or dual motors front and rear. RWD models gave a decent 225 horsepower and 258 lb.-ft. of torque available while AWD models get 320 horsepower and 446 lb.-ft. of torque. 0-60 mph is handled in less than five seconds with AWD. Top speed of all models is 115 mph and towing of up to 1,500 pounds can be done on both as well.
Driving range depends greatly the motor setup and the trim package, but you’re looking at 255 miles on the top-of-the-line Limited AWD model and up to 300 miles on the RWD models. 400-v and 800-v fast charging is supported. From a 350-hW charger, you can get from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 18 minutes. Even a quick five-minute piss break on the road can net you about 68 miles of range from one of these chargers. Assuming you can get these reliable fast chargers along your route, EV road trips are starting to seem less annoying.
Hyundai has not discussed pricing yet. But any Ioniq 5 purchase gets you unlimited 30-minute charging sessions for two years on Electrify America’s growing charger network.
[Source: Hyundai]
BLIPS
Ford is building two new dedicated EV platforms separate from what is already on the Lightning. The platforms were hinted as being the future underpinnings for an electric Explorer, Expedition, and their Lincoln counterparts. It’s also possible that an electric Mustang that isn’t a crossover is included in that, though that might not get its own unique platform being a relatively low-volume vehicle. Prior reports of the next Mustang sharing a platform with the Explorer could fit into that as well. If Ford is building this thing from the ground up, they can maybe make it so that it doesn’t compromise the Mustang as much. In any event, the benefits of a dedicated EV platform are clear: common architectures, motors, and battery packs simplify and accelerate the development process and reduce costs. As Ford goes all in on EVs, these two platforms will be central to all of that.
[Source: Ford via Jalopnik]
It turns out that rich people are pansies. McLaren had to put a windshield on the Elva, a car that was designed to not have one. Originally the Elva was a throwback of sorts to the open-cockpit race cars from decades ago, some of which put McLaren on the map. It was an extremely powerful, rather gorgeous, and truly special car from a company that seems hellbent on saturating its lineup. The Elva was the kind of car that you had to really want to drive because of the raw driving experience it provided. Well there was apparently enough of a demand to remove one of its key elements because an Elva with a windshield is entering production. In doing so, McLaren has invented a 720S Spider again and found a way to charge even more money for it.
[Source: McLaren]
Proving that rich people are a strange breed, Rolls-Royce’s coachbuilt division has come out with a new Boat-Tail. The best way I can describe this car is that some rich person loved a very specific kind of champagne so much that they paid Rolls untold millions to create a whole fucking car around it. Like any good Rolls it has a refrigerator, but this one is designed with exacting dimensions to perfectly stow bottles Armand de Brignac champagne. It was also made for picnics I guess. Tucked in the boat tail section of the car is a pop out umbrella and custom made folding chairs that are hand-crafted to match the elegant contours of the owner’s ass (I made that part up)(but it’s probably true). What isn’t made up though is that they included a special place in the glovebox to store the owner’s favorite pen. I recommend reading through this excellent dunk piece on Jalopnik because Torchinsky put way more energy into making fun of rich people than I can muster.
[Source: Rolls-Royce, Jalopnik]
What’s your automotive news?
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, so now it’s your turn. If you saw anything, fixed something, broke everything, or otherwise did anything even remotely car related that you want to share with your fellow hoon, sound off in the comments.
Have a good weekend.
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