Yesterday President Biden pitched the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup. As a pitchman, he was sort of meh, but the truck looks like a fierce competitor to the impending Tesla Cybertruck.

The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup goes live on the Ford website in about a dozen hours right here:

Ford F-150 Lightning EV

Soon as it goes live, you can order one.

So what, Big Red Car?

The “so what,” dear reader, is that the Ford F-150 old school, original gangster gasoline vehicle is the best selling vehicle in the United States for the last four decades.

Say what, Big Red Car? Yes, dear reader, the best selling vehicle in the US!

More than half of all auto sales in the US are pickups. Think about that — more than half of all autos are pickups and this particular pickup — the Ford F-150 Lightning EV — is the extension of the most popular vehicle product line.

Hello, America! This is big.

Back off, Big Red Car. Tune it down. You sound like a shill.

Bottom line it, Big Red Car

OK, here it is:

 1. This Ford F-150 Lightning EV is a mainstream, highly popular vehicle with a clear connection to its actual existing customer base.

Did I mention Ford has huge manufacturing capabilities in place, dealer maintenance network, and gigantic sales force?

 2. This is a vehicle for places like Texas and for the working class, not the East/West coast dilettante class. It is made for real people.

You think plumbers are expensive? Wait until your plumber has a fleet of Ford F-150 Lightning EVs with pipe racks, y’all. Send you kids to Plumber College.

 3. Ford made more than 800,000 F-150s last year, more than all the Tesla models combined. Manufacturing will not be a problem for Ford.

 4. President Biden was out pitching his Green New Deal and will be coming strong with a continuation of the $7,500 Fed subsidy for EVs as well as throwing billions and billions of dollars at more charging stations.

Your Big Red Car thinks the charging station issue (and the short range between charges) is the Big Thing that keeps EVs from  going  mainstream.

Anything else, Big Red Car?

Yes.

 1. About 24% of the folks who buy EVs are back in a gasoline vehicle within a year.

 2. The impact of charging on the electrical grid is going to be huge. We are going to require all the energy currently created by fossil fuels to be redirected to the grid. This will be a massive undertaking.

WTF would have happened back in February when the Texas electrical grid went out? 

 3. Range on EVs is lousy. The Ford F-150 Lighting EV will get 300 miles to a charge — which means it is likely an effective range of 200 miles.

No word yet on how long it takes to charge, but there will undoubtedly be high speed direct current chargers one day.

 4. This is evolutionary, meaning as we wean ourselves from fossil fuels, we will build up our EV fleet. This is not going to happen over night.

It will take a quarter of a century at the least during which we will have to operate parallel systems.

Will it really happen, Big Red Car?

Yes. If Ford is in it — the manufacturer of the most popular pickup in the US — it will happen.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car, y’all.

Full disclosure: I am NOT an EV.