2024 Ford F-150 Lightning Flash Quick Review: Does It Lag Behind Newer Competition?

• We just spent two weeks with the 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning Flash.
• The Flash gains tech and a lower price at the expense of luxe creature comforts.
• How does it stack up now with so much more competition?

When the Ford F-150 Lightning made its debut, it was just the second fully electric pickup truck to hit the market (beaten only by the Rivian R1T). It was the first all-electric pickup from a legacy automaker, and many of Ford's domestic rivals are still scrambling to fully roll out their answers to the Lightning. But now there's real competition, and after a couple of weeks with the Flash trim Ford released for 2024, we got to wondering: Does the Ford maintain the lead it had by being early to the EV pickup game or does it falter in the face of so many new contenders?

Feeling dated already

The most obvious thing to talk about when comparing the Lightning to most of the competition is the way this truck looks. Early on, the Ford was praised for simply looking like an F-150 (it is the most popular vehicle in America after all, so Ford's recipe has been winning for a while). Inside and out, the Lightning is just a regular ol' F-150, and while to some that might still be a good thing, the Lightning has started to feel dated.

The Hummer EV pickup, Chevy Silverado EV, the aforementioned Rivian, and (of course) the Tesla Cybertruck are all vastly different takes on how electric pickups can look. They might not all be pretty — in fact our staff recently voted the Cybertruck the ugliest new car out there — but they're at least different. Next to the shiny new competition the Lightning has started to look and feel mundane. The hewing to the F-150 aesthetic might still be a pro for some, but there's no doubting it's become the odd one out when it comes to styling.

The same can be said of the Lightning's interior design. Aside from the portrait-oriented screen in the middle that's so large it had to engulf the physical climate controls, this interior is identical to the gas-powered versions. However, even though it feels a little run-of-the-mill in here (our Flash test truck rang it at over $80,000 as tested and still came with cloth seats), this is a good thing. While the way a truck looks is one topic, how you use it from the driver's seat is another entirely, and the simple familliarity the Lightning offers will be like comfort food for truck lovers.

Nothing has been moved around or rejiggered for the sake of the future. There is a simple rotary control to turn the lights on or off (unlike in the Chevy, where you have to use the touchscreen), the driver's display is a fully digital screen but it super easy to customize and shows relevant information clearly and crisply, and you still get a chunky gear selector on the center console.

The physical climate controls are something we don't appreciate having to give up, and we think Ford needs to find a faster processor for its infotainment because it's slow to boot up and laggy almost all the time. But this a problem native to Ford, not just this particular EV. We've made the same gripe about the touchscreen controls in both our long-term Mustang Mach-E and the current Expedition, and both use the same Sync 4 infotainment system that the Lightning does.

Range and charging

We spent two weeks with the Lightning Flash and put well over 500 miles on it (including one long day where a charging stop in the middle of nowhere was necessitated). While range hasn't been an issue because we've been able to charge frequently between trips, we still haven't been able to get near the EPA's estimated range. The Flash with the extended-range battery (a whopping 131 kWh) should be able to travel 320 miles on a single charge, but the truck's onboard computer estimated that, despite some gingerly driving, we wouldn't get more than 295 miles after a full charge. That's plenty, but almost 10% off what the EPA says.

Charging hasn't been the enemy either. Since charging at home hasn't been an option, we had to resort to the public network on five different occasions. Only once did we find a charger that was broken or unresponsive. The rest of the time, hooking up the Lightning was literally plug-and-play thanks to its plug-and-charge capability. Not only that, but every single time we hooked it up to a fast charger the Lightning was able to get very close to the peak charge rate and hold it there for most of the session, only throttling down as it got closer to full. At 50-kW chargers it held steady at 46 kW, and at the 150-kW chargers we used, it would readily stay at 141 kW.

Is the Flash the right trim level?

The Lightning Flash is billed as a more tech-forward Lightning. It takes away some of the creature comforts in exchange for the higher-end stereo system, that massive 15.5-inch center display, and a wireless charger. It starts at just under $70,000 and is the cheapest way to get Lightning with the larger battery pack, but our test truck was fitted with a few options (a three-year BlueCruise plan that costs $2,100 and a tonneau cover and spray-in bedliner that cost just under $600 each) that brought the total cost to $80,030.

The only real difference between the Flash and a Lariat with the same large battery pack and all the same tech-focused goodies is the leather interior. While it might not be for everyone, leather seating in a car that costs $80,000-plus feels like a must. Given the difference between our test truck and an identically specced Lariat is less than $2,500, we'd recommend skipping the Flash altogether and going for the Lariat model.

BlueCruise needs more fine-tuning

While our car was equipped with BlueCruise, we barely had the chance to use it. Not because we didn't spend time on long stretches of highway where the software is designed to work (we did), but because the truck barely gave us the option to fire it up. In our two weeks with dozens of highway stints, we were prompted to turn on BlueCruise only a handful of times.

Its execution also needed work. There was far too much bouncing between lane lines, and the automatic braking for times when traffic merged in front of us felt too gentle — we had to intervene and brake ourselves on more than one occasion. Lastly, the Lightning didn't tell us when BlueCruise was disengaging. Imagine the shock when you think you're allowed to have your hands off the wheel only to look down and realize you should have been paying far more attention (without any warning for how long).

We like the Lightning, and the Flash maintains this truck's inherent goodness like its composed ride, whisper-quiet interior and easy-to-use interface. But its plain-Jane looks, need for software fine-tuning (both BlueCuise and the infotainment), and the Flash's lack of any real value proposition when compared to the Lariat mean this model is hard to recommend.