Most of today’s electric vehicles do not come equipped with spare tires, a feature that’s also curiously absent from a number of modern ICE-powered vehicles as well. Tesla doesn’t include a spare on any of their vehicles, citing the fact that the average person only has three flat tires in their lifetime as a reason for the omission. Regardless, being stranded with a flat and no spare is not a terribly fun experience, and thus, it’s good to know that the Ford F-150 Lightning will come with one.
This good news comes to us from both Mike Levine, Ford North America’s product communications manager, and Ted Cannis, Ford Pro CEO, confirming that the Ford F-150 Lightning will in fact come with a full-size spare – not just a donut-sized replacement. “A temporary donut spare tire won’t work when you’re far from pavement or roadside assistance with places to go and jobs to do,” Levine said “When we talked to our customers, they insisted that we fit the full-size spare,” Cannis added.
When we talked to our customers… they insisted that we fit the full size spare! https://t.co/GNZaONT64R
— tedcannis (@tedcannis) May 24, 2021
Like ICE-powered Ford F-150 models, the Lightning’s spare is mounted underneath the bed, which can be clearly seen in a number of photos of the new pickup – including some spy shots of prototypes we captured earlier this year. This is quite different from the spare tire location in the also all-electric E-Transit, which does not have a frunk, and instead uses that space for the spare. But Ford was determined to offer maximum space for Lightning customers via its Mega Frunk.
Adding a full-size spare to the Ford F-150 Lightning also adds weight, complexity, and cost to the pickup. Additionally, two of the Lightning’s main competitors – the Rivian R1T and Tesla Cybertruck – will presumably only offer spares as an option. but as Levine explained to the Detroit Free Press, the automaker sees it as a necessity for owners frequenting job sites that can’t afford to wait hours for help if they get a flat tire.
“If you don’t have a full-size spare, you’ve just lost time quickly getting back on the road and back to work,” Levine said. “We know truck customers. They can’t stop to fix things when there’s no quick fix. When you look below the skin, Ford approached this like a truck company. But Lightning can do things no other truck can do – like power a home during an outage or at a job site as a mobile generator. That’s the key.”
We’ll have more on the Lightning soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, F-150 Lightning news, and ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
I wonder if Ford will migrate the IRS from this EV truck over to the rest of the F-150 line [at least for lower GVWR models]. I’ll bet the smoother ride will be worth the tooling costs.
I think migrating the coil link suspension from the new Raptor to the rest of the F-150 would be better for a truck.
If they do go that route, they need to be way better than the Ram’s pitiful payload number.
Repairing a flat with the inflator and sealer kit is good enough for most drivers, as I have used it once last year. My Fusion trunk does have the spare tire space if I wished to put one in. Ford lets the owner decide what is more convenient. But after having to replace tires in previous cars, the kit is much cleaner and faster!
That depends on the nature of your flat tire.
Yes it definitely depends on the nature of the flat. I’ll take the spare…
Maybe three flats in a lifetime on a passenger car but I probably got three flats in a year at least once on job sites. It’s a different situation and it’s great to pop on a full spare and know you can drop off the other wheel to get patched while you keep going.
~900 people in 30 years…. Sounds like you have a greater risk of getting killed over a 3 day weekend in Chicago…..