Ford F-150 EV Truck Reduced to Ashes, Must Have Been Struck by Lightning

Where do broken cars go? To the scrap yard, of course. Or salvage car market. Or they are not going anywhere. Not in one piece, anyway. Because the moment you would touch this Ford F-150 Lightning, it might simply dissolve. The photos are heartbreaking to look at and show the tragic finale of a vehicle that spent a single year on the road.

The risk of fire for electric cars has long been a controversy, with EVs on fire constantly being on the news. A lithium-ion battery pack blaze is next to impossible to put out. Conventional methods might not work in the long run, because the battery can ignite again at any time, hours, days, or even weeks later, because of the stranded energy.

For instance, a study shows that in the United Kingdom, around 25% of scrapyard fires are caused by spent lithium-ion batteries. In case of an EV that catches fire, firefighters have to follow a certain procedure in order to eliminate the high risk of the battery igniting again.

According to the EV FireSafe company, financed by the Department of Defence to research electric vehicles' voltage battery fires and emergency response, an EV burns hotter than an ICE, and the risk of fire spreading to cars, buildings, trees, or anything in the vicinity of the blaze is higher. What surrounds the car during the fire is not smoke but a vapour cloud of highly inflammable gases.

Water is by far the most effective way to extinguish an EV fire, as chemical agents might not work or might even do worse. At least 4,000 liters should be used to suppress the fire and cool down the battery. The best solution is submerging the vehicle in water. But not all fire departments are equipped with submersion pools specifically designed for such cases.

If these steps are not followed, there is little chance that anything can be left and saved out of the EV. It is the case with this Ford F-150 Lightning that showed up on an online market place specializing in the resale of wholesale, wrecked, lightly damaged, clean, repairable, and salvage title vehicles.

Almost nothing is left of the pickup truck that rolled off the assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2022, which was the year of production for the electric pickup truck based on the fourteenth generation of the F series. When Ford started producing the electric pickup truck, the carmaker already had 200,000 reservations.

The moment this Ford drove through the factory gate, it was a proud black pickup truck with a black leather interior. Nothing of the paint or the cabin remained, so we might as well say it was a white-on-white. It wouldn’t matter anyway.

It was a Dual eMotor variant. The powertrain delivered 462 horsepower (468 PS) and 775 lb-ft (1,051 Nm) of torque, which would be enough for an acceleration from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph) in just 4.2 seconds.

The truck did the quarter mile in 12.9 seconds. And we are only talking about the XL entry level with standard range variant with the 98 kWh battery (the extended range comes with the 131 kWh battery pack). That is probably the one guilty for the way the F-150 Lighting looks right now. Before the fire, it used to provide the truck with a range of up to 230 miles (370 kilometers) or 320 miles (515 kilometers) if equipped with the larger battery.

If you just scan the listing info on this Ford F-150 Lightning without paying much attention and your eyes set on the Secondary Damage section, indicating that it sustained damage on the front end may seem somewhat funny. You are going to need to make quite an effort to realize where the front end is positioned right now.

The Primary Damage indicates a "Total Burn," which is totally true. The listing does not indicate mileage, because it would be nonsense. This truck ain't going to drive anywhere in this lifetime.

The listing claims that the vehicle was worth $76,592. Considering the price and the wheel design (20-inch Dark Carbonized Gray), it most likely was a Lariat variant, which starts at $69,995. The Lariat comes with front bucket seats in leather, heated and ventilated, a large 15.5 touchscreen in the center console, and a power tailgate, which opens at the push of a button. No sign of those right now, since they must have all burned to ashes.

For those who want to see it before the auction starts on December 31, the vehicle is located in Spokane Valley, Washington. But there isn’t much to see. It sells with a "Parts Only" title, but except for two of the four wheels, we have no idea what might be salvageable from those ashes.