CEO of Tesla and acting President-elect Musk is going on a neo-Nazi binge endorsing far right candidates instead of properly running the companies he’s involved in such as Tesla.
In addition Tesla is considered one of the most unreliable car brands according to: https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-placed-bottom-consumer-reports-reliability-rankings/
Moreover Tesla has the highest fatal accident rates of all car brands according to: https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62919131/tesla-has-highest-fatal-accident-rate-of-all-auto-brands-study/
Also there are privacy implications with using a car that could in theory spy on you: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/05/massive-trove-of-tesla-files-contains-thousands-of-safety-complaints/
Now that more competent and establish brands are making EVs there’s no reason to buy a Tesla if you want an EV. I’m not here to recommend another brand, I’m just here to tell you that your next EV should be anything other than a Tesla.
The F150’s design is nothing what it used to be, and it’s a horrible car for road safety. But their branding is undoubtedly very successful, for the US-American market at least. And it’s not like the competition hasn’t been moving in the same direction.
The size isn’t a branding thing. It’s a US legal thing.
Since 2012, the CAFE (fuel economy) standards have been based on vehicle footprint, not classification. It’s why 2011 was the last year model of the S10, Dakota, and Ranger.
As the CAFE standards get stricter and stricter, the auto companies have to make cargo vehicle footprints larger and larger. It’s why when the Ranger was relaunched, it was bigger than the 2010 F150.
It’s also why the small cargo van class of vehicle stopped existing in the last few years. The Transit Connect, Ram ProMaster City, and Nissan NV200 were all just discontinued because they can’t make a cargo van with that footprint that meets the new CAFE regulations.
It’s also why the Maverick has the hard-to-buy hybrid listed as the “standard” model with the traditional engine as the “upgrade.”
Making the vehicles electric will allow them to start making them reasonably-sized again. Right now, the frame of the F150 is really large, and after the Mustang Mach E fiasco, Ford is scared to use a different chassis for the electric truck.
Give it a few generations, and it’ll be perfect. In the meantime, the Lightning is still way better than the Cybertruck at almost everything, better than the Rivian for hauling things, and way cheaper than both.