Ford's electric pickup truck can even power a rock band

The big question: Could the Lightning power a fun night of rock ‘n’ roll and still leave enough juice for the band to drive home afterwards?

• The answer, luckily, was yes. (I didn't want them sleeping on my floor!)

The context: The Exhaust Tones, a band formed by a bunch of auto writers in Detroit, have played my backyard venue before.

• This time, Autoweek executive editor Tom Murphy proposed a crazy idea: Since a $93,509 SuperCrew Platinum Lightning model was on loan to his publication the same weekend as my party, why not put it to good use?
• Instead of plugging their equipment into my garage, as they'd done in the past, they'd run everything off the Lightning's 9.6-kW Pro Power Onboard system.

Details: They pulled the pickup halfway into my garage — leaving the bed available as a drum riser — then plugged two giant PA speakers, three monitors, four amps, a 12-channel mixing board and a guitar pedal into the bed.

• After tripping the truck’s onboard breakers a few times, they decided to spread out the power draw to take full advantage of the Lightning's multiple outlets: two 120-volt plugs in the cab, four in the bed, and four in the "frunk" (the front trunk), plus a 240-volt outlet in the bed.

The bottom line: Three hours of rock and roll consumed barely a trickle of the truck's stored power.

• With an EPA-estimated range of 320 miles, the Lightning had almost 80% of remaining battery range when the band arrived.
• When they packed up for the drive home, it still had 75% (241 miles of range).

Go deeper: Read Tom's full account in Autoweek.