New Ford F-150 comes in pure electric Lightning form with unexcelled power, handling and features. Photo by John Gilbert.

We’ve got a lot more ways to celebrate Earth Day nowadays, so my wife, Joan, and I set out to put a couple of them to work in our service.

First, we took a drive from the North Shore of  Duluth’s East End to check out the rushing waters of the St. Louis River as it flows over the Thompson Dam in Carlton and heads for the Lake Superior harbor, and we made the drive in the silent comfort of the new Ford F-150 Lightning — Ford’s all-new, all-electric full-sized pickup truck.

We need to get a couple things straight right away. The Ford F-150 is the largest selling vehicle in the country, and a lot of canings wonder why ford would dare blow its big advantage by venturing into a pure electric model.

But while the normal F-150 drives, rides, handles and performs the best or near the best of everything on the market, the Lightning EV pickup is simply better riding, better driving, better handling and more comfortable to ride in than any other F-150.

For the second part of our Earth Day celebration, we would end up driving out Lightning back out east on our way home and park there to go for our favorite walk along Brighton Beach. That’s a challenge for me, still working on recovering full leg-strength and wind from my surprise heart problem last May, and I usually have to tell Joan to walk on ahead while I take a break or two. More on that later, because our favorite walking place has slipped badly in our estimation.

What could be better for Earth Day than to drive a zero-emission electric vehicle? The Lightning doesn’t look different from the normal F-150, except there is no gasoline engine churning out the power, as well as a fair share of polluting emissions.

There are electric motors front and rear, and they combine to provide full all-wheel drive because one motor turns the front wheels and the other turns the rear.’  

It’s a trick to get full information out of the equation between electric vehicles and normal gas engine powered vehicles. The Iced Blue Lightning test vehicle I drove for a week had the maximum available powertrain, with a one-speed transmission that alters ratios as you need power. It also had the maximum towing package available, and while no towing estimates are offered, the 8,550 gross vehicle weight Lightning  has amazing power for accelerating or hauling or towing.

The single-motor model has a sufficient 452 horsepower and 775 foot-pounds of torque, but the Lariat Series model I drove with the twin motors and big black alloy wheels develops  580 horsepower with the same 775 torque figure.

The less powerful version can go from 0-60 in about 5.5 seconds, while the hot one can reach 60 in 4.0-flat. That makes it faster than the F-150 with the supercharged v8 gas engine, and will dazzle all who stomp on the gas pedal.

Loaded with features, and with a luxurious interior, the SuperCrew Lariat Lightning will comfortably haul four or five adults with silent power. And if you fill its interior with people, and fill the bed with any manner of stuff, you can still open the hood and find — Nothing!

A vast expanse for lockable storage is where a gas-engine truck would need to put its gas engine. The magic of electric vehicles is that they reach full torque output at 0 miles per hour, so you don’t need to rev it up or stay on the throttle to be moving swiftly. Of course it costs a lot, with the test vehicle base-priced at $67,474, rising with the light package, spray in Berliner and Max Tow package to $80,589.

But it you think that’s high, have you priced normal full-sized pickups lately? Nothing is inexpensive, and with the gas engine models, you are paying from $3.50 to $5 per gallon, depending on where you live. One pickup lifer told me he likes the “security” of pulling up to a service station outlet, plugging in the gas pump, and even if it costs him $90-$100 to fill his tank, it makes him feel secure knowing another 300 miles is available a the fill of the gas tank. I don’t know about that.

In Duluth there are nearly 200 charge outlets, including some that are “Level 3,” which means that instead of plugging it in for six hours or more, you can get a full charge in about two hours — and that full charge will take you 250 miles, and closer to 300 miles once warm weather arrives. So we pulled off Highway 61 where most other cars had parked, well off on the shoulder. It’s also a perfect place to take your dog for a walk.

The little road that goes down along Brighton Beach was filled with potholes and you drove as if going through a minefield to avoid serious damage to your vehicle. But a couple years ago, city officials conducted surveys for ideas about fixing up that road, which had numerous spots to pull off and park, near barbecue grills and picnic tables, and some park benches in case you just want to sit and gaze out over the blue expanse of Lake Superior.

But after about a quarter mile, we came to what we first thought was vandalism. Someone with a chainsaw had cut down a dozen trees! A little while later, dozens more — many o them healthy. It’s all according to a City plan, we’re told, to make it a user-friendly area and now they’re thinking of not allowing vehicle traffic to venture down there. By the time we got as far as we were going to walk before turning around, we saw what must have been a hundred trees cut down and left scattered for those of us who love to walk there.

Both Joan and I felt a little sick at the wasted tree lives, after they had grown enough to provide shade, wind-break, and also the ben edit of breathing in CO2. It occurred to me that once cut down, those trees, including healthy Norway pines, spruce, and various leaf-bearing trees, could have been cut into neat piles of firewood by the same chainsaw-wielding maniacs who did the city’s bidding. But they weren’t. They are left piled up in helter-skelter fashion to make sure the raw wind that can whistle in off the big lake will have no interference now. We cut our walk short and walked back to our Lightning EV.

It may have been Earth Day, but Joan and I both realized at the same moment that we need to find a new favorite place to walk.