--- title: "Driver Says His Ford F-150 Lightning Made a “Loud Boom” and Died When He Plugged It In" description: "A Ford F-150 Lightning owner has been left stranded after his EV truck made a loud noise and suddenly died while charging at an Electrify America station." date: "2022-11-29" modified: "2022-11-29" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/drivers-says-ford-lightning-loud-boom-died" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "ev charging" - "evs" - "ford lightning" - "the digest" --- # Driver Says His Ford F-150 Lightning Made a “Loud Boom” and Died When He Plugged It In ![A Ford F-150 Lightning owner has been left stranded after his EV truck made a loud noise and suddenly died while charging at an Electrify America station.]() *\Image: Ford / Getty / Futurism\* ## Lightning Strikes Ford's F-150 Lightning is meant to be the automaker's flagship electric pickup truck, and for the most part has been [heralded with glowing praise]() from [across the industry](). But as more Lightnings hit the streets and accumulate miles, the more we'll get to see of their reliability — or lack thereof. Take Eric Roe, a Ford Lightning owner and a fan of electric vehicles. In a [tweet]() spotted [by *MotorTrend*](), Roe claims that after plugging his truck into an Electrify America charging station he heard a "loud boom," after which the truck was bricked like a giant, ill-fated smartphone. "The charger went dark and the Lightning threw up a bunch of error codes and wouldn't start," Roe wrote. "Couldn't even shift into neutral." The Lightning's untimely demise has left Roe in a tight spot, too, stranding him far from home. "I'm 1,000 miles from home, the EA charger \[went\] black, and my Lightning won't move," Roe said in a follow-up [tweet](). "I'm screwed." https://twitter.com/Eric_L_Roe/status/1596991704141541376 ## Blame Game As of now, it's uncertain as to what exactly caused the Ford Lightning to drop dead, and who or what's at fault. It could be an issue on the Ford end of things, or it could be chalked up to bad chargers on EA's part. At the very least, Roe's plight has not gone unnoticed. A Ford spokesperson has already tried to reach out in the replies of his tweet. Meanwhile, EA told *MotorTrend* that it's "investigating the unfortunate issue experienced by Eric Roe and have reached out to him." Hopefully engineers can quickly get to the bottom of the issue to prevent further incidents, blame aside*.* Either way, it's not a good look for EVs built by legacy automakers, or the infrastructure that powers them. It's definitely strange seeing a whole car getting bricked the same way a dodgy Walmart laptop might — but if this is the future of cars, pain points will be inevitable. **More on the F-150 Lightning:** *[Ford's EV F-150 Lightning Pickup Truck Sucks At Trucking, Critic Says]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()