Mechanic says he wants to retire early after tearing apart Kansas man’s new Ford Lightning electric truck

This Kansas mechanic couldn’t believe his eyes when he took a look under the hood of a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck for the first time.

Like all mechanics, he’s used to seeing pistons and filters and so on, but the F-150 Lightning had none of those things.

He felt like a lumberjack confronting a baobab tree, like, where would he even start?

And it almost made him reconsider his career choice.

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The reason why the Ford F-150 Lightning has very little in common with its gas-powered brother

Tyler Hoover, the guy behind the Hoovies Garage YouTube channel, took his Ford F-150 Lightning to his trusted mechanic in Kansas, Hoover calls him the ‘Wizard’, for an inspection.

When the mechanic removed the thing that you’d call an ‘engine cover’ in an ICE, he was left gobsmacked.

He saw none of the components he was expecting to see, and not much of what he saw made sense.

“I think I want to retire. I don’t want to deal with any of this stuff,” the mechanic said.

He still found quite interesting, though.

The first thing that stood out was the presence of dual AC systems, one for the cabin and another for the battery, which is good to know even though Kansas isn’t exactly the hottest state in the U.S.

He also found a lot more electronic control modules and cables than he’d have found in a gas car, and fewer components.

Broadly speaking, EVs only have a battery pack and an electric unit and not much else, and this goes for this electric truck as well.

By comparison, a 2025 V8-powered Ford F-150, theoretically a very similar vehicle, probably has more in common with an equivalent truck from the 1980s than it does with Ford’s electric truck.

Are cars…still cars?

Modern cars, even internal combustion ones, have fewer mechanical components than ever before.

Most of what they need in order to work is software, not hardware.

Even in a gas car, so much of the available power derives from the way the ECU, ie the engine’s ‘brain’, manages the engine, not the engine itself.

This is, in part, the reason why modern cars can generate more power with smaller engines.

The McLaren Artura (above) uses a V6, as does the Ferrari 296 GTB.

Bentley did something similar as well with the Continental GT, which now uses a V8 instead of a W12.

It’s the reason why Ram replaced the V8 with a V6 that’s even more powerful.

Cars feel like smartphones on wheels these days, which probably explains why so smartphone makers are now building cars as well.