When Randy Jones of Katy, Texas, purchased his new Ford F-150 pickup truck a number of weeks in the past, he did not suppose he’d be utilizing it to maintain the lights on in his home throughout a historic winter storm that left thousands and thousands with out energy.

The 2021 hybrid’s onboard generator “provides you the flexibility to make use of your truck like a cell generator” that may produce as much as 7.2 kW of energy, in keeping with Ford.

Jones, 66, mentioned in a telephone interview with CNBC on Thursday that he purchased the truck partially due to that characteristic, including that he usually loses energy on account of hurricanes and different storms. When he misplaced energy Sunday night time, he determined to get out a number of extension cords and put the generator to the take a look at.

“With out it I might have been at midnight and chilly like all people else within the neighborhood,” the retired refinery employee mentioned, including that he helped neighbors cost their telephones and laptops. “Fairly a number of of the neighbors mentioned, ‘Hey, I am getting one,’ like, ‘I am buying and selling my Dodge or GMC,’ as a result of, South Texas, with hurricanes and issues like that, we’re all the time having energy outages.”

Jones mentioned he used the truck’s onboard generator to energy home equipment in his residence for 3 days, till his energy was restored Wednesday.

He isn’t alone. Jerry Corridor, 73, purchased his new F-150 on the finish of January. It turned out to be good timing, he mentioned.

“The truck saved the day,” the Kerrville, Texas, resident mentioned Thursday in a telephone interview. Corridor mentioned his residence misplaced energy Sunday night via early Thursday. “It could have been three depressing days with out the truck.”

Corridor mentioned he and his spouse nonetheless spent these days with out warmth, however they had been in a position to run extension cords from the truck into the home to energy lights, the fridge, tv and different luxuries.

“It saved us linked with the surface world,” he mentioned.

Corridor mentioned “the primary motive” he purchased the truck was its onboard generator. He mentioned the tough climate final spring led to some blackouts in his a part of the state and he knew he needed to get some form of generator. It simply made sense, he mentioned, to get a brand new truck with a generator inbuilt.

Different truck homeowners have been posting comparable tales in an internet discussion board for F-150 homeowners. Images from the discussion board spilled over onto Twitter, the place Ford CEO Jim Farley took discover, tweeting, “The scenario within the SW US is so tough. Want everybody in Texas had a brand new F150 with PowerBoost onboard generator….”