True Confessions Of A Actual Ford F-150 Lightning Driver

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My life accomplice and I are travelling this week and watching the tide cowl after which uncover the beautiful seaside at Ogunquit, Maine, simply because it has completed twice every day for millenia. It’s a peaceable and wondrous place, one which tends to refocus our minds on the rhythms of the pure world — and the way they could be altered by human exercise. Writing for CleanTechnica maybe makes us extra conscious of how we’re affecting the pure world, which is why we frequently do tales about electrical automobiles, which have a extra mild influence on the environment than typical vehicles. I observed a Ford F-150 Lightning within the parking zone at our posh and outrageously costly seaside resort. When the proprietor appeared, I struck up a dialog with him about his battery-electric truck. It was fairly revealing.

I had by no means seen an F-150 Lightning up shut and private earlier than. As luck would have it, there was a normal F-150 parked proper subsequent to it. To the untrained eye, the 2 vans appeared an identical. It took a short while to note the variations. The entrance finish remedy is sort of completely different, for the reason that Lightning has no grille, and but the distinction might not be instantly obvious to the informal observer. It’s nonetheless an enormous entrance finish, trying like a big piece of granite sculpted into the place the grille would usually be. The cargo field, when viewing each vans from the facet, seems to be a couple of inches shorter, however for those who occurred upon one throughout your every day adventures, the one certain clue the truck was electrical could be the phrase LIGHTNING in tasteful blue letters on both facet of the cargo field.

What To Like About The F-150 Lightning

I’ll name the proprietor of the Ford F-150 Lightning Bob, however in reality we by no means formally launched ourselves. He was busy shuttling a small military of kids and seaside tools into the truck and our dialog was pretty temporary. He advised me he cherished the facility, the silence of the powertrain, and the “really feel” of the truck on the street. In days passed by, drivers used to rave in regards to the “road-hugging weight” of massive, heavy American vehicles with their iron V-8 engines. That’s what the F-150 Lightning reminded him of. Massive, stable, silent — these have been the options he preferred finest. Relating to weight, the Ford has loads of heft. The F-150 Lightning can weigh as little as 6000 or as a lot as 6.900 kilos. That’s some road-hugging weight proper there!

He additionally advised me he was tenting with a good friend who drives a Tesla. They have been in a distant space and his good friend didn’t have sufficient cost in his battery to get to the closest charger. So that they recharged the Tesla utilizing the Ford’s V2L characteristic. It took some time — a number of hours, actually — to offer the Tesla sufficient electrons, however ultimately all of it labored out. From the outline I used to be given, it appears the cost price was solely 3 to 4 miles per hour, however that’s higher than attempting to push a Tesla down a mud street by hand.

What’s Not To Like About The F-150 Lightning

I requested Bob if he was completely satisfied along with his F-150 Lightning and he stated sure, he was about 80% glad. Not precisely a ringing endorsement, is it? He loves the way in which it rides and drives, so what’s he not completely satisfied about? CleanTechnica readers already know the reply to that query. It’s charging. It takes too lengthy, there usually are not sufficient excessive energy chargers, and those which are on the market are sometimes in use when he arrives. There isn’t any option to reserve one prematurely.

After I buttonholed Bob within the parking zone, he had simply returned from a 3-hour journey to discover a Degree 3 charger a couple of cities away. His household was on the seaside or within the pool the entire time and he was feeling sad about leaving them to go cost the truck. There are literally 4 ChargePoint Degree 2 chargers only a 5-minute stroll away, however he didn’t have the ChargePoint app and didn’t learn about them till I advised him. He additionally stated he was bored with being late to appointments as a result of he needed to cease to cost alongside the way in which.

Ford has now joined the Tesla Supercharger community, however Bob has but to obtain the adapter he wants to make use of the Supercharger stations. He additionally was uninformed about how he would pay Tesla for a charging session as soon as he had the adapter. That’s on Ford for not clearly explaining how the method works. Bob additionally bemoaned the truth that there are only a few pull-through websites the place individuals towing a trailer can cost. My colleague Jennifer Sensiba has written about that concern just lately.

He additionally holidays in Florida each winter, however stated he wouldn’t contemplate driving the F-150 Lightning to the Sunshine State as a result of he would want to cease to cost each 250 km or so, which might add a day to the journey every manner. He has a traditional gasoline-powered truck he makes use of for that objective. He advised me he would like it if his truck had a generator that would preserve the battery charged whereas on the freeway. He stated he had heard in regards to the Ramcharger, which is a plug-in hybrid with a gasoline engine that’s coming quickly. He’s fairly certain that will probably be his subsequent car, not one other Ford.

Bob additionally had some complaints about vary. He lives in Quebec the place it will get chilly within the winter. He has observed his vary can drop by virtually 50% when the temperature drops, which implies much more time spent charging. Additionally, when the unique tires wore out, he changed them with tires that had a extra aggressive tread higher suited to digging a path by means of snow. He says they precipitated a 15% drop in vary after they have been mounted, which didn’t make him completely satisfied.

The Takeaway

Readers will discover that Bob isn’t sad along with his battery-electric truck. He likes it simply superb, actually. It’s the lack of charging infrastructure that he finds distressing, and he’s actually not alone in that regard. We at CleanTechnica are passionate advocates for the EV revolution, however we acknowledge that if a battery-electric car doesn’t suit your life-style, you most likely shouldn’t drive one. The Porsche 911 is a superb automobile, however makes a awful car for taking a household of 4 on trip. A pickup truck is ideal for many driving chores, however makes a poor autocross car.

The lesson right here is that not each electrical car will match the wants of each driver. There are nonetheless a number of myths and mysteries about EVs. Be sure to perceive what is required to make driving an EV a joyous expertise. We actually need solely completely satisfied campers on the journey to the electrical car future.