I'm out after 6 months

[JvlTed]

After 6 months of driving my Lightning Platinum - I'm out.

Paid $100,000 for it on Memorial Day and received a trade in on Thanksgiving for $64,500. (Other trade in offers were $45,000, $53,000, and $59,000) Not good.

I put 15,000 miles on the truck in 6 months and loved the ride and acceleration of course. Living in Southern Wisconsin, when the meter said I had 320 miles, I could rely on 250; no problem...............in the summer temperatures.

WELL - then the temperature dropped to 20 degrees F (not that cold) and my 320 miles dropped real fast. In the garage the meter said 320 & when it sat out on the driveway, that 320 now said 260 at 100% charge. Driving it to the Audi dealership that was 70 miles away, the range dropped from 320 to 100 miles. Sorry, that doesn't work with me and my job.

Read the Wall Street Journal & EV's have fallen off a cliff in demand. Ford dropped the price of the truck $10,000 6 weeks after purchase, Ford rebated me $6300, but the dealer (Gordie Boucher / Janesville WI) kept $5000 and there was nothing I could do about it, they had a lame excuse. Recently Ford started offering $7500 rebates and that tanked resale further. (Please remember no "green" rebates for this price level.)

I gave it a fair shot. I got caught up in "the hype" of the waiting list and seeing it after 2 years. The dealers aren't good at representing these. Part of it is Ford's fault and some responsibility is with the dealerships as well. (The Illinois Ford dealers won a lawsuit saying they can't be forced into paying upgrades for EV's.) It's still a bit of a mess. The idea is good, but it's time will come down the road.

I'm very lucky I had the money to buy it for cash, take the hit on trade in, and return to Q7's which have treated me well.

Maybe someday I'll be back.

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[Stang68]

Seems like an EV was never the right choice for your needs, unfortunately. Maybe down the road when battery tech has improved.

Trade-in values are all coming back down to earth, but especially so for EVs. The cratering market helped us just buy our new Lariat for $11k off sticker!

 

[JvlTed]

Seems like an EV was never the right choice for your needs, unfortunately. Maybe down the road when battery tech has improved.

Trade-in values are all coming back down to earth, but especially so for EVs. The cratering market helped us just buy our new Lariat for $11k off sticker!

Good for you on the price drop and the market will settle to it's equilibrium.

95% of the time, the truck fit me just fine and the remaining 5% was manageable. But with the cold coming, no way.

Enjoy your new truck, great product.

 

[Stang68]

Good for you on the price drop and the market will settle to it's equilibrium.

95% of the time, the truck fit me just fine and the remaining 5% was manageable. But with the cold coming, no way.

Enjoy your new truck, great product.

Thanks, really enjoying it so far.

And I thought NJ got cold, but 20 degrees being “not cold” in Wisconsin would have any EV shaking in its tires!

 

[Toby57]

15,000 miles in six months. You gave it a fair effort.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Maybe someday I'll be back.

See you on the flip side, maybe in 10 years an EV will be capable of your use case.

 

[peoples1234]

Okay.

 

[TheWoo]

The cold has been a bit of a rude awakening the last week for me. Cold temps + long trips at 80mph interstate speeds had the range really chopped.

That's not common enough to change anything for me, but definitely a reminder that the drawbacks can be pretty significant at times. Sorry it didn't end up working for your use case.

 

[Peddyr]

I have questions. I have a standard range Lariat and I put 30k miles on it in just over a year. I made it through the NH winter last year and was never close to running my battery empty. Would you be towing with it on a daily basis all winter? Couple hundred miles a day? Is it just a matter of the weather that has you spooked? I wish you well either way and hope you find something that works better for you.

 

[RickLightning]

There will be a lot of Lightnings traded in soon, because so many people didn't understand the impact of winter on range.

 

[JvlTed]

The cold has been a bit of a rude awakening the last week for me. Cold temps + long trips at 80mph interstate speeds had the range really chopped.

That's not common enough to change anything for me, but definitely a reminder that the drawbacks can be pretty significant at times. Sorry it didn't end up working for your use case.

Thank you, but it was fine. Overall very positive and not turned off to trying again. Like I said, 95% of the time it worked just like an ICE. But I thought the high heat would have been similar to the cold, but that's not the case when I was blocking an intersection with a dead truck.
That was my "tipping point"

 

[JvlTed]

I have questions. I have a standard range Lariat and I put 30k miles on it in just over a year. I made it through the NH winter last year and was never close to running my battery empty. Would you be towing with it on a daily basis all winter? Couple hundred miles a day? Is it just a matter of the weather that has you spooked? I wish you well either way and hope you find something that works better for you.

Maybe pulled a utility trailer with it about 10 times and never above 2000 pounds.
Easily drove 200+ miles on most days around 75mph when on the Interstate.
Yes, the weather. I was coming home from ORD & the "50 mile range" warning came up and I was 30 miles from home. (Been there many times and made it without an issue every time.) 2 miles from home the truck shut down in an intersection.

 

[NCMike]

It's really sad how little EV manufacturers and dealers educate buyers on winter performance, DCFC charging, etc... before a purchase. Yes it is up to the buyer to do the research before buying but all of that research should be available on the manufacturers website. It's not just Ford, Tesla misleads or doesn't tell the whole truth about their products up front either. Buyers shouldn't have to join car specific forums to make an informed decision on a car. Wife is purchasing a model x next week and the amount of people that join the Tesla forums unaware of missing features that are actually on the website is crazy.

 

[Gato Meoow]

Seems like an EV was never the right choice for your needs, unfortunately. Maybe down the road when battery tech has improved.

Trade-in values are all coming back down to earth, but especially so for EVs. The cratering market helped us just buy our new Lariat for $11k off sticker!

I dont know about this "cratering market" there is nothing available in this area, maybe there was a scare in October. Every dealer seems to have 10 trucks on the way so there may be a surplus in the winter.

 

[Hank42]

I got hit with the first time Cold reduced range this Thanksgiving day weekend. I don't mind the range reduction so much as I do all the broken EVGO Chargers. Getting out in the cold, futzing with an app to get the truck to charge because the "Plug'n go" is not working, (freezing my hands off to use the touchscreen on the app in the process) and then finally calling the # on the charger an waiting on hold for the EVGO tech to reboot the charger and "unplug it, now plug it back in, now unplug it again.. Oh, sorry sir, this charger is broken, can I help you find another?

Two failed EVGO charger stops later and I finally wound up at a Tesla Supercharger with 11 miles to spare. It had Magic docs at all 8 stalls, and it just "worked".

To tie this back to the OP - for a trip in the summer that I can do with no charge stops, the cold changed things for me, and not having reliable charging is the sh1t icing on the cake.

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