I'm brand new to F-150 lightning.

[hardy]

My Ford App shows that my battery is 78% charged with a 209 mile range. 78% of 300 should be closer to 234 miles of range. Is this normal, and does that mean that even at 100% charge it will not get the full 300 mile range. Thanks

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[The Weatherman]

This has been the never ending question. We’ve all asked early in our experience.

Bottomline, don’t get too attached to the GOM (Guess O Meter).

Do quick calculation using your mi/kwh x %of charge remaining. It’s a lot closer estimate of remaining distance.

Weather, Wind, Speed, Hauling Weight and Acceleration all play a big part in distance on a charge.

 

[TaxmanHog]

My Ford App shows that my battery is 78% charged with a 209 mile range. 78% of 300 should be closer to 234 miles of range. Is this normal, and does that mean that even at 100% charge it will not get the full 300 mile range. Thanks

Math check:

[209 miles divided by 0.78] is a seasonally adjusted max range of 268 miles if at 100%

Which is 84% of ideal conditions 268/320 (Lariat-ER).

Given that you're in cold northern Illinois and the mix of your driving (hwy/local) this performance could vary further, ex. 15% to 20% losses due to cold

All looks to be in line for the season.

I'm in southern New England, low 50's with SOC 84% to go 289 mile range, 289/320 90% of ideal

 

[hardy]

Thanks. So in above scenario I would take the 209 mile range and multiply it by 78% for a total range of 163 miles.?

 

[hardy]

Math check:

[209 miles divided by 0.78] is a seasonally adjusted max range of 268 miles if at 100%

Which is 84% of ideal conditions 268/320 (Lariat-ER).

Given that you're in cold northern Illinois and the mix of your driving (hwy/local) this performance could vary further, ex. 15% to 20% losses due to cold

All looks to be in line for the season.

I'm in southern New England, low 50's with SOC 84% to go 289 mile range, 289/320 90% of ideal

Thanks, this really helps

 

[TaxmanHog]

Thanks. So in above scenario I would take the 209 mile range and multiply it by 78% for a total range of 163 miles.?

78% is how much energy is left in the battery, 78% of 131 is 102 KWH

Look at the MPK's for [Trip 1] or [Trip 2] or [This Trip}, if it were to show 2.0 MPK, then 2.0 x 102 KWH would get you to 204 miles on empty.

If your MPK is lower, then your actual range will be shorter than what the GOM is projecting.

EV's requires more mental math to confirm how far you're going to get, I only worry about long hauls, plan ahead, know where you can pull in for a charging session.

 

[hardy]

This information I'm getting is great, helps relieve some of my concerns. I'm amazed that I got all these helpful replies. This forum is a life saver. Thanks to all

 

[Jim Lewis]

It would cost you some small change to set up but @RickLightning's advice on the ABRP and PlugShare apps seems good: SF to LA - anyone has done this? | Ford Lightning Forum For F-150 Lightning EV Pickup: News, Owners, Discussions, Community (f150lightningforum.com)

Use ABRP to plan, PlugShare to lookup chargers in advance AND day of trip.

Read Iternio's advice on OBDII scanners to use with ABRP: OBD Connection | Iternio

I got an expensive OBDLink CX device($79)*** to use with ABRP. OBDLink claims it's secure, and it goes to sleep when your truck is off to minimize battery drain (2 mA draw while sleeping, IIRC). A Premium ABRP subscription will cost you $50/yr. PlugShare is free unless you want to remove the ads, then, it's $0.99/mo per platform (ad removal is not available for the web planner yet).

ABRP Premium can factor in data from your truck, real traffic, real weather conditions, and charger availability on certain networks to better predict the range you're going to achieve as you drive and where you will be able to charge. PlugShare is crowd-sourced information on actual working chargers. ABRP is very clunky in a number of ways. For instance, if you manually input your HVB SOC instead of reading it from the OBDII device, the All Live data switch turns itself off to warn you that some piece of data is no longer live. What the app doesn't tell you is that all other live data settings remain available, but by the All Live Data toggle, there is no indication as to what those might be. You have to page through settings to assure yourself what's still live data. And so it goes... The ABRP site/app password for login is not the same as that required to submit in-app UpVoty user feedback, etc. The tech support for the app is fantastic, and admits that there is stuff about the interface that ABRP needs to fix. The person I chatted with said the Live Data interface was next on their agenda. My comments are about ABRP v4.7.1 (the iOS version). Their website interface could use some improvement, too. The website does not take live OBDII data input, but I presume it can employ real weather and traffic data. ABRP - A Better Routeplanner

***The OBDLink advice on the CX reader says it can't access all the data channels that the more classic and expensive OBDLink MX+ device can. The MX+ device employs classic Bluetooth, whereas ABRP needs a BT LE 4.x+ scanner to work on iOS. Yet I find using Capstone's Car Scanner template (https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/car-scanner-app-template-for-real-time-charging-battery-and-range-telemetry.11602/) and the CX device that under All Sensors in Car Scanner, I can find ~all the important sensor data I see when using my OBDLink MX+ device. (If I want to use FORScan, though, gotta go with the MX+ for that. CX doesn't work).

All of the above is probably well-known to more experienced forum members. I'm just slightly beyond the rank beginner stage.

 

[RickLightning]

I use the free ABRP.

 

[Tundra]

I recently watched a State of Charge Video, where Darren Palmer was interviewed.

One of the more interesting pieces of information I gleaned from this interview was that the range estimate has so many influencing variables, and that specifically with a new driver with unknown habits, the range tends to be fairly conservative, so that it is not over promising.

It was quite an informative video overall, especially about the effects of the battery temperature.

 

[BuzzLightning2023]

I use the free ABRP.

I loaded ABRP to my iPhone and played around with it. Was on the freeway at night trying to find my first DCFC and it said I had to upgrade in order to use ABRP with Apple CarPlay. Onboard nav and a little luck got me to a charger in time (after taking me to an empty industrial park).

 

[RickLightning]

I loaded ABRP to my iPhone and played around with it. Was on the freeway at night trying to find my first DCFC and it said I had to upgrade in order to use ABRP with Apple CarPlay. Onboard nav and a little luck got me to a charger in time (after taking me to an empty industrial park).

I use Android.

 

[Bwanapete]

All this is too complicated for me. I charge when the truck says to, unless I “know the territory “ and then I ignore the truck and keep driving. I do keep an eye on miles per kWh and % of battery left, as an additional help.

 

[Calvin H-C]

All this is too complicated for me. I charge when the truck says to, unless I “know the territory “ and then I ignore the truck and keep driving.

That's good advice that my six years of driving a Focus Electric has taught me with its 100-mile range. Too many new EV drivers get all caught up in the details that I suspect leads to a lot of unnecessary range anxiety.

While the GOM is not gospel, it's not as bad as many make it out to be. It is a helpful rule of thumb estimator and if you use it knowing that conditions and your driving habits will likely eat away at at least 15% of its estimate, you'll be fine. Quite frankly, I was using the GOM (distance to empty) display on my last three ICE vehicles way more than looking at the gas gauge. While the GOM on an EV will fluctuate way more than on an ICE vehicle, it is just as useful.

I do keep an eye on miles per kWh and % of battery left, as an additional help.

Not a bad idea, but still requires some math to turn this into how far one has available, but math tricks for one's own situation can make it easy.

One feature that my FFE has that the Lightning doesn't is a "surplus" display when using the nav system. On the FFE, when a destination (or waypoint) is entered, one can mark it as a charge point and the dash display will show a "surplus" which is the GOM's range minus the distance to the next charge point. If you start off with 20 miles surplus and it starts to shrink, you can adjust your driving habits or plan to stop somewhere else for a charge if needed.

 

[Maxx]

If you want to get a better feel for your truck’s range, plug in a scanner and watch the energy available at different SOCs. I couldn’t quite understand why the math didn’t seem to work out and energy available was often lower than expected. This video may help:



If you are totally new to EV stuff, rest of his videos could give you a general understanding as well.

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