DC Fast Chargers not recognizing 320 mile range

[NickOSU7]

Just went on my first long road trip and felt I had everything mapped out perfectly, until I got to electrify America's DC Fast chargers and it thought I had the 240-range lightning. Every time I hit 80 percent of 240 the chargers slowed to a crawl, and I could never get to 320. Any suggestions? This is a trip I take alot and cannot keep truck if no solution.

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[Pioneer74]

1. You'll never get 320 miles on a road trip. The speeds are too high and you're driving a brick.

2. Charging slows down at 80%. You can't change this. You have to plan your charging around it.

 

[mr.Magoo]

This is normal behavior.

There's quite a few examples (Google Lightning dcfc curve) out there and the truck will only charge at "full" speed to 80%, at which point it drops to around 40-50kW and then at 90% is another drop where it becomes painfully slow and counter-productive to sit and charge unless you absolutely have to have those last few miles of range toake it to the next stop/your destination.

 

[NickOSU7]

Thanks for quick responses. I just assumed I would get a fast charge at 80% of 320 not 80% of 240. My question now is why did I pay for the extended range? I love the truck for daily driving but never get close to going 320 miles in a day. Looks like I wasted 10K getting extended range.

 

[Blainestang]

Thanks for quick responses. I just assumed I would get a fast charge at 80% of 320 not 80% of 240. My question now is why did I pay for the extended range? I love the truck for daily driving but never get close to going 320 miles in a day. Looks like I wasted 10K getting extended range.

The confusion is *probably* that the truck is simply less efficient at interstate speeds.

At 75mph, it probably has about 240 miles of range on a 100% charge. So, that's why you're getting 80% of 240 miles.

But the "standard range" truck will only cover ~180 miles on a 100% charge at 75mph.

 

[mr.Magoo]

The nickname for the range meter is GoM, Guess-o-meter.
Once you reach 100% charge it should show close to 320miles of range, Ford made this change because people (much like yourself) were freaking out when the truck didn't.

Once you start driving it'll adjust to a more "realistic" range based on weather, driving, payload, etc.

If your truck displayed 80% SoC and 240 mile range at the time then everything is as expected. 240/.8 = 300 miles.

It's not 80% left of the displayed range, its 80% charge with and estimated range of X (240 in your case).

 

[NickOSU7]

I get that and leaving the house at 320 is great and I was able to get around 240 on first leg of trip but could never get above 210 miles on a fast charge after that. That's my frustration.

 

[TomB985]

I think you're confusing the EPA rating with the dashboard estimates. You're feeding kilowatt-hours of power into a battery, and those kWh will take you a certain distance. That distance is almost never going to match the EPA rating, which is why your mileage display varies so much.

The EPA rating is a great measuring stick, but rarely survives the real world.

 

[Refactoringdr]

The 320 range is achievable if you are starting from 100% and drive 50 mph in warm weather. (I have had the privilege of driving under those conditions occasionally).

However, one of the things we EV drivers have to do is reprogram our brains for the "rhythm" of longer road trips. If we drive Interstate speeds (~70mph) we will only get about 240 miles out of 100%. Since drag increases with the velocity squared even going 5mph faster will cause a significant reduction. Also, due to the charging speed deceleration at 80%, after the first leg, we will typically only be charging to 80% instead of 100%. This leaves legs of around 200 miles between stops (2.5h - 3h).

If you are a balls-to-the-wall driver that wants to eat up 1000 miles/day, you're going to want to trade. But, if you willing to plan a little and eat/get coffee/pee every 3 hrs. (like someone my age does), it's great.

On the flip side, for my day-to-day usage, I don't have to think about any of this since the truck is always "full" and I'm not driving 300 miles (which is 95% of the time)

 

[theblunden]

Not throwing any shade at one person but I did a lot of research jumping into my first EV and don't understand getting into a large purchase without doing research on charging curves and range at higher speeds or towing. Coming from a ICE F150 I saw how much mpg you lose towing or driving at higher speeds (especially after lifting and throw big ass tires on it) The EV world isn't much different than a modded truck your range sucks doing truck things but with an EV you are at the Mercy of today's charging infrastructure.

 

[djstough]

Just went on my first long road trip and felt I had everything mapped out perfectly, until I got to electrify America's DC Fast chargers and it thought I had the 240-range lightning.

And to further clarify, the charger has no idea what you have. It's a bit more complicated, but the charger will provide power as long as the truck is telling it to. The truck is the one drving the power curve, so it tells the charger to send less power after 80%. The charger really doesn't know or care what you are driving, as long as the handshakes occur and the vehicle calls for more juice.

 

[tls]

Just went on my first long road trip and felt I had everything mapped out perfectly, until I got to electrify America's DC Fast chargers and it thought I had the 240-range lightning. Every time I hit 80 percent of 240 the chargers slowed to a crawl, and I could never get to 320. Any suggestions? This is a trip I take alot and cannot keep truck if no solution.

That's not what's happening. The charger knows nothing about "range". Your truck limits charging amperage (and thus charging speed) as the battery fills up. With most chargers you will see peak charge rate (170kW or so) from about 30% to 60%; a considerable falling off of charge rate (again, controlled by the truck, not the charger) from there to 80% and even more from 80% to 100%.

A charger might limit amperage due to overheating either of internal components or the external cable/handle over the course of the session, and EA is notorious for poor charger maintenance, so that's another thing you might be seeing.

 

[queuewho]

Not throwing any shade at one person but I did a lot of research jumping into my first EV and don't understand getting into a large purchase without doing research on charging curves and range at higher speeds or towing.

We are going to see more and more of this as EVs expand to the general public. I'm super comfortable with only the SR because I came from a Model 3 and never used (or saw) the full 300 miles. We are getting to the point where new owners aren't EV enthusiasts or early adopters.

 

[RickLightning]

Just went on my first long road trip and felt I had everything mapped out perfectly, until I got to electrify America's DC Fast chargers and it thought I had the 240-range lightning. Every time I hit 80 percent of 240 the chargers slowed to a crawl, and I could never get to 320. Any suggestions? This is a trip I take alot and cannot keep truck if no solution.

As explained in some of these answers, the confusion is on your end, not the EA charger. It and the truck communicate, and they agree on a charging speed, which is on a curve. No matter which Lightning you have, it slows charging at 60%, and then at 80% (80% is a drop to around 44kW as I recall). And the miles displayed is the truck guessing only, has nothing to do with charging. You should be stopping at 80% on a trip, unless you cannot make it to the next charger.

 

[djwildstar]

I got to electrify America's DC Fast chargers and it thought I had the 240-range lightning. Every time I hit 80 percent of 240 the chargers slowed to a crawl, and I could never get to 320. Any suggestions?

The short answer is that what you're seeing is normal for the Lightning (and practically every other EV, for that matter). Your best strategy for road trips will give you a roughly 80:20 split between driving and charging.

There are a few things going on here, so let's unpack them.

First, you should understand that an EV's battery doesn't hold miles, any more than a gas-powered truck's gas tank holds miles (if you don't believe me, try going into QuikTrip and telling the clerk "250 miles on pump 12" ). The battery holds kiloWatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, a lot like a gas tank holds gallons of gas. One kWh has about the same amount of energy as a half-cup of gas; an ER Lightning's battery holds the same amount of energy as 4 gallons of gas.

The second is that how far you can drive on 1 kWh depends a lot on how and where you're driving. Driving at 35 on a country road in springtime, you can get more than 3 miles on one kWh. Hauling a trailer at highway speeds up a mountain pass, you'll be lucky to go a half-mile on one kWh. As a very rough rule of thumb, the EPA-rated 320 miles is achievable if you drive 55 (cue Sammy Hagar's I Can't Drive 55); At 65, you're looking at more like 270 miles, 210 at 75, and maybe 130 miles at a constant 85. Motor Trend gives the ER Lightning a 240-mile highway cruising range, because they do their tests at 70.

Finally, batteries don't charge like a gas tank fills. The Lightning has a "charging curve" -- the battery will charge faster when it is closer to empty, and slower when it is close to full. The Lightning will do what it can to pack as much power into the battery as possible during the first few minutes. Ford's spec is 41 minutes to charge from 15% to 80% and under ideal conditions my truck will beat that number by a few minutes. Charging really slows down above 80%. It isn't too bad (5-10 minutes) to get from 80% to 85%, but it can take more than another hour to get from 85% to 100%. So on road trips, you don't want to charge above 80% unless you absolutely, positively have to.

So here's my advice for your must-do road trip:

1. Plan your trip using FordPass or ABRP (A Better Route Planner), and double-check the your planned charging stops using PlugShare to make sure that you're likely to be able to charge. Ideally have an alternate charging location in mind and enough reserve range to get there.
2. Charge to 100% before you leave home, so that your initial leg can be 20% longer. Similarly, if you stop overnight, do it at a location that has AC charging and ideally arrange things so you can start your next day at 100% charge, too.
3. Plan your charging stops about 150 miles apart if possible. This will give you about 2 hours of driving between 30-minute charging stops, for that 80:20 driving to charging ratio.
4. Program your day's destination and next charging stop into Sync Navigation so that the truck can give you more-accurate range and distance information as you drive.
5. Drive each leg at the prevailing traffic speed, but never more than either 5 miles over the speed limit or 80 miles an hour (whichever is lower).
6. Monitor your remaining range versus distance to destination, and slow down if it looks like you will arrive too close to empty. I aim for about 30 miles remaining in the battery when I pull in to charge unless I need more in reserve to get to my back-up charger.

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