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Second winter with our Lightning... just put a deposit on a Ramcharger. Public charging is awful

nanohead

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Well, owning the 23 Lightning ER has been a pleasure... mostly. We do love driving it, its an F150 to the core, and its been dead nuts reliable (except Android Auto of course). Incredibly comfortable, and now that they installed our beloved heated steering wheel, its just super warm in the winter. FWIW, we also own a Mach E which has been excellent as well.

We've figured out how to optimize range, and use the truck for all sorts of things, some trucky things, other family things. For the record, the Lightning is the single BEST SKI CAR ever. The Frunk, with its AC outlets, is a fantastic hiding place for heated ski boot bags, I kid you not. It can haul lots of people and stuff.

And credit to Ford for actually continuing to improve the truck, doing tons of updates, not nickle and diming us, etc.

But the public charging debacle has ground us down. Its so horrifically bad, unreliable and borderline dangerous I might add, that I just can't do it anymore. This is not the fault of Ford or the Lightning. But with the range problems in the winter, regardless of how much we all try and optimize, not being able to reliably charge even on a 200 mile trip in dead of winter is just way too much of a compromise.

Home charging is great, works every time... But having the winter range limitations that we're all dealing with, has basically pushed me over the edge, even though I love the Lightning in almost every way. For the Lightning to work for us at least, public charging needs to actually be widely available and reliable. Heck, I don't mind spending 20-30 minutes to throw 50-100 miles into the truck, that's fine. But each time we go to a public charger, its a 30% chance we'll get at least 1 charge station to actually work....

In the winter, when we really need reliable public charging critically, and its freakin cold outside, fiddling around with 3-4 charge points, all the garbage mobile apps, broken payment systems, etc is just not fun.

So knowing I'll get my arse kicked on the value of the Lightning when the Ramcharger comes in, I'm going to make the change. But at this point, having onboard charging makes the actual range terror go away.
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RickLightning

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You do know that Telsa's chargers are about to open for us, right? Getting rid of the Mach-E too?
 

LightningShow

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Agree on the Lightning being a great ski vehicle!

i feel your pain about public charging but for most people the Supercharger network will change the game for public charging. I’ve posted this in the New England forum: The area where I ski (NH) is a big time CCS desert. From Manchester, NH to Sherbrooke, Quebec there are zero 150kw+ CCS chargers. In the same stretch there are 76 (yes, SEVENTY SIX) Supercharger handles at 9 different stations. Needless to say, I preordered the Supercharger adapter in the hope i can start using those stations ASAP.
 

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MM in SouthTX

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I have paid to get in line for a Ram. A whopping 70% more battery than the Lightning.

Love driving the Lightning. Can barely take it on the road from where I live. We went to Fort Worth and back this weekend. Took my wife's Highlander. With the Ram and Tesla stations, I could maybe take the Ram without difficulty--one 30' stop on a 420 mile drive--if I could park at a destination charger on arrival. The Lightning...not enough range, unless I want to turn a 6 hour drive into 8.

Side note--I stopped and drove a Grenadier in Houston. Nice vehicle. A little too purpose-built for my needs, though.
 

Newton

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800V charging would be really nice. My Kia goes to 80% in 16 minutes (although it is a much more efficient car with a smaller battery.) If you only need 100 miles it is ridiculously quick. I have no qualms about taking the Kia on a road trip, I'm a bit hesitant about my new SR lightning. Unfortunately it is so darn comfortable that I'm sure I will end up doing it and regretting not having the ER.
 

swajames

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We've rarely needed to public charge but when we have it's mostly been plain sailing. with that said, it's EA who are clearly the weak link in CCS EV ownership and the good news is that things are about to get a whole lot easier once Tesla open up. I'd certainly want to try that before jumping ship.

The other thing is time will tell re Ram EV pricing but you're not getting 70% more. battery capacity without a significant price uplift. Tesla could not honor its promises on range etc and it's yet to be seen if Ram can. My money is on the actual specs falling short of the launch promises.
 

TheWoo

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Ramcharger is intriguing to me. Day-to-day no different than now, road trips no worries. I'll be fascinated to see pricing and final specs and see what kind of experience it actually is. Solves some of the challenges of truck stuff - tow away.
 

RickLightning

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I have paid to get in line for a Ram. A whopping 70% more battery than the Lightning.

Love driving the Lightning. Can barely take it on the road from where I live. We went to Fort Worth and back this weekend. Took my wife's Highlander. With the Ram and Tesla stations, I could maybe take the Ram without difficulty--one 30' stop on a 420 mile drive--if I could park at a destination charger on arrival. The Lightning...not enough range, unless I want to turn a 6 hour drive into 8.

Side note--I stopped and drove a Grenadier in Houston. Nice vehicle. A little too purpose-built for my needs, though.
I just put Fort Worth to Corpus Christi into ABRP. 413 miles. 7 hours of driving. 1:08 charging, Round Rock and San Antonio. 6 hr drive becomes 7, not 8.
 

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swajames

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I just put Fort Worth to Corpus Christi into ABRP. 413 miles. 7 hours of driving. 1:08 charging, Round Rock and San Antonio. 6 hr drive becomes 7, not 8.
Yes, and how often is anyone driving that kind of distance without a couple of stops anyway? You can't do a trip like that in the Lightning without stopping, but who is doing trips like that without stopping in any other vehicle? People have to compare apples to apples. Charging doesn't necessarily extend total trip time.
 

1Jetpilot

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Are you saying that during the winter you were having charging problems on EA due to low temps or is this an internal EA problem? They are bad and unreliable > the Superchargers will be a game changer. "Don't give up the ship," said Admiral Perry
 

brownhousechris

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Agree on the Lightning being a great ski vehicle!

i feel your pain about public charging but for most people the Supercharger network will change the game for public charging. I’ve posted this in the New England forum: The area where I ski (NH) is a big time CCS desert. From Manchester, NH to Sherbrooke, Quebec there are zero 150kw+ CCS chargers. In the same stretch there are 76 (yes, SEVENTY SIX) Supercharger handles at 9 different stations. Needless to say, I preordered the Supercharger adapter in the hope i can start using those stations ASAP.
Yeah, the Lightning is an amazing ski vehicle, my family is loving it.

Totally agree about NH being a charge desert. It's got to get better. But, insider tip, our home mountain of Gunstock installed a bank of 10 Level 2 chargers. Show up for the first chair and charge all day, by the time you leave you've got a 50% charge and some nice rubbery legs!
 
 





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