Truck died 5 miles from home

[Ford Motor Company]

So I was doing my return trip from my daughters house which I’ve done many times. I charged to 90% 178 miles from home. Watched my usage very carefully. Averaged 1.7 miles/ kilowatt hour. I kept resetting trip one to make sure I was OK. The last time I checked, I had 22% battery which is 28 kWh with only 34 miles to go. About 10 miles out the state of charge started dropping rapidly. At 3% state of charge the truck no longer had acceleration. Drifted over to the shoulder 4.4 miles from home. This is ridiculous. No idea why I’m dead by the side of the road.

Hi there! I can look into your Lightning's charging concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Lightning's VIN?

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[Ish]

On my first trip I took my ER down to 3%. Getting off the Ohio Turnpike I watched the power meter get down below 5% and start flashing different colors definitely orange and maybe red, as the regen kicked in, but I had to look back up and navigate the service plaza exit and get to the EA charger as I nearly had a panic attack thinking I’d have to push the truck to the charger. When I looked back down I had 33% power to get me the next 250ft to the EA station which luckily had 2 functioning chargers out of 4.

My adapter shipped last Friday so I (hopefully) won’t be in that scenario again.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

Hi there! I can look into your Lightning's charging concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Lightning's VIN?

Will do. Thank you.

 

[invertedspear]

Remember this is their second EV and their first truck

Wrong on both counts. The Focus and Ranger electrics already existed. The Ranger was a California compliance special, I think the Focus had more distribution. They did, however, completely throw away the playbook on those, but I would think they should have learned a few lessons on them.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

How many times have you charged to 100% and taken it below 20%? At what temperatures?

There is a state of health estimate in one of the menus on the pro version of car scanner, what does it report?

The Ford battery tech is kind of old school now, LFP might work better for you. You might also be finding the limits of Ford's thermal management techniques. Remember this is their second EV and their first truck.

The SoH indicator isn’t worth its salt. I have data points in other threads. I should note my SoH showed 100% when I had a module replaced.

 

[Dukhudo]

I just wanted to add. Ford display percentages don’t align with the actual soc and energy in the battery. Should it? Yes, but it doesn’t.

an example of this. 99% displayed charge shows 118kWh of energy, while 100% is 125-127kWh. 90% for me is around 108kWh according to car scanner.

wish it was 131x0.9=118kWh. No clue why Ford does this. Very frustrating.

 

[Newton]

I don't think that anybody should feel attacked for how they use EVs, the manufacturers do not do a very good job of telling us what to do - and they might not even really know yet. Enthusiast forums are how we get our information. I didn't know not to charge my e-Golf to 100% all the time until I read a post on how to actually set a charge limit using VW's rather obscure method to do so.

Nobody is doing it wrong, we are all doing it different ways and trying to figure it out. Ford definitely has a problem that other EVs don't have, my EV6 has been shown to go below 0 quite easily. It also gets a lot more range than the EPA estimate, I think I show around 330 when fully charged and it seems to actually have it. (I have not gone to zero to check.) On the other hand, you are not being advised to limit your AC charge amperage on the Lightning to keep the ICCU from frying which is a pesky issue that Hyundai is still dealing with.

Every car has its quirks and that what forums are about. I would hope that people realize that the issues with the Ford are not "EV issues", in many EVs range is hardly an issue so what happens at the lower end is of academic interest only. The Lightning is incredibly inefficient, charges slowly, currently has no heat pump for cold weather and has less than optimal software support. As an EV it is sub-optimal, as a truck it is the best in its class gas or electric.

 

[VTHokies]

For the nay sayers on <2 efficiency; it is absolutely normal, if not standard, to have a 1.7 kw/mi efficiency on Texas road trips when following the speed limit. For the longest time I thought something was wrong with my truck, but it's the combination of speed limits, the large amounts of long and open roads, and how spread out things are, and climate/low elevation. If I were calculating a Texas trip, I'd never use anything more than 1.7 as my estimate.

exactly what I've seen on my recent trips from Dallas to Amarillo and Dallas to Houston...

 

[Yellow Buddy]

I don't think that anybody should feel attacked for how they use EVs, the manufacturers do not do a very good job of telling us what to do - and they might not even really know yet. Enthusiast forums are how we get our information. I didn't know not to charge my e-Golf to 100% all the time until I read a post on how to actually set a charge limit using VW's rather obscure method to do so.

Nobody is doing it wrong, we are all doing it different ways and trying to figure it out. Ford definitely has a problem that other EVs don't have, my EV6 has been shown to go below 0 quite easily. It also gets a lot more range than the EPA estimate, I think I show around 330 when fully charged and it seems to actually have it. (I have not gone to zero to check.) On the other hand, you are not being advised to limit your AC charge amperage on the Lightning to keep the ICCU from frying which is a pesky issue that Hyundai is still dealing with.

Every car has its quirks and that what forums are about. I would hope that people realize that the issues with the Ford are not "EV issues", in many EVs range is hardly an issue so what happens at the lower end is of academic interest only. The Lightning is incredibly inefficient, charges slowly, currently has no heat pump for cold weather and has less than optimal software support. As an EV it is sub-optimal, as a truck it is the best in its class gas or electric.

I sat at an EA stall yesterday, charging at 150kW on the 150kW charger on the KIA (220kW capable) when I got approached by a Lightning owner and a Toyota BZ owner asking how I was getting such fast charging speeds. They were from PA and both traveling down the coast towards FL and SC

They both sat on 350kW chargers. The Lightning topped out at 108kW at 64% and the BZ4X topped out at 16kW..because they plugged in at over 50% charge. I tried explaining to the Toyota owner that they max at 100kW capable and the Lightning owner…well they didn’t care. They already filed for a buyback. They were more interested in my Kia because “it looks like an Explorer”

I doubt either of them will end up sticking with an EV. Nobody explained it to them, they don’t know the limitations, and it’ll all just end in frustration.

*I pulled in at 6%, they were already there. I unplugged at 60% and left…they were both still there. If they were running the top end of those batteries they would’ve easily added 4-6 hours to their trip.

 

[RickLightning]

I sat at an EA stall yesterday, charging at 150kW on the 150kW charger on the KIA (220kW capable) when I got approached by a Lightning owner and a Toyota BZ owner asking how I was getting such fast charging speeds. They were from PA and both traveling down the coast towards FL and SC

They both sat on 350kW chargers. The Lightning topped out at 108kW at 64% and the BZ4X topped out at 16kW..because they plugged in at over 50% charge. I tried explaining to the Toyota owner that they max at 100kW capable and the Lightning owner…well they didn’t care. They already filed for a buyback. They were more interested in my Kia because “it looks like an Explorer”

I doubt either of them will end up sticking with an EV. Nobody explained it to them, they don’t know the limitations, and it’ll all just end in frustration.

*I pulled in at 6%, they were already there. I unplugged at 60% and left…they were both still there. If they were running the top end of those batteries they would’ve easily added 4-6 hours to their trip.

Noted what you wrote that I bolded. THAT is the issue that exists today and impacts everything - the lack of desire to learn, to become informed, to gain knowledge, and then be able to inform others. Goes way beyond EVs to all aspects of life.

I joined "forums" early in life. In the late 70s, I was in a "forum" where computer users met monthly to ask questions and answer them in a group setting (full auditorium). If you asked a question and then it got answered, you were supposed to answer it the next time it got asked.

Then I joined Bulletin Boards. Then, when forums came into existence, I joined ones that met my interest. At one point, on a major computer manufacturer's forums, I was the top contributor by a factor of 3x the next person.

To learn is good. To teach is better.

Good for you trying to educate. But, George Carlin was right.

 

[02Reaper]

Way back on range tests I feel like Ford did a better job as far as having some reserve. There were several videos of people testing it, including this one.

I wish I could find it on youtube, but I can't seem to find it anywhere else.

 

[Zprime29]

I just wanted to add. Ford display percentages don’t align with the actual soc and energy in the battery. Should it? Yes, but it doesn’t.

an example of this. 99% displayed charge shows 118kWh of energy, while 100% is 125-127kWh. 90% for me is around 108kWh according to car scanner.

wish it was 131x0.9=118kWh. No clue why Ford does this. Very frustrating.

They aren't supposed to align. Ford has implemented a buffer at the top of the range and at the low. This is to prevent accidental over/under-discharge which can damage the battery and potentially lead to a fire. This is why the 131kWh is labeled at USEABLE energy capacity. The "actual" SOC you see from an OBDII reader is based on the the physical limits of the battery. The "display" SOC is based on the (for safety) software limited capacity. Don't be frustrated, be happy that Ford is preventing your house from burning down.

EDIT: As a quick after thought, all EV makers do this. It isn't exclusive to Ford. Really, anyone who makes anything with Li-Ion batteries likely limits the charge as a measure of safety. Google "Samsung Note fires" for what happens when you don't manage a battery properly.

 

[Dukhudo]

The battery pack is 144.3kWh. It's 131kWh usable. the SOC on my ODB reader is not based on the physical limits. If it 127kWh (100% display SOC) would read 89% on the ODB reader, but it reads 97%.

Here's another example, when my truck glitched and wouldn't get to 100% display which allow me to charge to the full 130.7kWh. Note the HVB SOC reading and at this point, the battery wouldn't take any additional charge, it just hovered at 130.7kWh for the next 10-15 minutes.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

Noted what you wrote that I bolded. THAT is the issue that exists today and impacts everything - the lack of desire to learn, to become informed, to gain knowledge, and then be able to inform others. Goes way beyond EVs to all aspects of life.

I joined "forums" early in life. In the late 70s, I was in a "forum" where computer users met monthly to ask questions and answer them in a group setting (full auditorium). If you asked a question and then it got answered, you were supposed to answer it the next time it got asked.

Then I joined Bulletin Boards. Then, when forums came into existence, I joined ones that met my interest. At one point, on a major computer manufacturer's forums, I was the top contributor by a factor of 3x the next person.

To learn is good. To teach is better.

Good for you trying to educate. But, George Carlin was right.

Exactly why your truck should not stop before it gets to empty. We on this forum are very careful, do our calculations, and still get burned. The average user…

I know a guy whose wife rented an EV and did not even know that she rented an EV. She was out in the boonies when it said 10%, charge soon. That’s when she found out.

… although I would add that being charitable towards others may be more important than being smarter than everyone else.

 

[flypony53]

I sat at an EA stall yesterday, charging at 150kW on the 150kW charger on the KIA (220kW capable) when I got approached by a Lightning owner and a Toyota BZ owner asking how I was getting such fast charging speeds. They were from PA and both traveling down the coast towards FL and SC

They both sat on 350kW chargers. The Lightning topped out at 108kW at 64% and the BZ4X topped out at 16kW..because they plugged in at over 50% charge. I tried explaining to the Toyota owner that they max at 100kW capable and the Lightning owner…well they didn’t care. They already filed for a buyback. They were more interested in my Kia because “it looks like an Explorer”

I doubt either of them will end up sticking with an EV. Nobody explained it to them, they don’t know the limitations, and it’ll all just end in frustration.

*I pulled in at 6%, they were already there. I unplugged at 60% and left…they were both still there. If they were running the top end of those batteries they would’ve easily added 4-6 hours to their trip.

This describes the overall issue perfectly. The education from the dealership is non existent. I would say 2 things should be required for a person to buy an EV.
1. Access to L2 charging daily (either at work or at home)
2. A 15 minute course on how to charge your vehicle that includes education on the vehicles charging curve and max charging speed.

I state this because of the note above. I have been to so many EA stations that have people charging to 100% because they do not know how their vehicles charge. Most people I talk to at chargers who do not have home/work charging really do not like the EV experience. this is really what kills the EV movement. The reason I continue to drive an EV is the ability to plug it in when I get home and have a "full tank" in the morning. I would say the average driver only needs to do a charge at a DCFC 1-2 times a month at max if they have home charging. I have been driving EVs for the last 4 years, I consider myself a typical driver that does a long drive of 200+ miles one way, 1-2 times a month requiring DCFC.

It is always frustrating pulling up to an EV charger and seeing the Bolt plugged into the 350kW charger with only a 50kW open. In the Lightning, I only grab the 150 or below unless there is an outage. In my Rivian, I get frustrated when the 350 is taken.

That being said, there are still people who are confused if they should put regular, premium or super unleaded in their ICE vehicles...

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