2021 F-150 Lightning With Extended Battery May Get ~460 Miles Range, Unloaded!

[McMoo]

Based on the charging specs and estimated battery pack size I doubt it will get near that mileage.

Charging into the pack is 17.6 kw and they quote an 85% charge in 8 hours.

(17.6 x 8)/85% = 165.65 kwh
pack size. I would bet the truck can get 2 miles per kWh in the real world which gives a range of 330 miles which is still impressive. It’s possible you could get that up slightly in ideal conditions.

My guess is Ford is sandbagging at 300 miles but I wouldn’t expect anything near 460 miles.

https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North America/US/product/2022/f-150-lightning/pdf/F-150_Lightning_Tech_Specs.pdf

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[Blainestang]

What probably what happened here is they've just been driving it around a slow speeds, and the truck is assuming that they will continue doing that. It won't be nearly as efficient at highway speeds due to aero drag.

I do think Ford is being conservative with the 300 mile number, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone might see 400-something miles around town. But generally, range is most important on trips, and I wouldn't expect 400-something on the highway.

I hope I'm wrong (and that the Short Range is similarly conservative), but we'll see!

 

[Brian Head Yankee]

Ding ding we have a winner.

I could drive my ICE car around super slow until it says 100 MPG. I suspect that this YouTuber wanted to get clicks so he reset it, drove around for 5 minutes really slow just to make news. The YouTube phenomenon is pathetic and useless.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Until the information is on Ford's website, I will be taking any third party sources and hearsay with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Here's to hoping though that the battery range is a conservative figure.

Honestly, if the $/kWh were the same, I would be fine with a reduced range battery if it were available. The available HP would likely take a hit but that would be fine too.

I get where you’re coming from with that, but MKBHD has always been very reliable.

 

[audiomikej]

Yes yes we need to remember most of the energy consumed is fighting wind resistance. If you travel 15 mph in any vehicle you're going to get phenomenal efficiency which could throw off the estimated range the YouTuber was displaying.
Read up on the Mach E extreme cold weather performance. The EPA 211 mile estimated range can get sapped down to less than 100.

 

[Sealevel]

I

Simple, it’s the same as when they underestimate HP. If they told us 400+ miles and then we get less than that then we start calling them out. Now, we can say it’s amazing, and if his math is correct we are looking at towing 200+ miles without a charge

I read it differently, the higher range is only for an unloaded (or slightly loaded 1K lbs) set up - towing a substantial weight will not get much more than they have suggested so far.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Based on the charging specs and estimated battery pack size I doubt it will get near that mileage.

Charging into the pack is 17.6 kw and they quote an 85% charge in 8 hours.

(17.6 x 8)/85% = 165.65 kwh
pack size. I would bet the truck can get 2 miles per kWh in the real world which gives a range of 330 miles which is still impressive. It’s possible you could get that up slightly in ideal conditions.

My guess is Ford is sandbagging at 300 miles but I wouldn’t expect anything near 460 miles.

https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North America/US/product/2022/f-150-lightning/pdf/F-150_Lightning_Tech_Specs.pdf

This is probably the most accurate interpretation of this video that I've seen.

#1 Never trust the range on the GOM (It's called a Guess-Meter for a reason)
#2 Never, ever trust the range on the GOM of a prototype -- no idea how it's been driven recently
#3 Ford has been conservative on all of their specs for the Mach E
#4 Ford sandbagged the Mach E range to make sure folks actually see what they claim

I'm confident the Lightning will beat 300 mile range. What it will actually get will depend. The real information comes when careful reviewers start running standardized range tests.

 

[dothedew]

This is probably the most accurate interpretation of this video that I've seen.

#1 Never trust the range on the GOM (It's called a Guess-Meter for a reason)
#2 Never, ever trust the range on the GOM of a prototype -- no idea how it's been driven recently
#3 Ford has been conservative on all of their specs for the Mach E
#4 Ford sandbagged the Mach E range to make sure folks actually see what they claim

I'm confident the Lightning will beat 300 mile range. What it will actually get will depend. The real information comes when careful reviewers start running standardized range tests.

OP here - I agree with your comments. My guess is that around town and under 65MPH we're going to see real world range of 360-380 miles on the extended range battery. Honestly - perfect for my use case.

 

[ChasingCoral]

t
OP here - I agree with your comments. My guess is that around town and under 65MPH we're going to see real world range of 360-380 miles on the extended range battery. Honestly - perfect for my use case.

ei
Presumably Ford will use the same EPA procedures for range testing the Lightning that they did for the Mach E. Remember folks: the EPA tests are a standard but they are neither real world, nor 70-80 mph. Here's a graphic of the test cycle for the Highway testing:

Some reviewers do a really nice job of testing at real highway speeds and using out and back on the same route to account for wind. Those will be much more informative than EPA cycles.

It will be interesting to see how many of them do loaded and/or towing tests as well.

 

[F150ROD]

Ding ding we have a winner.

I could drive my ICE car around super slow until it says 100 MPG. I suspect that this YouTuber wanted to get clicks so he reset it, drove around for 5 minutes really slow just to make news. The YouTube phenomenon is pathetic and useless.

You cant "reset", it's not like an ICE vehicle were you can reset your current MPG at any time, you have to drive, charge and then a new estimate range will appear. You can reset the trip though. On top of that I don't think they loaned these Lightnings to individuals without a Ford Rep, I might be wrong.

Now what might have happened was someone drove it conservatively, charged again to 80% and this is the estimated range that appeared. The content creator is big Tesla nerd and the title of his video did not indicate anything about the range just for the clicks. I think Ford is sandbagging it.

 

[Blainestang]

I get where you’re coming from with that, but MKBHD has always been very reliable.

I don't think MKBHD is lying or anything. He's reporting legitimately what the truck said, but the truck is just *guessing* the remaining range based on recent driving.

Further, MKBHD is used to Teslas.

Tesla's displayed range is based on (remaining battery capacity)*(EPA Efficiency). It does not change based on recent driving. Therefore, it's way low if you're driving around at 20mph, and it's way high if you're driving at 80mph.

Most EVs, like the Mach E / Lightning, will adjust the displayed range remaining value based on recent driving style.

So, if you're just cruising around a parking lot at low speeds, the truck will assume you will continue to do that for the rest of the battery and adjust accordingly, hence 460 miles.

But if you were to drive on the highway, you may not get anywhere near that. Possibly less than the 300 mile range because aero drag is proportional to the square of velocity and the F-150 is like a rolling brick.

We'll see!

 

[Pedaldude]

...MKBHD has always been very reliable.

Reliable or not, Ford isn't going to understate their range estimates by 50%, I think that the above posts explain what happened.

I bet that Lightning can get 1000 miles range if you're always driving downhill with a tailwind

Ford likely also knows people aren't going to be driving around like there's a raw egg taped to the gas pedal that they don't want to break. Stating the range of the expected owner is a very good idea, rather than the theoretical maximum that other manufacturers have gotten into trouble with.

I've been to a couple driving events put on by manufacturers and pretty much everyone drives around like it's the road test on a driving exam.

...we need to remember most of the energy consumed is fighting wind resistance. If you travel 15 mph in any vehicle you're going to get phenomenal efficiency which could throw off the estimated range the YouTuber was displaying.

On a bicycle or EV, that's true but in an internal combustion engine, most of your energy is going to be rejected as heat by the prime mover, through the radiator or out the exhaust and then there's friction losses which are also in the form of heat, from your transmission gears and rear axle. At 15mph, you're off the torque curve and not enjoying the best efficiency of the engine, that's one of the reasons why hybrid drivetrains are effective at improving city mileage. It's also why smoothly and briskly accelerating to speed in a regular car will get better mileage than cracking open the throttle like there's a block of wood stuck under the pedal and taking half a mile to reach 40mph. It's best shown through the Coast and Burn method started by cabbies in countries with fuel rationing and adopted by the hypermiling community.

With electric drivetrain efficiency, the relationship between speed and energy used is more predictable and not muddied by the peculiarities of dynamic compression, brake specific horsepower and gearing. I remember the first week driving to work after Hurricane Katrina made gas prices more than double; highway traffic that was normally going ten over was going ten under and it lasted a week, which was probably how long it took everyone to realize that they weren't getting any better mileage.

 

[Horse-E]

Given my experiences with the GOM on the Mach E, as well as the software on a production vehicle that has gotten over the air updates, I wouldn’t take any stock in the range estimate from a pre-prod Ford vehicle. The number to focus on later on is mi/kwh and the battery size. Some early Mach E pre-prod screen photos were showing wacky numbers too. Am I getting the quoted EPA range from my Mach E, absolutely. I get highway range equivalent to the quoted combined EPA range. Does the estimator tell me anything useful? No, I pretty much just ignore it and just look at the battery percent remaining.

 

[TXLightning]

It was also very disingenuous that he only quoted the prices for the pro models, one of which is not even available to retail (!).

 

[Brian Head Yankee]

Uh, yes they are available to you

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