Aftermarket Add On Battery?

[anewbe]

This May have been already covered, if it was I could not find it. Is there an aftermarket add on battery similar to Tesla's Toolbox battery? If there is who makes it, if there is not, is this something Ford would consider doing? It would be great accessory a combination toolbox/battery add on to extend the range of the truck.

Sponsored

 

[mattskr]

No, this does not exist for Lightning.

You also cannot place some type of external battery or solar panels into the bed of the truck and charge while driving.

Ford does have some patents on it, but patent means nothing as far as real world product: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34277725/ford-f-150-range-extender-ev-pickup-patent/

 

[invertedspear]

Not an Electrician here, so I don't know if there's any hardware limitation to this, but I would love to see something that sits in the bed and becomes the new bed floor maybe just the height of the wheel wells. Would need thermal venting I'm sure. Then that plugs into the pro power 240v outlet and back feeds to the battery. Not sure if the PPOB hardware could do it, if it can, it might be a simple software change to allow it.

Then I would want to see this rentable from a dealership so I can just reserve it when doing a long road trip. They can drop it in and pull it out with a forklift. This would take some cargo space away, but if I'm camping or going on vacation, I can get buy with that loss.

This is a pipe dream. If Ford is cutting 2024 production plans, there will never be enough lightnings on the road to make this financially viable.

 

[anewbe]

Not an Electrician here, so I don't know if there's any hardware limitation to this, but I would love to see something that sits in the bed and becomes the new bed floor maybe just the height of the wheel wells. Would need thermal venting I'm sure. Then that plugs into the pro power 240v outlet and back feeds to the battery. Not sure if the PPOB hardware could do it, if it can, it might be a simple software change to allow it.

Then I would want to see this rentable from a dealership so I can just reserve it when doing a long road trip. They can drop it in and pull it out with a forklift. This would take some cargo space away, but if I'm camping or going on vacation, I can get buy with that loss.

This is a pipe dream. If Ford is cutting 2024 production plans, there will never be enough lightnings on the road to make this financially viable.

Perhaps a third party will step in.

 

[The Weatherman]

Don’t have the source, but I think I saw somewhere that Tesla is not providing their Cyber truck range extender anymore either.

 

[hturnerfamily]

there are a lot of engineering and electrical reasons why the notion of just 'adding' a battery in the bed, or anywhere else for that matter, is not only problematic, from just a WEIGHT issue alone, but also because the way batteries are 'paralleled', or in 'series', and their internal interactions, don't provide a simple plug-n-play scenario.
Also, Inverters, Converters, and the motors themselves are 'programmed' and built for certain voltages, amperages, inputs, outputs, and operating parameters... it's not an 'easy' idea, if it has any merits at all.

These trucks, or any EV, for that matter, are BUILT for what they have. Just to 'add' something is not realistic, although it seems dreamy.

This is a similar reason why EVs don't have solar panels on the roof. Or in the bed.
Several folks have almost 'demanded' that the SIMPLE answer to all our EV 'range' problems is to just add a high-amperage ALTERNATOR, to spin and generator energy while the wheels are turning. Well, on the surface it may 'seem' to be an idea, but, if that were really the case, would not EVs already have these(?)... There are engineering and practical reasons why they don't.

 

[anewbe]

there are a lot of engineering and electrical reasons why the notion of just 'adding' a battery in the bed, or anywhere else for that matter, is not only problematic, from just a WEIGHT issue alone, but also because the way batteries are 'paralleled', or in 'series', and their internal interactions, don't provide a simple plug-n-play scenario.
Also, Inverters, Converters, and the motors themselves are 'programmed' and built for certain voltages, amperages, inputs, outputs, and operating parameters... it's not an 'easy' idea, if it has any merits at all.

These trucks, or any EV, for that matter, are BUILT for what they have. Just to 'add' something is not realistic, although it seems dreamy.

This is a similar reason why EVs don't have solar panels on the roof. Or in the bed.
Several folks have almost 'demanded' that the SIMPLE answer to all our EV 'range' problems is to just add a high-amperage ALTERNATOR, to spin and generator energy while the wheels are turning. Well, on the surface it may 'seem' to be an idea, but, if that were really the case, would not EVs already have these(?)... There are engineering and practical reasons why they don't.

It just seems that if Tesla can have it as an option so should Ford. There are times that an extra 100 miles of range would be most helpful.

 

[Maquis]

It just seems that if Tesla can have it as an option so should Ford. There are times that an extra 100 miles of range would be most helpful.

See post #5.

 

[biers]

Isn’t one of the members here the guy who hooked up a travel trailer with extra batteries that he connected in with the primary HVB?
But to confirm what others said, there is no way to do this. In other words, anything is possible with enough money.

 

[AZT9]

Isn’t one of the members here the guy who hooked up a travel trailer with extra batteries that he connected in with the primary HVB?
But to confirm what others said, there is no way to do this. In other words, anything is possible with enough money.

His lightning was allegedly stolen and lit on fire. He never revealed how/if it was actually successful

 

[Heliian]

I would be hoping that a 3rd party aftermarket battery module becomes available eventually.

 

[chl]

No, this does not exist for Lightning.

You also cannot place some type of external battery or solar panels into the bed of the truck and charge while driving.

Ford does have some patents on it, but patent means nothing as far as real world product: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34277725/ford-f-150-range-extender-ev-pickup-patent/

From the article: "...Inside the device would be a small motor, fuel tank, exhaust system, and electronics needed to hook it up to an electric truck...."

From the published Patent:

"...In a further non-limited embodiment of any of the foregoing electrified vehicles, the generator includes an enclosure that houses an engine and a fuel tank...

FIG. 6 illustrates a generator-side connector of the connection system of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates a vehicle-side connector of the connection system of FIG. 5...."

The connectors are CCS1, so it seems to be connecting to the battery via the DC pins.

-------------------------------

So this adds a gasoline powered generator to the truck, making it conceptually a lot like the Chevy [Bolt] Volt, a hybrid EV/ICE. [corrected, my bad]

There were companies that would add an additional battery pack to the Nissan Leaf and update the software basically doubling the range. They put the additional battery pack in the hatchback storage area.

Maybe someone will make something like that to put in the bed of the truck. Something that doesn't burn gasoline.

That might be "a better idea."

 

[chl]

I would be hoping that a 3rd party aftermarket battery module becomes available eventually.

Me too. There was one for the Nissan Leaf, back in the day.

There are companies servicing fleet owners at present that can swap out battery packs in a few minutes using robotics and a modular designed battery pack. That is also a big thing in China (Nio). That takes care of a couple of EV concerns: 1) the time to charge and 2) the degradation of the battery due to DC fast charging over and over.

You'd basically have a service contract with the company, they own and maintain the batteries so they take the degradation risk, you pay to swap them in and out on a per use or monthly basis.

You always have a fully charged battery available to use when you swap.

Less grid infrastructure is required for battery swapping stations because the batteries are charged at a central facility, not at the swapping station. So the swapping stations do not need the same grid power as charging stations.

It's a business model that could catch on someday in the US for the consumer who is not a fleet owner. It is being implemented in China and some EU countries.

 

[chl]

His lightning was allegedly stolen and lit on fire. He never revealed how/if it was actually successful

There is no reason it couldn't be done from an engineering stand point, it is mostly just putting another battery pack in parallel with the main battery pack to add capacity and adjusting the software to take the larger capacity into account. The main battery is just a bunch of small battery cells connected together and formed into a module/pack.

See for example:

One would have to do some wiring and maybe reprogramming. They did it with Nissan Leafs doubling the battery capacity with an additional pack in the hatch behind the back seats:

"...Muxsan's main product is the luggage space-mounted extender battery for the Nissan Leaf. We can install battery extenders in any Nissan Leaf, including the models post-refresh (2018+, a.k.a. ZE1). The extender battery is placed in the boot of your car, in a custom designed battery box. This battery box ensures your safety: it contains the battery and makes sure there is no way you can accidentally disconnect or break the extender battery. As such, you will be able to continue to use your trunk as you see fit: placing heavy things on top, even your dog having an accident will not harm the extender battery...."

See: https://www.muxsan.com/English/products.html

Of course, without an extra on-board charger (AC to DC converter and electronics) to charge the larger battery, the added on pack will require more time to recharge at home L2 than a Lightning with an ER which has dual on-board chargers.

"...Ford Charging Station Pro is included with the extended-range battery. This allows a peak charging power of 19.2 kW enabled by the battery’s dual onboard chargers meaning a full charge overnight. ..."

https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/f150-lightning/features/capability/

Without the extra on-board charger, the charge rate would be limited to the 11.3kW max of the SR battery (single on-board charger), so suppose the combined SR and add-on are equal to the SR battery capacity of 131kWh. Then the time for 20-80% would be:

104.8kWh-26.2kWh=78.6kWh
78.6kWh/11.3kW=7 hours (approx)
versus 78.6kWh/19.2kW=4 hours (approx)

But if you charge at home over night, no big deal.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Ford and Tesla already have the exact same add-on battery capacity extender. Here is a picture of it:

Sponsored