Extended Range V.S Standard Range Battery

[uniblab]

I bought an XLT SR, but for the past month I have been driving a platinum (ER) so I have significant experience with both battery packs. I live in north Texas, which means I only have ~2 months per year that are very cold. I also have another vehicle (an RV) that I can use for towing or long road trips. These were the two main reasons I purchased a SR truck, but they were not the only reasons.

Another big reason was weight. The ER battery pack is a lot heavier, I think 5-600lbs heavier but haven't been able to find an exact number. I did weigh my XLT SR at the drag strip and it was almost 6,200lbs without me in it. That is 1,200lbs more than my 2018 5.0 F-150 crew cab was but it's pretty light for an EV pickup. With more weight would come slower acceleration, worse braking and worse handling - I have observed all of those things in the ER truck. For example, I can cut consistent 1.85 60-foot times in my SR but I have yet to see an ER timeslip below 1.9. Splitting hairs? Maybe but I can feel the difference. And you would think that the ER with it's extra 130+ horsepower would be a lot quicker once you get rolling, but it sure doesn't feel like those extra ponies are pulling their weight in the ER truck. Maybe it's the 22" wheels and the 100-lb moonroof - maybe a stripper pro ER would be different.

As for range, yes having the extra miles available with the ER is nice. I only have to plug in every 3 days instead of every other day but that is a small price to pay for the better performance and lower price of the SR battery. I do take the SR truck to Houston occasionally and I do have to stop to charge, but that hasn't been a major headache so far. I did consider taking the truck to Colorado once but there was too much dead space inbetween with no fast chargers. The ER battery wouldn't have made any difference, either. Hopefully the charging situation will improve soon.

A final reason was that I dislike the 15" portrait display, leather seats, power tailgates and big glass moonroofs. It's difficult to find a Lightning with the ER battery that doesn't have those things (I did find a couple, but none in Atlas blue with the onboard scales.)

Bottom line, I'm very happy with the SR battery pack in my XLT and I would buy it again. Higher price, more weight, forced options and no performance advantage killed my interest in the ER.

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[Replika]

Ride is definitely better with the standard battery (it's a huge weight difference), and the sunroof which is on almost every ER battery makes the cabin noisier. If you care about that and use the truck in-town SR makes a lot of sense.

In terms of range, our ER gave the range number I expected out of the SR. Oh well

 

[Jseis]

We’ve had a Mach-E SR for 2.5 years and a Lariat ER for 7 months. I commute with LT year-round & about 90 miles a day. Wife prefers the MME for local, around the towns errands, etc. I’ve had both to Great Falls, MT & the LT is the superior long distance road ride. Depending on the weather, it drops 2 charging stops on the Great Falls run and that saves maybe an hour and a half+. What I like is the reserve power for the house in the winter (storms) and when I book up to the farm and I can run power equipment without concern for power. And reserve power to got to for a doctor or family visit in Portland-Vancouver (125 miles) w/o charging up. If I wasn’t daily commuting I could easily get by with an SR locally. Then there’s the boat and cargo trailer. As long as I stay in-county, an SR would be fine. One or two counties over.. that’d be a trick and.. no pull-through charging stations exist.

 

[maksimfa]

Standard range is viable now that we’ll have access to Superchargers. Remember that you don’t need to charge more to go the same distance in an SR, you just need to stop more often. On a road trip that means stopping every 150 miles instead of 200. Most road trips that means one stop regardless. For longer road trips it might be more stops in the SR but your charge times will be shorter.

If budget was an issue I wouldn’t have too much concern with an SR unless i was regularly driving well over 100 miles/day.

That's actually a really good point. Yes, another stop, but the stopping time will be less.
Feeling better going with SR.

 

[Tundra]

I went with the SR:

1. At first I wanted extended range, but then I realized that in the last year I have only taken a single trip that would warrant charging, in a place I am already stopping for two hours anyways.

2. Cost: My state has a $2,500 rebate that goes away at $55K MSRP, An extra 70 miles is not worth $10k extra, much less $12.5k.

3. For resale value, ya this is going to tank... but there is a lot more than range when it comes to value, in a few years there are probably trucks that can fast charge in 5 minutes, or slow charge wirelessly at home, or that can be charged to 100% without ill affect, or that can have twice the battery density for the size. There are a lot of factors that could influence depreciation.

4. Even when this truck is not the coolest thing on the market with the most range, I still plan on owning it, it will still be cheap to drive!

 

[Newton]

I went with the SR mainly because of the cost for not that much extra range, and because I use the truck for 'truck stuff' such as hauling dirt, bark, plants, and garbage. None of those trips are very long. I have an excellent fast charging long-range EV (Kia Ev6) for road trips.

I do remember that I was not impressed that much with the Lightning's ride and handling enough to go with a Platinum or ER Lariat. I didn't think about it much at the time but driving the SR Lariat probably put me more in the mood of buying and I think it may have been the handling difference. The $7500 off helped. I like the way this one handles for a truck.

I also dislike sunroofs, and loath moonroofs where you can't really block the sun.

 

[Lolat]

SR Lariatabout perfect, even up here near Klamath Falls when typically pretty cold and snowy winter. Charge at home once or twice a week and does well for 30 to 40 mile trips to tow. Have towed to Bay Area couple times, but still all good with stop or two for DCFC. For longer road trips, PHEV Volvo - has 40+ ev miles so handy for grocery shopping, etc., and very rarely needs any gas.

 

[Danface]

Go to Verne Eides in Mitchell SD and buy and ER for a little more then the SR ...

 

[djwildstar]

I went with a 2023 Lariat ER. There were a couple of decision points:

First, the trim level was defined by a few of my must-have features:

• I was coming from a 2019 Flex Limited, and I wanted the "creature comfort" features from that vehicle in my pickup -- specifically, heated and ventilated seats, heated steering wheel, and rain-sensing wipers.
• I wanted BlueCruise for the few longer road trips that we tend to take.

BlueCruise and the rain-sensing wipers are restricted to the Lariat and Platinum trims. I didn't feel that Platinum offered enough actual benefits to offset the cost and range hit. So Lariat it is; the only question then is the battery size.

Looking at the SR versus ER:

• Knowing that I was going to get a Lariat, the ER Lariat already includes BlueCruise (which would otherwise have been an extra-cost option on the SR truck) and the rain-sensing wipers (which don't appear to be available for SR Lariat).
• I ran our most-frequent round-trip road trip through A Better Route Planner using both trucks. The SR truck takes a total of just over 19 hours and 10 charging stops, while the ER truck takes just over 17 hours and 5 charging stops.
• While both trucks have roughly the same specification (about 40 minutes) for a 15% to 80% fast charge, the ER truck has a bigger battery -- so the net result is that in practice it fast-charges 30% to 40% faster than the SR truck, and this adds up on road trips.

So ER it was!

 

[John Becker]

and the rain-sensing wipers (which don't appear to be available for SR Lariat).

Now I understand why my Lariat SR doesn't have rain-sensing wipers.

 

[FordLightningMan]

I went with the SR:

1. At first I wanted extended range, but then I realized that in the last year I have only taken a single trip that would warrant charging, in a place I am already stopping for two hours anyways.

2. Cost: My state has a $2,500 rebate that goes away at $55K MSRP, An extra 70 miles is not worth $10k extra, much less $12.5k.

3. For resale value, ya this is going to tank... but there is a lot more than range when it comes to value, in a few years there are probably trucks that can fast charge in 5 minutes, or slow charge wirelessly at home, or that can be charged to 100% without ill affect, or that can have twice the battery density for the size. There are a lot of factors that could influence depreciation.

4. Even when this truck is not the coolest thing on the market with the most range, I still plan on owning it, it will still be cheap to drive!

I'm not here to say if resale is going to tank or not, but one thing I've realized is EV improvements happen at a pace a lot slower than I anticipated they would before I bought my first one. If any of us waited for fast charging in 5 minutes, we might never own an EV. Cell phones have been around for much longer than EVs, you see any of those charging in 5 minutes yet?

When I got my first Tesla, I was on the fence because the promised improvements of the 4680 batteries that were in development. Now that 4680 is here, they don't seem to make a material difference to what was available 5 years ago. I'm very happy I didn't wait for these batteries.

I have many friends who told me they won't buy an EV until solid state batteries are ready. Toyota does a good job putting out these fear tactic news stories, better buy ICE because your EV will be worthless once our solid state comes out. We've been hearing that for a decade already, where are the solid state batteries?

End of day, get something that fits your use case and makes you happy. If the magical battery leap happens sometime soon, your vehicle will still fit your use case and you got to experience all the pros of EV ownership before the scared late adopters.

 

[Tundra]

I'm not here to say if resale is going to tank or not, but one thing I've realized is EV improvements happen at a pace a lot slower than I anticipated they would before I bought my first one. If any of us waited for fast charging in 5 minutes, we might never own an EV. Cell phones have been around for much longer than EVs, you see any of those charging in 5 minutes yet?

When I got my first Tesla, I was on the fence because the promised improvements of the 4680 batteries that were in development. Now that 4680 is here, they don't seem to make a material difference to what was available 5 years ago. I'm very happy I didn't wait for these batteries.

I have many friends who told me they won't buy an EV until solid state batteries are ready. Toyota does a good job putting out these fear tactic news stories, better buy ICE because your EV will be worthless once our solid state comes out. We've been hearing that for a decade already, where are the solid state batteries?

End of day, get something that fits your use case and makes you happy. If the magical battery leap happens sometime soon, your vehicle will still fit your use case and you got to experience all the pros of EV ownership before the scared late adopters.

^ This

Fully agree. In 10-15 years I am sure things will be better, doesn't mean this isn't a great vehicle for now. It will still be cheap to drive then as well.

I am not planning on selling this vehicle, I am planning on driving it into the ground, so resale value does not concern me too much! I feel GREAT about the price I paid, and what the vehicle can do for the price.

 

[MaintGrl]

Well, I got the XLT Std truck, I got 20k from insurance for my "totaled" Taco, and still cleaned out my saving to buy this truck. I read that the extended battery added approx 10k to the price, of which I would have never been able to afford w/o financing (something I was avoiding).

 

[eRock77]

I went with an SR Pro model.

Cost was the main factor--a 10K+ price increase for 80 "theoretical" miles did not make sense to me.

I rarely drive far out of town, so for that reason an SR makes the most sense. I don't know anyone who daily drives more than 200 miles? I do intend to tow a small boat or a utility trailer, but I'm not going very far. If I wanted to tow cross country I would borrow or rent an ICE truck, it's just too time consuming to be down charging every 100 miles.

I'll take the truck on the Hot Rod Power Tour this year, and we will have to charge at least once a day anyway. I'll also figure out how drag strip runs affect battery life--expect a report!

 

[Jim Lewis]

ER. Reasons I got a Lariat ER.

1. Range
2. Ford says ER tolerates DC fast charging better than SR re: degradation of long-term battery lifespan.
3. Required for Home Integration System/Whole Home Backup, and even if you just use a transfer switch or heavy-duty extension cords, you'll have more juice to tide you over in an outage. Same if you're using truck battery power away from home - the extra battery capacity can power your whatever, and you'll still have more range left.

As far as the extra costs for an ER, EVs are already ridiculously expensive, so what's an extra $10K? I've forgotten the order pricing, but I vaguely remember the ER choice was padded with a bunch of options I didn't really need or want to make you feel you're getting more for your money. If Ford doesn't already offer just the ER battery vs. the SR, maybe it should.

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