I'm out after 6 months

[Toby57]

Caution sarcasm too follow.
"Nice informative thread y'all. "
The preceding was sarcasm.
Back to the normal reading.

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[lancersrock]

A few things about this that have been mentioned.

1) No precondition
2) Plat is 300 not 320
3) Everyone complains about range (as do i) but forget that the 300/320 is NOT at highway speed, at 65 mph I would assume a platinum would be closer to 250 and dropping to close to 200 by the time you get to 75 mph. When driving between 75-80 last winter in 15 degree temps i was averaging 1.3-1.5 M/Kw.
4) Ford and the pricing game sucks, Lariat ER raised to $88k and not credit eligible then dropped below $80k within 6-7 months and now the rebates mean if you got a 23 lariat ER in January this year you paid $23k more than someone who buys today. Us early adopters got hosed, I Love my truck but this might be my last new Ford i purchase

5) Sorry you got so burned on the trade value hope theres a better suited EV in your Future (maybe even the Ramcharger?)

 

[John Becker]

A little off topic, but does the truck and/or Ford app maintain a trip log? Will I be able to scroll through the log to review Miles/kWh on a specific day/time/trip/etc.?
I'm the anal type who likes to track these things to better predict range relative to SOC and temperature, etc.

 

[Maquis]

A little off topic, but does the truck and/or Ford app maintain a trip log? Will I be able to scroll through the log to review Miles/kWh on a specific day/time/trip/etc.?
I'm the anal type who likes to track these things to better predict range relative to SOC and temperature, etc.

FordPass used to have a trip logging feature, but Ford could never get it to work right and scrapped it.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

So this is my first winter with the truck and I'm surprised that people are surprised by the performance. Yes, I get less than the 2.4 miles/kw I was getting in the summer, but if I know that I'm going somewhere far and need to pay attention to my range, I either plan out my charging or I drive slower. I can still get over 2 mi/kw in the cold weather as long as I'm not going 70-80 mph. Realisitically it's probably closer to 1.8 at 65 mph or so but if I can make it work with a standard range pro, I don't see how anyone couldn't make it work. I also have 0 DC fast chargers within a 50-70 mile radius of my house, so I have to make sure I have enough charge to make it back.

How about if, like me, there’s no fast chargers within 150 mile radius? And speed limits are mostly 75? I don’t think slowing to 65 when the speed limit is 75 is a good option. So 1.5 x 131 kWh is less than 200. Hard for me to leave town. I take the wife’s car. EV’s are not for every use case.

 

[kbuicker]

How about if, like me, there’s no fast chargers within 150 mile radius? And speed limits are mostly 75? I don’t think slowing to 65 when the speed limit is 75 is a good option. So 1.5 x 131 kWh is less than 200. Hard for me to leave town. I take the wife’s car. EV’s are not for every use case.

ok, I had check your math . You're getting 1.5?! Wow! Now I'm curious. Where in 'south Texas' are you living where any fast charger is 150 miles away?

 

[MM in SouthTX]

ok, I had check your math . You're getting 1.5?! Wow! Now I'm curious. Where in 'south Texas' are you living where any fast charger is 150 miles away?

Corpus Christi. Of course I’m not counting the ones within 5 miles of my home. (There is one in Cuero, but it’s often not working so I have never tried it. There are a couple at dealers in Victoria, available during the day. Also low kWh.)

Yes, 1.5 at 75 against the wind with no traffic. With interstate traffic more like 1.7. That’s with air temp in the 80’s. Have not tried to leave town when it’s cold. So if I go north, on the way back I have to wait in line for the EA station in Columbus and charge to 90% and drive carefully to limp home heading south.

I have used the Whole Foods station on 59 to get home. Same story. 2.5 hours of charging (with all the getting kicked off etc.) and barely made it home.

 

[kbuicker]

Wow! Yah, I feel your pain. But I do have to say, on my recent trip from Dallas to Austin, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity of chargers. Very pleased. It’ll catch up! I am planning on going to Galveston soon and once there, I’ll need to find somewhere dependable. Have you tried the Chargeway app yet? Works well and may pop up some new locations.

 

[Texas Dan]

I’m really getting sick of reading the cry babies’ posts on this thread. I drive from Texas to Colorado and back in my Lightning every two months in the worst of weather and I make it every time. It’s all about planning, patience and knowing your truck.

 

[Tony Burgh]

I’m really getting sick of reading the cry babies’ posts on this thread. I drive from Texas to Colorado and back in my Lightning every two months in the worst of weather and I make it every time. It’s all about planning, patience and knowing your truck.

Or having a clue about why you’re buying it.

 

[Newton]

“EVs are not for everyday use”

I love my Lightning but it is a glutton like my previous gas Lariat. I can get around 2 miles/KW. My Kia EV6 regularly hits 4.2 and my e-Golf often gets 5. The Kia is often driven on the freeway at 65-70.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

I’m really getting sick of reading the cry babies’ posts on this thread. I drive from Texas to Colorado and back in my Lightning every two months in the worst of weather and I make it every time. It’s all about planning, patience and knowing your truck.

Plan my trip to my daughter's near Madisonville, and tell me how it doesn't add AT LEAST an hour to my trip. Twice I have had to spend 3 hours waiting and charging. Charging on the road just plain sucks where I am. No amount of planning can fix EA chargers or account for the variable odds of a line of cars waiting. If you want to put up with it, that's fine for you. I'm not gonna cry about it. I'm gonna drive a different car.

I love the truck around town and to/from the beach. When I leave town, it stays at home. If that's crying to you, then maybe you are just upset that I don't think and act like you do. I'm fine being me, not you.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

“EVs are not for everyday use”

I love my Lightning but it is a glutton like my previous gas Lariat. I can get around 2 miles/KW. My Kia EV6 regularly hits 4.2 and my e-Golf often gets 5. The Kia is often driven on the freeway at 65-70.

If that referred to me, I was misquoted. I said "EV's are not for every use case." I use mine every day.

 

[Monkey]

15,000 miles in six months. You gave it a fair effort.

Yeah, I'm at 11 months of ownership and just crossed the 12K mile mark. I usually drive 15~20K miles/year, but it's been a bit weird the last year or so as everything changes. Anyway... mostly wanted to say that my cold weather experience with the Lightning was pretty bad at first. Keeping the truck in a garage that never dips below 55F, I thought I would be fine. If it's colder than 40 outside I need to precondition the truck if I want all my range! And the *WORST* thing I've found is charging to 100%. DO NOT DO IT! Above 90% the battery bleed-off is rapid and it is detrimental to total range if starting at 100% in the cold, even if pre-conditioned. I don't have a real explanation for this, only a couple theories, but charging to 100% is a waste of time and resources for this truck and is counter-productive in col weather. I thought with the extra battery overhead that the truck was supposed to handle this better than our Teslas, but it doesn't. Sure, we don't lose regenerative braking at > 90% charge like in a Tesla, but the battery bleeds off just as fast and seems to take extra with it as the bleed off seems to have a certain momentum to it. I also have a theory that the truck can't properly precondition the battery if it's fully charged. But only anecdotal evidence.

I love this truck, but its cold weather performance is BAD! Worse than any other EV I've owned or driven in the cold. Hopefully the '24 Lightning adding the heat pump will help a bunch. But it unfortunately doesn't help those of us who already own one.

All of the bad cold weather performance is workable with proper planning. And really that's just for road trips for me. Daily driving in and around town mixed city/highway, etc.. Plenty of range so I don't even think about it. Even Denver to CO Springs and back in the cold, no big deal, plenty of range.

For reference, my Lightning experience is limited to the Lariat ER with Max Tow. A friend of mine owns a Lightning as well, but same Lariat ER and cold hasn't been an issue for him as he's in Phoenix.

 

[bydabeach]

Agreed, the response I gave is that when remote starting the truck UNPLUGGED to warm the cabin, seat and wheel, we are depleting the battery by ~1% or 1.3 KWH over 15 minutes, I'm trying to expand on his concern on the impact of reduced range doing, it comes to 1.3 KWH x 1.7 mpk (winter) or lost range of ~ 2.21 miles on the GOM.

Plugged in for remote start consumes 1.3 KWH from the grid not the battery, preserving that modest loss.

Had he used departure timer [PLUGGED IN], the battery would be warmed about an hour prior to leave time and cabin warming starts t-minus 5 minutes to departure and will cease ~10 minutes after departure timer assuming, all energy would have come from the grid in the amount of 6 to 8 KWH depending on conditions, he said he didn't use that feature and started with a cold battery.

Following recommended guidelines to condition the cabin and battery maximize the range potential, Ted would have seen better performance, potentially meeting his requirements (or not).

Couldn’t agree more! The logic should be this,

User remote starts truck:
IF plugged in, precondition battery and cabin
ELSE precondition cabin


Departure times are great but I take plenty of trips where I know when I’m leaving 20 minutes before, but not an hour before.

FFS Ford, this isn’t hard!

Here's the problem with that logic. In 20 minutes, subtracting heating the cabin, you're doing little to heat the battery. The logic issue is not with Ford, it's with customers having little understanding of how long it takes to heat a massive ~2,000 pound battery from say 30 degrees to 60 degrees.

Think of the amount of heat that could possible be created, and then pumped through the battery, to warm this 1 ton cold mass. In cold weather, a departure time can take over an hour, even 90 minutes.

This is all good information, and after a year of ownership, not something I fully appreciated. I just passed one year of ownership. THIS is information the dealer could explain to owners (and more importantly, prospective owners before purchasing and EV) so that they understand this.

And what data0003 said-I don't work on a fixed schedule. On any given morning, I don't know if I am leaving 20 minutes after waking up or 2 hours. And setting the leave time on the Ford Pass App is a major exercise in frustration. Multiple loops of spinning circles, often crashes. They don't make it easy. Couldn't they put a "Precondition" button on the dashboard with a note- "Pre-conditioning takes at least one hour"?

RickLightning and TaxmanHog are two of the more knowledgeable posters on this forum, and I greatly appreciate their posts with useful information, along with others.

With all that said, yesterday morning in cold NJ, I pre-conditioned the vehicle before my 37 mile commute to work. The commute consumed 50 miles of range. On the way home late last night (9 p.m.) it was about as cold as the morning. Did not precondition. Drove the same route, at about the same speed. But we cranked the heat for the first 10 minutes of the drive since we were not able to start the vehicle plugged in to warm it up. The commute consumed about 50 miles of range.

I love data and analytics. I will do some more experimenting.

EDIT- One final point- it's crap like this that makes more widespread EV adoption problematic for the masses. Maybe times will change. Most people just want to jump in their car and drive. They don't want to have to feel like they are programming a supercomputer to get their car "ready to go." A lot of people often are running late (or early) for work, and there does not seem to be simple way to precondition your vehicle given it takes at least an hour. As I noted above, I generally leave at different times each day on my commute, and I don't want to have to think ahead about conditioning my vehicle, and the whole setting a new conditioning time is a major PITA.

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