I'm out after 6 months

[hturnerfamily]

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.

I have to agree. I didn't come into buying a battery-powered full-size TRUCK with the idea that it would be like a Model 3 or even a Chevy Bolt, although with my driving characteristics and thoughtful planning, it has worked out that way, regardless...

I owned two Nissan Leafs with 'up to' 70 whole miles of 'range'... THAT is a learning curve, if there ever is one! You will 'learn' what it means to drive cautiously, to drive slowly when needing to reserve power, and how to 'plan' very, very well. You will experience great DC Fast Chargers, even with CHadeMO as your only option, and you will experience charging deserts and those chargers that 'aren't working today' ... those are great learning experiences that a new-to-EV first-time-buyer jumping into a full-size EV Truck will really need to have before crying about 'why' it doesn't work for them, or worse, why they think that it can't work for ANYBODY.

My brother-in-law is a die-hard DIESEL truck owner, a Ford at that, with jacked-up tires, and takes a ladder to get into... but, for the life of him, CAN'T understand how I could 'buy' such a ridiculous idea of a Lightning 'truck'...
He can't bring himself to drive below the posted speed limit, and therefore believes that I am an idiot for having such a vehicle that can't keep up(although I would easily have him in my mirrors the moment we left the line in any 'race', and he would never see anything except my rear end)...

Any EV is NOT for him, regardless of whether it's a truck or not. He will never understand, because, he does not WANT to understand.


by the way, I also don't understand why some who post on here continue to make comments about 'it's not safe' to drive below the speed limit... makes no sense to me. Any hazard on the road has nothing to do with someone ahead of you not driving the SPEED you want to drive. No insurance company is going to give you a pass for running into someone, whether a slow-driver or not. No authority is going to give you a 'pass' just because you claim the driver ahead was 'too slow' for you. Crazy.
The speed limit is the limit, not the Minimum. If you don't like the speed I'm driving... too bad, go around when it's safe. If I don't like the speed you're driving, well, I will just have to have patience until it's safe to do something about it, too. The ONLY safe measure is to slow down. Period.

An EV is not your friend if you want to drive faster than posted speed limits, or sometimes even under.

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[John Becker]

The safest speed to drive is that of surrounding traffic regardless of the posted speed limit. Differential speed (higher or lower) is less safe.

 

[WhipSticks]

Prevailing wind? Elevation?

 

[WhipSticks]

The safest speed to drive is that of surrounding traffic regardless of the posted speed limit. Differential speed (higher or lower) is less safe.

Truth.

 

[bydabeach]

I have to agree. I didn't come into buying a battery-powered full-size TRUCK with the idea that it would be like a Model 3 or even a Chevy Bolt, although with my driving characteristics and thoughtful planning, it has worked out that way, regardless...

I owned two Nissan Leafs with 'up to' 70 whole miles of 'range'... THAT is a learning curve, if there ever is one! You will 'learn' what it means to drive cautiously, to drive slowly when needing to reserve power, and how to 'plan' very, very well. You will experience great DC Fast Chargers, even with CHadeMO as your only option, and you will experience charging deserts and those chargers that 'aren't working today' ... those are great learning experiences that a new-to-EV first-time-buyer jumping into a full-size EV Truck will really need to have before crying about 'why' it doesn't work for them, or worse, why they think that it can't work for ANYBODY.

My brother-in-law is a die-hard DIESEL truck owner, a Ford at that, with jacked-up tires, and takes a ladder to get into... but, for the life of him, CAN'T understand how I could 'buy' such a ridiculous idea of a Lightning 'truck'...
He can't bring himself to drive below the posted speed limit, and therefore believes that I am an idiot for having such a vehicle that can't keep up(although I would easily have him in my mirrors the moment we left the line in any 'race', and he would never see anything except my rear end)...

Any EV is NOT for him, regardless of whether it's a truck or not. He will never understand, because, he does not WANT to understand.


by the way, I also don't understand why some who post on here continue to make comments about 'it's not safe' to drive below the speed limit... makes no sense to me. Any hazard on the road has nothing to do with someone ahead of you not driving the SPEED you want to drive. No insurance company is going to give you a pass for running into someone, whether a slow-driver or not. No authority is going to give you a 'pass' just because you claim the driver ahead was 'too slow' for you. Crazy.
The speed limit is the limit, not the Minimum. If you don't like the speed I'm driving... too bad, go around when it's safe. If I don't like the speed you're driving, well, I will just have to have patience until it's safe to do something about it, too. The ONLY safe measure is to slow down. Period.

An EV is not your friend if you want to drive faster than posted speed limits, or sometimes even under.

Good for you. You were pre-conditioned (just like a battery) to the EV experience by driving a Bolt and Leafs. You knew what you were in for us.

The rest of us- this is a learning curve. I did not complain above, I just noted that the limited way we are permitted to set up pre-conditioning sucks. Why can't there be a setting or a button on the Ford Pass App for that? Why is it that start the truck while it is plugged in cannot set the cabin temperature AND pre-condition the batteries? Probably because some pinhead engineers did not think it through. Would seem to be a rather simple software fix or addition to not have to "program" a new start time every time you leave the house on a cold day at a different time. Ford is not making this easy on the consumer.

 

[Texas Dan]

The safest speed to drive is that of surrounding traffic regardless of the posted speed limit. Differential speed (higher or lower) is less safe.

Sounds like you are trying to justify your speeding habits. It takes discipline not to speed. Statistics show that speeding increases the risk of accidents whether you want to believe it or not.

I stopped speeding many years ago because I got fed up with looking over my shoulder for cops. I found out that with an EV not speeding to improve range is a good habit to get in to.

 

[John Becker]

"Speeding habits"? No. The truth is that I drive like an "old man." I set the cruise control to the speed limit and stay in the right hand lane.
I'm retired and no longer in a hurry to get anywhere. I just relax and enjoy the drive.

 

[lightspeed]

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.

There's no getting around the fact that we're the early adopters.

One note about preconditioning that people seem to miss and isn't communicated well is that you can ALWAYS precondition on a commute day by setting the departure time(s) to the earliest reasonable time you'd ever leave. The battery is a huge thermal sink and will retain the preconditioned temperature for a long time so you don't lose much of the benefit if you leave multiple hours after the set departure time.

But I also agree that they need to put a big button in the FordPass app that allows you to precondition when plugged in, and also report the current battery temp (or precondition status percentage) either with numbers or with a gauge.

Ford has gone too far in trying to hide the EV-ness of the Lightning. I respect that they want it to just be a truck, but EV drivers need more information.

 

[itdwebman]

As a Lightning owner in the Northeast, I am about to enter my first winter with it with no anxieties. But, I am curious, from MA/NH/VT/CT/NY, assuming driving the speed limit and a 50/50 mix of HWY/city driving what percentage of range loss did you have? I am expecting my Lariat ER to lose up to 50% of its range for 32F and under.

 

[Texas Dan]

As a Lightning owner in the Northeast, I am about to enter my first winter with it with no anxieties. But, I am curious, from MA/NH/VT/CT/NY, assuming driving the speed limit and a 50/50 mix of HWY/city driving what percentage of range loss did you have? I am expecting my Lariat ER to lose up to 50% of its range for 32F and under.

There is a rule of thumb established many years ago for EVs of 1% of range lost for 4 degrees F below 70 degrees. This rule of thumb has always worked well for me but there are so many other factors you need to consider like wind speed and elevation change. I highly recommend you download and plan your trip using an app called “A Better Route Planner”, this app has saved my bacon many, many times.

 

[TaxmanHog]

As a Lightning owner in the Northeast, I am about to enter my first winter with it with no anxieties. But, I am curious, from MA/NH/VT/CT/NY, assuming driving the speed limit and a 50/50 mix of HWY/city driving what percentage of range loss did you have? I am expecting my Lariat ER to lose up to 50% of its range for 32F and under.

My southern New England experiences, is a loss of 35 to 40 %, my recent Thanksgiving trip to and from Nashua NH amounted to 158 miles, started with plugged in departure warm-up process and 90% battery, we consumed 70% at the end of the trip I still had 20% remaining, this equates to appx 1.72 MPK (mostly highway @ 69 MPH) only about 10 miles was on 25-35 MPH roads.

The remainder of 20% plus the 10% I didn't store, might have gotten me another 68 miles for a grand potential of 226 miles out of an ideal 320, that's comes to 70% of ideal conditions or a loss of 30%.

The conditions that day were a cold morning but mild afternoon, I maintained cabin temp's of 73°, more spartan conditions could help or a colder day could have hurt these results.

 

[itdwebman]

My southern New England experiences, is a loss of 35 to 40 %, my recent Thanksgiving trip to and from Nashua NH amounted to 158 miles, started with plugged in departure warm-up process and 90% battery, we consumed 70% at the end of the trip I still had 20% remaining, this equates to appx 1.72 MPK (mostly highway @ 69 MPH) only about 10 miles was on 25-35 MPH roads.

The remainder of 20% plus the 10% I didn't store, might have gotten me another 68 miles for a grand potential of 226 miles out an ideal 320, that's comes to 70% of ideal conditions or a loss of 30%.

The conditions that day were a cold morning but mild afternoon, I maintained cabin temp's of 73°, more spartan conditions could help or a colder day could have hurt these results.

Thanks for this insight. I drive between NH, VT, and MA and have done a couple of drives in warmer weather (~45 degrees) with a mix of highway and non-highway - never over 65 mph and cabin at 65 pr 66 using seat and SW heating and averaged 2.1 to 2.3 - two petal. Colder drives starting soon.

 

[Texas Dan]

The discussion on range reduction due temperature to me is academic and not very useful. All I really care about is whether I have enough charge to make it to my next charging stop with a little to spare in case something goes wrong. My attitude is a result of many EV trips between Texas and Colorado.

Going to Colorado from Texas in an EV has always been a challenge. There is an elevation change of over a mile, headwinds are often horrendous and to top it off the temperatures in the winter are usually below freezing. But I can practically coast most of the way coming back.

I have a few more charging stops going up than coming back. I’ve got my trips pretty well planned out and routine by now. I have to do a bit of zigzagging going up to get to chargers but that should end next year when I have access to the Superchargers on the direct route.

 

[luebri]

Thanks for this insight. I drive between NH, VT, and MA and have done a couple of drives in warmer weather (~45 degrees) with a mix of highway and non-highway - never over 65 mph and cabin at 65 pr 66 using seat and SW heating and averaged 2.1 to 2.3 - two petal. Colder drives starting soon.

I have shared this elsewhere on the forum.... I put it together mainly for my amusement, but maybe it would be helpful for some people. The MPK efficiency I'm sure could be debated, but for the most part it seem to be fairly accurate. Better than relying on GOM. I would turn it off if I could. I would prefer just to see KWH remaining. Not SOC. Not miles.

I have 17k miles and driven the whole gamut from -10F to 95F in my truck.

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