Just took a 450 intersate road trip in a standard range lightning. Never again

[Hugh_Bris]

This truck should come with a disclaimer
*not meant for interstate use.

Driving at normal interstate speeds, going from 80% SOC to 20 % SOC took all of ~115 miles.
Stated average of 1.7 kWh, pencil came to about 1.55

Love it around town, average between 2.7 and 2.9. but this interstate travel is bananas. Contemplated driving 65 but would have still had to make 3 stops to charge, so went around 75mph.
Stopping every 2 hours for another 30-40 minutes is a big ask, added about 50% more time to the trip 6 hours vs 9 hours. Had to charge to 90% on the final charge- didn’t want to arrive dead.

Anyway, I suspected it would be a challenge, but didn’t expect it to be like this.

I may have opted for the extended range had Intaken a trip before purchase.
Again, love the truck and it fits my needs, was just a bit shocked how 240 mile range is actually about 115 miles when keeping it between 80% and 20% interstate driving.

On the plus side, had great luck with Electrify America charging stations.

I completely agree with you. I just drove my ER Lariat from Dallas to Midland and was getting 1.6 miles/kwh average, even at 70 mph.

The range is so misleading. OEM’s should be stating HWY/City driving efficiency separately on the window sticker. MPGe is also a sham and not really relevant during use

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[Grumpy2]

The range is so misleading. OEM’s should be stating HWY/City driving efficiency separately on the window sticker. MPGe is also a sham and not really relevant during use

All that info is in the upper right portion of the window sticker.

 

[Tony Burgh]

I completely agree with you. I just drove my ER Lariat from Dallas to Midland and was getting 1.6 miles/kwh average, even at 70 mph.

The range is so misleading. OEM’s should be stating HWY/City driving efficiency separately on the window sticker. MPGe is also a sham and not really relevant during use

At 55 mph highway plus some city driving the Lightning is stated to use 48 kWh per 100 miles. BEV’s thrive in stop and go traffic but if you compare your 1.6 with 2.0 then you are dead nuts on for the effect of velocity on fuel efficiency
Ford told us loud and clear what to expect. Many chose not to listen.
Check fueleconomy.gov

 

[GDQ]

We have put 26000 miles on our Extended Range Lariat with a camper on the back. We are averaging 2.0 miles per kWH lifetime with many long trips. Spped makes a big difference as does a headwind and we have seen as low as 1.5 miles per kWH with below freezing, a 30 mph headwind and interstate travel. You have to be willing to slow things down at times as well as run with just the heated seats and steering wheel in a very rural area of the west with very scattered charging opportunities but we like ot more than our previous F150 PowerBoost Hybrid for many reasons. We’ve driven to Southern Itah from the Olympic Peninsula and back, to San Diego and back and down to the Oregon Coast and mountains and back. You have to adapt to the strengths and weaknesses of an EV but we would never go back to ICE.

Would you mind sharing the details about your camper?

 

[PreservedSwine]

Just a suggestion:

I know people who are number crunchers who rent cars for long trips. They say that the economics work in their favor. Add those miles to a rental car, not yours, and you will come out ahead on resale.

Not sure it's true, but if you need to go somewhere in a SR Lightning, you could use that justification to rent a car or truck.

I did that regularly pre-Covid, before rental prices increased exponentially.

And, as mentioned previously (not you but some seem to take this the trucks interstate traits personally) I love the truck, it fits my needs perfectly. I didn’t buy it to be a road warrior. It was bought for use as a work vehicle with a very specific radius, and home charging only. I did this road trip out of curiosity, to spend time with my son (who drove with me), and to give my brother-in-law time with it. I’m very fortunate to have the best “in-law” family on the planet, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them, even turning a 6 hour road trip into a 9 hour trip.

Just an observation:
Some of the replies here include being foolish for expecting anything different.

Other replies explaining they average over 200 miles between charges going from 85 to 15%

Why would anyone be confused?

In the real world, as very well explained in an earlier reply by someone other than myself, chargers (as of today) simply aren’t placed in perfect intervals for our road trips.

I was quite happy with the state of charging.


This is simply a real world example of a first road trip, in my first EV. I didn’t know what to expect, from supercharging to timing, and this seemed to be the place to share.
This isn’t an opus for or against EV’s. Driving speed was completely average (mostly between 65 and 73) one small stretch of 75-80 when the placement of chargers made such that it just didn’t matter. Cruise control was set for 99% of the interstate driving.

Thanks to the forum for providing a place to share.

 

[DennisM1]

Would you mind sharing the details about your camper?

It’s an OVRLND brand popup camper. The shell bolts to the bed and weighs less than 350 pounds. We have a fairing in front of it to reduce drag. It has cabinets for storage, a sink and faucet, heaters and goal zero batteries. The bed slides out to be about a queen size and we got one with extra height on the popup so you have plenty of room to stand up in the back and sit up when you are on the slide out bed. It works really well and with the Pro Power Onboard we can stay warm all night in cold weather and use only 6-7% of the battery when we are not plugged in. When plugged in and charging we lose nothing but the battery charge takes a little longer.

 

[Jseis]

I get this. Even in my ER, while I’ve never experienced range anxiety, I have experienced time anxiety.

and none of us experience performance anxiety!

 

[Smokewagun]

Wow. In cold temps now, I get 165-170 miles of range on my SR interstate driving.
220 seems norm in warm weather. 270 to well into 300 is possible on suburban drives. I often wonder what I’d pull on an ER. Regardless, the Lightning does work extremely well for me daily driving, but I’m wanting to get a Bronco soon to use as my fun weekend vehicle. As long as I keep saving with the Lightning for the majority of my driving, I’ll keep it.

 

[TooManyToyz]

I've discovered that is some cases driving slower gets you there faster. Let me explain. By taking the back roads, which is sometimes a shorter route, and driving slower, you get more range on a charge. In doing this you can often eliminate one charging stop, which significantly reduces the overall travel time. It also is a much more relaxing drive, as you are not fighting traffic. An example of this is taking HWY 175 in Wisconsin VS I-41 from Fond du Lac to Milwaukee. Hwy 175 is the old Hwy 41 and parallels I-41 for the entire distance.

 

[Cara]

It’s an OVRLND brand popup camper. The shell bolts to the bed and weighs less than 350 pounds. We have a fairing in front of it to reduce drag. It has cabinets for storage, a sink and faucet, heaters and goal zero batteries. The bed slides out to be about a queen size and we got one with extra height on the popup so you have plenty of room to stand up in the back and sit up when you are on the slide out bed. It works really well and with the Pro Power Onboard we can stay warm all night in cold weather and use only 6-7% of the battery when we are not plugged in. When plugged in and charging we lose nothing but the battery charge takes a little longer.

Would you mind sharing the fairing set up you have (both rack type and fairing)? I am getting a Project M in February and would appreciate the info.

 

[RichB-HTX]

I’ve got a SR XLT and have family in Atlanta, I’m in Houston. I just learned about the ABRP app yesterday from great article by someone named Veronique that covered their year of owning an XLT. I’d love to take a long road trip in my Lightning so I started playing with the app. Here’s what it came up with. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Tesla Supercharger station I could use along the way, I think I’ll hold off for now.

 

[Budshark]

Listed range is problematic. As OP noted he expected to live between 20-80% SOC. That right there is 60% of the stated range even at perfect numbers - 149 miles vs 240 for 100%. Add in some headwinds and fast driving and 110-115 is extremely realistic.

It feels like at this point EV range should be stated in a standard use case which could be 10/20%-80%. Sure you can start at 100% but you will do that only to start a trip. And until chargers are like gas stations no one is pushing it below 10-15% and most times you are stopping at 25-35% because of availability.

I’m not sure the trucks are doing anything other than what they claim. It’s just people see a number (240-330) and expect to get that range. You never will. Even if you drive like grandpa with no AC. Because you will never go 100% down to 0%. You will always lose 10-30% of the range for battery management regardless. And if you go 20-80% then it’s even worse.

By the way. Drove my wife’s SUV home from Mississippi yesterday. 600 miles. Into a headwind. Doing 80mph. Lost over 100 miles of range from normal. Cars have always done this. People are just being trained to be sensitive to it due to current charging infrastructure (and time cost).

 

[Acacia1731]

FWIW, here’s my real-world data, including temps ranging from 30-80 deg F

. (SR Pro with 22” wheels and Grabber HTS60 tires).

 

[Grumpy2]

It feels like at this point EV range should be stated in a standard use case which could be 10/20%-80%.

This is exactly the response I give when asked what the range is. I tell them it is rated at 240 miles, that I have a realistic range of 160 miles, and that I have only charged away from home a couple of times. I remind them that I don't commute and we rarely use our two older ICE vehicles that are becoming garage/driveway princesses.

 

[Vitornis]

I took two 800 mile round trips during the holidays and I found the truck did great. The only disappointing part was the wait at some of the charging stations. I drive a SR XLT. Got between 1.6 to 2.0 mi/kWh. I stopped about every 100 to 120 miles.

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