Looks like your F150 Lightning battery might last a long time

[PrimeRisk]

If the truck falls apart around the battery pack in 15 years you at least have something like the equivalent of 10 tesla powerwalls to repurpose for home use perhaps. Then again, by that time we’re all supposed to have flying cars so who knows what battery tech awaits in the next decade.

I would love to see technology emerge to repurpose old drive battery packs that come out of vehicles that have had the rest of the vehicle wear out and reach end of life to serve as load-shifting or off-grid systems for homes. So much opportunity there vs recycling for the precious metals.

So many utilities are shifting to Time-of-Use or Demand-based billing that there may be a significant market for these systems. The ROI for new battery systems is difficult and often have a decade to reach break-even due to the high cost of new batteries, but if I could keep my battery after I've driven my Lighting 250k+ miles and the rest of the truck has disintegrated, it would be a great option.

Prius, plug in Prius, Chevy Volt, Tesla, F150 Lightning.
Kids still drive the Prius’.
My beloved Chevy Volt was clobbered from behind at just over 100K miles, and totaled. So unfortunate because I was going for the long haul with that one too,
But, the guy‘s insurance pay out bought me a Tesla, and I’ve got 90K miles on it now and no apparent battery degradation.
My new F150 Lightning is the latest addition to my EV resume.
And it’s fantastic to drive.

Batteries do wear out eventually and sometimes catastrophically.

I am in the 20 year club with battery vehicles too. My first was a 2004 Prius and I drove is for 11 years and put 200k and gave it to my niece when I bought a Nissan 2015 Leaf. She drove it for a little over 2 years and put another 50k miles on it in that time. One day she was driving along and the dash lit up like a Christmas tree. The battery was toast. No warnings or indications of issues, just bam. One second it was perfectly happy, the next it was not.

We found the Green Bean Battery Company and they installed a refurbished pack with a 5 year warranty for $1,500, so she drove it another 60k before she lost traction on a sharp corner in icy conditions and went over an 8" curb that ripped off the front right wheel, oil pan, and many other important bits. 310k miles and it was probably good for another 100k except for that little incident.

Insurance paid her out $4500.

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[PrimeRisk]

The sticker on the driver's side of the battery pack shows 143.4 kWh for my 2023 ER.

Sounds about right 6kWh buffer on either end for the usable battery.

 

[rembrant]

The author was clearly not well educated on battery health. It implied that charging only once a week was a good thing, which we know is quite the opposite. It also extrapolated the decline in capacity as being linear. I'm fairly certain the charts I have seen indicate degradation is not linear. It's steepest in the first 10% of loss and then tapers off. I wish they had actually shown and discussed some of the data that was referenced.

I’m learning so much here about charging my truck. I’m still not clear on is that I shouldn’t charge to 100% ? Charge daily or every other day to 90% no matter how low the battery is?

 

[bthanos]

I’m learning so much here about charging my truck. I’m still not clear on is that I shouldn’t charge to 100% ? Charge daily or every other day to 90% no matter how low the battery is?

Seems like daily charge to 80 or 85 % is the consensus. When going on trip push to 100% if need be

 

[Firn]

I’m learning so much here about charging my truck. I’m still not clear on is that I shouldn’t charge to 100% ? Charge daily or every other day to 90% no matter how low the battery is?

So, ABC, Always Be Charging.

The "best" way is to plug in whenever you can. Always plug in. If you charged at home, then charged at work, then at home again, that would be "better" than just charging at home.

Charge up to the lowest number you are comfortable with (over 50%). So if 70% charge let's you be comfortable it's better than 80%, and 80% is better than 90%, and 90% is better than 100%. Use whatever works for you. I use 90%, but will go to 80% when it's warmer out. Some use 70%. Others use 100%. There is no "wrong" answer, use what works for you.

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