Update: Spending 3 days with the Demo was interesting, and we learned a lot.
I was always a bit more skeptical than my wife, who really wanted me to look at it, a lot more than I would have without her encouragement. From the moment of my mentioning shopping for a new truck, to replace my 11 year old Ram, she was throwing around the Lightning name, and I didn't even know what it was.
Well now that we spent some time with a Lightning, I'm more impressed than I thought I would be. The power is smooth, and just always there, and seems effortless. It rides well, handles good, towed my enclosed trailer perfectly, which was admittedly empty so light, but a couple quads or snowmobiles isn't that much more weight, a couple thousand pounds with extra gas and some camping gear. We did extra driving, just to test it out, that we normally wouldn't have. Plugged into 120 volts it impressed us by how much that charged it. In a typical weeks use for us, 120 would charge between 3 and 4 times as much as we use. For trips it doesn't matter as we will be using charging stations then anyhow. If it was being driven 7 days a week, and sitting there in a parking lot every day unplugged, then yes a home 240 charging system would be great. We don't work anymore, retirement is wonderful. Normally it would only be unplugged 8 to 10 hours per week, and driven 120 to 140 kms a week. In reality we could leave it unplugged every 2nd week no problem. I didn't play with the settings much, but it seems from what I understand that it can be set to stop charging at any percentage of battery charge we desire, even if plugged in. So if we do buy one, which seems likely, we can set it to only charge to 70% for normal use, as ideally 50% is optimum for battery health. From 70% down to 50% would be more than we would ever use in a typical day of shopping, or church. Before any lengthy trips, set it to charge to 100%, so we leave with a full battery. The box is really small, i prefer an 8' box, and thought my 6.5' was small, but this is really tiny. But I have large trailers for larger items, and we can go to the garbage dump more often since it carries less. That front cubby hole could be handy at times it looks like, although we didn't actually put anything in it, just opened the hood for a look. The seats felt comfortable, and most controls easy to use. Overall it was a nice truck!
Generally speaking, 120 V would be adequate for my needs. I always have the option to drive ICE when needed.
I read somewhere that 240 V is more efficient. The efficiency difference can't be anywhere near the cost of running a 240 V line to my garage. But I did it anyway.
Regardless, I charge at the lowest setting (16 Amps) and only to 60% most days.
240v isn’t more efficient in terms of saving money for energy. It’s more efficient in moving electrons through smaller wire than the same amount of energy using 120v.
You still pay the same for the amount of energy consumed.
