Second winter with our Lightning... just put a deposit on a Ramcharger. Public charging is awful

[COrocket]

I can definitely see why cold weather range would compound the charging reliability issues at EA and other networks and why the Ramcharger is an intriguing solution for long distance travel.

Fortunately by the time Ramcharger hits the showroom you’ll have an opportunity to use the Supercharger network with the Lightning (if you so choose). If you ask me and possibly other dual Tesla/Lightning households you’ll hear that having access to the Supercharger network is like traveling in a different dimension in terms of coverage, speed, and reliability. The Lightning is passable for one stop trips within Florida, but we still exclusively take our Tesla on long (500+ mile) road trips because of the supercharging network. I’m excited to eventually get the adapter and switch my EA subscription to Tesla to see how it goes. It may not sway your decision to sell the Lightning but I’d highly recommend giving it a shot sometime this year before making a final decision.

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[MM in SouthTX]

I just put Fort Worth to Corpus Christi into ABRP. 413 miles. 7 hours of driving. 1:08 charging, Round Rock and San Antonio. 6 hr drive becomes 7, not 8.

I get about 200 miles at 75 miles an hour when it’s warm. Temperature was in the 20s and 30s this weekend. Probably three stops.

I’ve stopped at that Walmart in San Antonio a couple of times. All full of local people with Volkswagens charging for free. It took me an hour and a half to get 30 minutes of charge last time I was there.

Not sure what there is in round rock, but it’s probably a similar story, not a pipe dream perfect scenario, which never happens. I’m talking about reality.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

I can definitely see why cold weather range would compound the charging reliability issues at EA and other networks and why the Ramcharger is an intriguing solution for long distance travel.

Fortunately by the time Ramcharger hits the showroom you’ll have an opportunity to use the Supercharger network with the Lightning (if you so choose). If you ask me and possibly other dual Tesla/Lightning households you’ll hear that having access to the Supercharger network is like traveling in a different dimension in terms of coverage, speed, and reliability. The Lightning is passable for one stop trips within Florida, but we still exclusively take our Tesla on long (500+ mile) road trips because of the supercharging network. I’m excited to eventually get the adapter and switch my EA subscription to Tesla to see how it goes. It may not sway your decision to sell the Lightning but I’d highly recommend giving it a shot sometime this year before making a final decision.

I may change my mind when the Tesla stations open up. Would be nice to pull up and consistently get 150 miles in 30' or something like that.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

Yes, and how often is anyone driving that kind of distance without a couple of stops anyway? You can't do a trip like that in the Lightning without stopping, but who is doing trips like that without stopping in any other vehicle? People have to compare apples to apples. Charging doesn't necessarily extend total trip time.

I used to race a J/22 sailboat. We would tow to Dallas and Fort Worth all the time with one 10' stop. That was with my Suburban with a 42 gallon tank. With the Expedition, I was towing horse trailers to FW a lot. Two stops to fuel, 10' each. Trip time 6 hours, even with the stops.

We do 75-80 most of the time, so a 70 mph average over 420 miles with stops is easy. With the Lightning, I would expect 8 or or 9 hours based on my experience, and be happy if it was less. Or take the wife's car. Easy choice. If I get off work on a Friday, I want to make it somewhere, not wish I could.

Last trip, we added two stops in Houston and Sealy. Trying to do that in the Lightning would have made it 10 hours.

I know Im not the average EV user here, and I know my reports rub some people the wrong way, but I put them out there in the hope that some people can understand that EV's are not for everyone. If you are happy and have the time to burn, fine. Not me.

 

[RickLightning]

Driving any truck at 75mph eats fuel. Of course towing at 75mph isn't ideal either. You have made clear that the Lightning isn't a good fit for you. I think a year from now you'll be bemoaning the Ram also.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

Driving any truck at 75mph eats fuel. Of course towing at 75mph isn't ideal either. You have made clear that the Lightning isn't a good fit for you. I think a year from now you'll be bemoaning the Chevy also.

If I get a Ram, it will be with my eyes a little more wide open. I really thought the charging infrastructure would have come around by now.

Part of my motivation here is to make sure that people who come to the website have more than one point of view. I honestly don’t mean to ruffle feathers, but I do end up butting heads when I stand my ground. Apologies for that.

My girls are on their own and do their own towing now. If I still towed, I definitely would not have bought an EV.

 

[jcm3]

You do know that Telsa's chargers are about to open for us, right? Getting rid of the Mach-E too?

I'm curious if anyone else is worried about the availability of Tesla chargers once they open up to other makes. I have a Tesla, and though we've only run into a completely full Tesla Supercharging station once, they aren't ever empty when I visit either. Most of the time, most of the spots have cars in them. Worse still, my Lightning isn't going to charge anywhere near as fast as a Tesla, so I'm going to be holding up a spot for longer...

 

[RickLightning]

I'm curious if anyone else is worried about the availability of Tesla chargers once they open up to other makes. I have a Tesla, and though we've only run into a completely full Tesla Supercharging station once, they aren't ever empty when I visit either. Most of the time, most of the spots have cars in them. Worse still, my Lightning isn't going to charge anywhere near as fast as a Tesla, so I'm going to be holding up a spot for longer...

Very regional. We see them at most 25% occupied.

 

[TomB985]

I wish them luck, but I don’t have any confidence in Stellantis’ ability to deliver a reliable product this complicated. Plug-in hybrids are the most complex things on wheels because they have all of the bits required for both the EV and ICE powertrains, and the RamCharger is going to be worse because of the full-size components on both sides.

You have an honest-to-goodness ICE, two cooling packages, generator, battery, AC charger, inverters, full-sized battery, and electronics to control them all. My ER Lightning is already a heavy pig that weighs 2,000 lbs more than my dad’s almost-identical 2023 EcoBoost truck. Ford has been selling EVs in the U.S. for the last several years and can’t seem to get battery tech right, so what are the odds that Stellantis can get the RamCharger right first time around?

I hope I’m wrong, and I’ll happily eat my words if I am. As advertised, it sounds great. I just worry that it’ll be an expensive garage queen in practice.

Maybe I’m just projecting because I’m driving a loaner Escape while my truck is down with a bad HV battery module. I think I need another drink.

 

[Txxthie]

I'm curious if anyone else is worried about the availability of Tesla chargers once they open up to other makes. I have a Tesla, and though we've only run into a completely full Tesla Supercharging station once, they aren't ever empty when I visit either. Most of the time, most of the spots have cars in them. Worse still, my Lightning isn't going to charge anywhere near as fast as a Tesla, so I'm going to be holding up a spot for longer...

I am concerned as a heavy user of both EA and SC. I am already seeing more Tesla's SC due to the recent incentives. It's so seamless on the SC side, that no one talks to each other. That will change once open chargers start getting blocked or Ride Sharing Bolts, Niro's, Kona's show up. Their charging etiquette and knowledge is horrible. Uber and Lyft really need to create their own charging hubs ASAP. I am skeptical the SC network opening will be a ubiquitous or seamless as most hope.

 

[Roy2001]

A little patience to wait for Tesla.

 

[TheWoo]

Plug-in hybrids are the most complex things on wheels because they have all of the bits required for both the EV and ICE powertrains, and the RamCharger is going to be worse because of the full-size components on both sides.

While there are a lot of components, the Ramcharger is not a plug-in hybrid. It's an EV with an onboard generator and that's different.

Still plenty to go wonky for sure, but IMO this is a superior approach to the PHEV. The IC engine isn't attached to a drivetrain and only exists to power the generator. This will be an EV and the battery will always be powering the electric motors. If it works as advertised, it'll be an interesting addition to the EV truck market.

 

[H3IMDALL]

Ramcharger is basically a truck version of the Volt, which was a great car for us. Burned one tank of fuel in 3 years of commuting around town and could go cross country on gas. Ramcharger will be tempting, though we have driven to Oklahoma and back (from Seattle) in the Lightning. I-5 to I -40 is fine… just don’t cut across through Utah or Wyoming lol.

 

[MM in SouthTX]

People are talking about 2 different Rams here. There is the Ramcharger, which has an ICE, and then there is the Ram EV, which has no ICE. One version has a 229 kWh battery. That's what I'm talking about.

 

[nanohead]

FYI, the Ramcharger, as Tom pointed out, is an EV with an onboard charger via gas engine. Same as how the old Chevy Volt works. Stellantis is claiming range in the 650 ish mile zone between battery and gas.

Earliest shipment will be probably a year from now as a 2025 model year.

As others from New England remarked, its a complete desert of adequate charging. In southern Vermont, there zero actual functional fast chargers.

As an engineer whos worked in many industries over the past 40 years, there's literally never a Silver Bullet to fix broad systemic problems. Assuming the Tesla Superchargers will "fix" the problems with public charging is magical thinking. Yes, there are more, and yes, they do maintain them better, but when another million EVs descend on all those SC locations in the freezing cold, we'll be back where we started.

And I have little trust that all the awful payment systems we're all subjected to won't be any better even with Tesla's fairly mature approach. and that assumes that Ford, who's amazing at making hardware, can actually get the software integration with the Tesla charging network to behave reliably, which I have little hope they can do.

So, we'll grind through this and next winter with the lovely F150 Lightning, but as soon as I get a Ramcharger delivery date, goodbye Lightning.

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