This will be my last attempt at a Lightning Road Trip

[luebri]

My summary...

1) OP is 100% correct as others have also said. Ford should not get a "free pass" for their horrible NAV system. It's pathetic and they deserve criticism so hopefully they can address it in the future.

2) That said, do your research before buying a vehicle. I knew the NAV sucked, I knew the lack of DCFC especially back in 2022. I knew the deprecated range at high speed and cold. I knew all of those things because I did research. It's mind boggling to me how people pay this much money for a vehicle and have not done their due diligence.

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[evowner]

Gasoline is substantially cheaper than electrons

Not for me. It costs between 10 to 15 dollars for me to fill up at home. I see you live in Cincinnati too. If you use the public chargers it is still cheaper than gasoline.

 

[Brons2]

Not for me. It costs between 10 to 15 dollars for me to fill up at home. I see you live in Cincinnati too. If you use the public chargers it is still cheaper than gasoline.

He was talking about DCFC.

That said it depends on what you're comparing.

It cost me $40.45 to drive my prior 13.3 MPG, similar sized vehicle 200 miles at $2.69 a gallon, which is the price I saw yesterday at the closest station to my house here in Central Texas. Plus other occasional maintenance costs like engine oil, etc, that aren't present on an EV.

Assuming I can average 2.0mi/KWh, it would cost me 100KWH to drive 200 miles. I averaged around that on a 165 mile trip last weekend. At the "rack rate" for the Electify America closest to my house, it's .53 per KWH thusly $53 for 200 miles. That's definitely more.

But if you buy a membership for a month for $7, you can get prices down into the .30s from a KWH standpoint. Then, the EV trip fuel is cheaper than gas. The breakeven on that $7 is pretty low, about 2 charges on a trip.

Of course, you throw in different vehicles and everything is different. Someone's probably saying right now, but my 2.7EB F150 gets 24mpg on the highway! Or, my Tesla Model Y gets 3.5mi/kwh! Or my Sienna hybrid van gets 35MPG! (experienced this personally when I rented one for 10 days).

That's why they say, your mileage may vary.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Assuming I can average 2.0KWH/mi, it would cost me 50KWH to drive 200 miles. I averaged around that on a 165 mile trip last weekend. At the "rack rate" for the Electify America closest to my house, it's .53 per KWH thusly $53 for 100 miles. That's definitely more.

If my Lightning could get 2.0 Miles per kWh[MPK}, a 200 mile trip around my local EA at $0.56 a kWh would cost me $56.00 for 200 miles traveled after sales tax (Mass) $59.50!!!!

My old PSD at 15 MPG with diesel priced at $3.339 today would cost $44.52 for 200 miles traveled.

 

[BlueLightning]

I am in one hotel, and my lightning is languishing at another hotel, hooked up to a slow-ass Blink L1 charger because it was all I could find. I had to take an Uber back to my hotel, and will have to take an uber back to the other one tomorrow morning, and hope that it picked up enough miles to get me to a real charger.
Until Ford decides to get serious and actually build a freaking network I will confine my Lightning driving to local only. The Ford Pass "network" is just a list. It doesn't work. What i have now are two nav systems (Google and Ford). Google is flawed and unreliable when it comes to charging, but at least I can get somewhere with it. Ford can't find many locations, has all the functionality of Garmin 2004, and looks awful. The FordPass app can find chargers and sometimes feed them to Google Maps, but it's as likely to take me to the wrong place or to a charger that is not available or compatible. After two long days of driving 2 hours to charge for an hour (when I can actually find a charger close to the route), collecting charging apps so I can sit in an isolated spot with no rest rooms and no amenities, I have had it. My wife is ready to leave the Lightning at an airport and rent an ICE so we can finish driving to our vacation destination.
Ford, if you're listening, quit making us beta test your tech. Get it together.

Very brave, never driven outside 10 mile radius in my Lightning. No reliable public charger.

(Nothing like the fear of driving up to four or five chargers and none work or cables broken).

Had a LRM3 and used to take long trips several times a year with no issues. (Miss that feature, but truck is way less bumpy).

But, feel your pain a little, made similar mistake of staying in a hotel that was about hour away from Supercharger in wrong direction. LOL.

Take care and safe travels.

 

[luebri]

If my Lightning could get 2.0 Miles per kWh[MPK}, a 200 mile trip around my local EA at $0.56 a kWh would cost me $56.00 for 200 miles traveled after sales tax (Mass) $59.50!!!!

My old PSD at 15 MPG with diesel priced at $3.339 today would cost $44.52 for 200 miles traveled.

True... but the thing with EV's is yes the miles you need from DCFC are often times as expensive as ICE but you get the benefit of at least your first ~200 miles being at home charge rate and you can also can roll into your house at a low SOC so you can replenish your tank/battery at home rate.

 

[TaxmanHog]

True... but the thing with EV's is yes the miles you need from DCFC are often times as expensive as ICE but you get the benefit of at least your first ~200 miles being at home charge rate and you can also can roll into your house at a low SOC so you can replenish your tank/battery at home rate.

No doubt at $0.34 it's the cheapest I'll get away with, but if I were hopping from EA to EA on a longer trip, I would invest in the pass plus plan to get a better price would barely break-even with liquid fuel.

 

[Brons2]

If my Lightning could get 2.0 Miles per kWh[MPK}, a 200 mile trip around my local EA at $0.56 a kWh would cost me $56.00 for 200 miles traveled after sales tax (Mass) $59.50!!!!

My old PSD at 15 MPG with diesel priced at $3.339 today would cost $44.52 for 200 miles traveled.

I fixed my errors, saw your corrections. Almost $60 to go 200 miles is pretty high.

This is one of the reasons I would probably reach for the keys of the Mach-E rather than the Lightning for a long trip, if cost was a primary consideration. Can get 2.8mi/KWh easily at 75-80, plus it has BlueCruise, my XLT lightning does not. Even at your price of .59 and change for 200 miles I'm around $42 at 2.8mi/kwh.

In a M3 or MY you'd probably do better, owing to the superior aerodynamics to the Mach-E. That said I didn't like the MY, maybe the refresh will be better.

 

[Sdctcher]

I just got home from my 10th - TENTH!!! - road trip of more than 1500 miles in my Pro SR. I have DC fast charged (more than 250 billed sessions) in eight different states; L2 in three more. These trips have NOT been coastal excursions in areas where there are lots of chargers, but in the wide open West. Worse, I love the challenge of crossing EV (and real) deserts. With 43K+ miles on my Lightning, I’ve never found myself stuck anywhere. Maybe it is because I am an intelligent and careful guy who also has the maturity not to blame the vehicle or the manufacturer for my failures to responsibly plan my trips.

Agree completely! I have over 30K across 40 states in the past 8 months with no lasting problems - of course, I have learned from the state of charging just two years ago to always expect the worst and love anything better. I trust nothing called NAV and always use the many great apps available (Plugshare etc.) and now even seldom use Ford Pass on the road. But I have been taught to never completely trust a single source (sounds a bit like the internet?).

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