True Confessions Of A Actual Ford F-150 Lightning Driver – CleanTechnica – Uplaza

Join each day information updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or comply with us on Google Information!

My life associate and I are travelling this week and watching the tide cowl after which uncover the beautiful seaside at Ogunquit, Maine, simply because it has completed twice each day for millenia. It’s a peaceable and wondrous place, one which tends to refocus our minds on the rhythms of the pure world — and the way they might be altered by human exercise. Writing for CleanTechnica maybe makes us extra conscious of how we’re affecting the pure world, which is why we frequently do tales about electrical automobiles, which have a extra light affect on the environment than typical vehicles. I observed a Ford F-150 Lightning within the car parking zone at our posh and outrageously costly seaside resort. When the proprietor appeared, I struck up a dialog with him about his battery-electric truck. It was fairly revealing.

I had by no means seen an F-150 Lightning up shut and private earlier than. As luck would have it, there was a normal F-150 parked proper subsequent to it. To the untrained eye, the 2 vehicles seemed similar. It took a short time to note the variations. The entrance finish remedy is sort of completely different, because the Lightning has no grille, and but the distinction is probably not instantly obvious to the informal observer. It’s nonetheless an enormous entrance finish, wanting like a big piece of granite sculpted into the place the grille would usually be. The cargo field, when viewing each vehicles from the facet, seems to be just a few inches shorter, however when you occurred upon one throughout your each day adventures, the one positive clue the truck was electrical could be the phrase LIGHTNING in tasteful blue letters on both facet of the cargo field.

What To Like About The F-150 Lightning

I’ll name the proprietor of the Ford F-150 Lightning Bob, however in reality we by no means formally launched ourselves. He was busy shuttling a small military of youngsters and seaside tools into the truck and our dialog was pretty transient. He advised me he liked the ability, the silence of the powertrain, and the “feel” of the truck on the street. In days passed by, drivers used to rave concerning the “road-hugging weight” of massive, heavy American vehicles with their iron V-8 engines. That’s what the F-150 Lightning reminded him of. Huge, strong, silent — these had been the options he appreciated greatest. In terms of weight, the Ford has loads of heft. The F-150 Lightning can weigh as little as 6000 or as a lot as 6.900 kilos. That’s some road-hugging weight proper there!

He additionally advised me he was tenting with a good friend who drives a Tesla. They had been in a distant space and his good friend didn’t have sufficient cost in his battery to get to the closest charger. In order that they recharged the Tesla utilizing the Ford’s V2L characteristic. It took some time — a number of hours, in actual fact — to provide the Tesla sufficient electrons, however finally all of it labored out. From the outline I used to be given, it appears the cost fee was solely 3 to 4 miles per hour, however that’s higher than attempting to push a Tesla down a mud street by hand.

What’s Not To Like About The F-150 Lightning

I requested Bob if he was blissful together with his F-150 Lightning and he stated sure, he was about 80% glad. Not precisely a ringing endorsement, is it? He loves the way in which it rides and drives, so what’s he not blissful about? CleanTechnica readers already know the reply to that query. It’s charging. It takes too lengthy, there are usually not sufficient excessive energy chargers, and those which can be on the market are sometimes in use when he arrives. There isn’t any technique to reserve one prematurely.

Once I buttonholed Bob within the car parking zone, he had simply returned from a 3-hour journey to discover a Degree 3 charger just a few cities away. His household was on the seaside or within the pool the entire time and he was feeling sad about leaving them to go cost the truck. There are literally 4 ChargePoint Degree 2 chargers only a 5-minute stroll away, however he didn’t have the ChargePoint app and didn’t learn about them till I advised him. He additionally stated he was uninterested in being late to appointments as a result of he needed to cease to cost alongside the way in which.

Ford has now joined the Tesla Supercharger community, however Bob has but to obtain the adapter he wants to make use of the Supercharger stations. He additionally was uninformed about how he would pay Tesla for a charging session as soon as he had the adapter. That’s on Ford for not clearly explaining how the method works. Bob additionally bemoaned the truth that there are only a few pull-through websites the place folks towing a trailer can cost. My colleague Jennifer Sensiba has written about that difficulty just lately.

He additionally holidays in Florida each winter, however stated he wouldn’t think about driving the F-150 Lightning to the Sunshine State as a result of he would wish to cease to cost each 250 km or so, which might add a day to the journey every means. He has a standard gasoline-powered truck he makes use of for that function. He advised me he would like it if his truck had a generator that might maintain the battery charged whereas on the freeway. He stated he had heard concerning the Ramcharger, which is a plug-in hybrid with a gasoline engine that’s coming quickly. He’s fairly positive that shall be his subsequent automobile, not one other Ford.

Bob additionally had some complaints about vary. He lives in Quebec the place it will get chilly within the winter. He has observed his vary can drop by virtually 50% when the temperature drops, which suggests much more time spent charging. Additionally, when the unique tires wore out, he changed them with tires that had a extra aggressive tread higher suited to digging a path via snow. He says they precipitated a 15% drop in vary after they had been mounted, which didn’t make him blissful.

The Takeaway

Readers will discover that Bob just isn’t sad together with his battery-electric truck. He likes it simply high-quality, in actual fact. It’s the lack of charging infrastructure that he finds distressing, and he’s actually not alone in that regard. We at CleanTechnica are passionate advocates for the EV revolution, however we acknowledge that if a battery-electric automobile doesn’t suit your life-style, you in all probability shouldn’t drive one. The Porsche 911 is a good automotive, however makes a awful automobile for taking a household of 4 on trip. A pickup truck is ideal for plenty of driving chores, however makes a poor autocross automobile.

The lesson right here is that not each electrical automobile will match the wants of each driver. There are nonetheless lots of myths and mysteries about EVs. Ensure you perceive what is required to make driving an EV a joyous expertise. We actually need solely blissful campers on the journey to the electrical automobile future.