Is an Electric Pickup Truck A Terrible Idea? (My 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Build Thread)

In reply to frenchyd :

Just curious, have you ever actually worked out of the back of a truck? Have you ever had to load and unload a truck multiple times a day? 

No, building crap over the bed makes no sense when the beds are already too high off the ground. That would be stupid. Loading and unloading 500 pounds of materials is hard enough without having to lift the stuff even higher. Buying gas is 100% cheaper than on-the-job injuries for unsafe loading and unloading. My worker's comp insurance would cost more than the gas I buy now. 

The Cyber truck is 100% statement. If it wasn't it would look and work like a truck. As it is, it's useless for anything but making a statement. 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think most manufacturers have dropped the extended cab/6.5' bed/1/2 ton combo except for base work trucks. Most new 1/2 ton trucks are crew cab/5.5' bed models.

CAinCA said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think most manufacturers have dropped the extended cab/6.5' bed/1/2 ton combo except for base work trucks. Most new 1/2 ton trucks are crew cab/5.5' bed models.

Isn't that so the length will fit in regular garages?  

In reply to CAinCA :

Made me look.

The ICE F-150 comes in "super cab"/6.5 bed combos in the XL (base) and XLT (base+) trims. If you want all the trimmin' like a leather steering wheel and voice recognition and self-steering LED headlights, you need to get the bigger cab for your big hat. Which also means a starting price that is $20k higher.

Tom Suddard said:

In reply to maschinenbau :

Yeah, but how's the back seat? 

3-person bench is plenty of company for me. But an E-Camino conversion would be cool...

I'll write more once the trip is over, but a quick update: I added 700 miles to the Lightning's odometer between Tuesday night and Wednesday night, and will hopefully add another 400 today. No, we're not evacuating for the storm: we're headed to the Lime Rock Historics!

Unlike my trip across I-10 a few months ago, this one has so far been a breeze. Almost every single charger is working as intended, so charge stops are basically a non-issue. This is a complete 180 from last time when every station had multiple broken chargers.

My favorite stop, next to I-95 somewhere in South Carolina:

That charger is a good illustration of how there are more charging stations than people think. They don't have 100' tall poles with logos on them. Sometimes they're just a couple of boxes in a parking lot.

The future is here!

Also, we're now towing a rented camper. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Is that Magic Dock? Nice find, there are only about a dozen of them. That's not really related to Ford's decision to support NACS, that's Tesla adding a CCS adapter to the Supercharger but since the charger has to physically change, it's a long process to roll out. You initiate the charge via the app, right?

Actually, there's a question. Does the Lightning have Plug and Charge? If so, have you enabled and tried it?

Yep, it's one of the few Magic Docks in the country. True, it's not technically the future (Ford will sell me an adapter just like this in theory), but using Superchargers sure is.

Yes, initiate in the Tesla app, then the adapter unlocks and automatically comes out of the dock on the end of the cord. Charge speeds aren't ideal (I only saw a max of about 120kw) but every single stall seems to be working and there are tons of them. I think that's Tesla's killer app. 

Instead of Tesla modifying their chargers to fit all CCS cars, the CCS cars decided to use the Tesla plug instead :) Opens up the entire network instead of the few Magic Dock stations. You should get one of the adapters and ditch EA.

As for your charging rate, that wasn't the charger :) They're 250 kW posts.

If I buy an adapter, can I charge our Ioniq 6 at a Tesla Supercharger?

In reply to dyintorace :

I think only the Magic Dock ones dispense CCS power right now. With an adapter, you can probably use a Level 2 charger with a Tesla plug because that's just feeding AC from the grid into the onboard inverter. I don't think the software changes to let other vehicles (like Tom's truck) charge at the non-Magic Dock Superchargers yet- and Hyundai is one of the companes that hasn't signed on anyhow.

But the Magic Dock, yes.

Keith Tanner said:

In reply to dyintorace :

I think only the Magic Dock ones dispense CCS power right now. With an adapter, you can probably use a Level 2 charger with a Tesla plug because that's just feeding AC from the grid into the onboard inverter. I don't think the software changes to let other vehicles (like Tom's truck) charge at the non-Magic Dock Superchargers yet- and Hyundai is one of the companes that hasn't signed on anyhow.

But the Magic Dock, yes.

Good to know. Thank you!

Oh, to answer the plug and charge question: Yes, the Lightning supports it (though not with Tesla yet). However, I don't use it with Electrify America because in exchange for using their app and a $7/month membership instead of plug & charge, I get a 25% discount on charging. That adds up quick when I'm buying 90 kWh at a time. 

Here's a nice surprise: there's a shockingly fast (17kw) level 2 charger next to vendor row. And it's FREE! Thanks Porsche!

Tom Suddard said:

Oh, to answer the plug and charge question: Yes, the Lightning supports it (though not with Tesla yet). However, I don't use it with Electrify America because in exchange for using their app and a $7/month membership instead of plug & charge, I get a 25% discount on charging. That adds up quick when I'm buying 90 kWh at a time. 

That's...impressive. EA is making charging less convenient, giving away money and handicapping the adoption of part of the CCS spec in order to try to make their network the preferred one of certain customers. 

How do their prices compare to the other networks without the "membership"?

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Yeah, it's certainly, uh, a choice.... 

With the membership, they are actually cheap, though: It's the cheapest fast charger by a real amount, costing 35% less than the Supercharger. 

If it was mentioned earlier, I must have missed it, but what is "Plug and Charge"?

In reply to wae :

It's where the car takes care of the transaction when you plug it in. No need for apps or swiping cards, you literally just plug the car in and it starts charging. Teslas already work like this (the benefit of a closed system where you get to control everything) and it's now an optional part of the CCS protocol. 

Keith Tanner said:

Instead of Tesla modifying their chargers to fit all CCS cars, the CCS cars decided to use the Tesla plug instead :) Opens up the entire network instead of the few Magic Dock stations. You should get one of the adapters and ditch EA.

As for your charging rate, that wasn't the charger :) They're 250 kW posts.

Are you sure? At the same SoC and temperature I always get a 160-170kw bump from other chargers for the first 10 min or so.

Also, that curve doesn't quite tell the whole story: https://insideevs.com/news/615115/ford-f150-lightning-charging-analysis/amp/

Analyzing charge rates is fun stuff for sure :) They do all settle at 120 after the initial surge - and it's really interesting to see that it can sustain that surge longest in the 15-30% SOC window. There's a lot going on in the battery management system. Also, fantastic illustration of why charging to 100% is a bad idea unless you really, really have to or you have time to burn.

I can't think of why you didn't see your 160 kW bump at the start of charge unless Tesla is limiting it on CCS for some reason. But all the Magic Dock chargers are all V3 or V4 generation, and those are 250 kW. When Motor Trend tried the Magic Dock superchargers, they said they saw similar behavior as any 150+ kW station. So...? I guess you'll have to try it again on the way home!

Nice to see another lighting on here. I'm at 12k miles on mine and only issue I have had is my rear light bar is currently dead. 
 

get the light up ford emblem for your frunk. Easy mod and looks great!

We've now done two days using the Lightning to run the rented camper, which is the first real test of Pro Power Onboard. 
Running the fridge all day, A/C in the afternoon and a space heater all night consumes about 1% battery per hour on average, which is more than I expected but the camper does have a 300w phantom draw that I'm pretty sure is the battery charger overcharging the battery 24/7.  Oh well--that's the owner's problem, not mine. Either way we should have plenty of electricity for the weekend. When I get home, I plan to test how much power the truck draws just sitting without powering anything, as keeping it awake uses some power, too. It runs its fans occasionally when hooked up to a 1000w draw, too.