So, I watched a ‘reveal’ video for the F-150 where they said that Ford’s range numbers include carrying a 1000 lb load. They said that with a completely unloaded truck the range on the display was showing 469 miles!
And, I think the consensus is that the large battery is 150kWh.
I was also watching couple of videos of RV trailers, and realized another huge advantage of the Lightning for certain customees: RV trailers that have air conditioning, microwaves and other home appliances often need to be plugged into shore power for those to work. If you are off-grid, no microwave or A/C for you.
But with the Lightning, you always have shore power. You could park in a remote area, plug your trailer into the truck and live in comfort with A/C and the rest. If the truck will run a full home for three days, I imagine it could power a small trailer for weeks. Or if you are traveling a long distance, you could park in a rest area or Walmart parking lot, plug in your trailer tomthe truck, and it would almost be like parking at a full-service RV lot.
I think what I’d really like is something more like a Ford Explorer, but with the same battery and charging system. In an Explorer, that 150KW battery would probably get you close to a 500 mile range. An electric Explorer is coming, but no word on battery size yet.
One of my favorite vehicles to dream about is the Living Vehicle. It has enough solar to allow prolonged boondocking, while running all the electric, including 2 A/C units. You can even charge your electic vehicle. I want this thing soooo badly.
Solar is a really tough order for filling a car battery. Most RV’s with solar have about 500W systems. The actual power you’ll get from that system is much less than that. Call it 8 hours per day at maybe 250W per hour on a decent day. That would get you about 2 kWh per day, and would take 75 days to charge the truck.
The reasons you don’t get the full nameplate power from solar is because of: reduction in solar insolation anywhere but the equator, the fact that panels on a roof are not angled properly to the sun, charging losses, dirt on the panels, and that most RV parking is in shade. The more northerly your trip, the worse solar gets.
Lots of bigger RV trailers can be outfitted with a generator, though. You can run many of them them on gas or propane. You can get them in a range from 2 kW to 10 kW or even more. A 10 kW generator would charge the truck’s battery in a day. They burn about 3/4 of a gallon per hour at full load, so it would only take 10 gallons to generate 133 kWh.
Basically, if you can load a generator when you need it, the system becomss a PHEV. When you don’t, you can leave the generator at home and run pure electric.
Looks like that “living vehicle” RV cited above can get you up to 3,080 watts of total solar power, as it has solar panels on the slide out awning as well.
However, your points about angling the panels, parking in shade, and solar insolation in the north still stand. Also, I don’t have $369,000 to spend on an RV.
And this right here is why I’ve always advocated for making electric trucks instead of electric compact cars. The biggest limiting factor for EVs has always been the range, and that’s directly related to the size of battery you can put in it.
But a truck is already designed to carry a large payload, so extending the range by sacrificing some of that payload (permanently or temporarily) is relatively trivial. Not so easy to add a battery to something like the electric Smart car that has almost no cargo capacity.
I just signed a lease for a 2025 lightning at the end of August. It’s my third F150 and so far it’s my favorite. It’s a shame it’s already going away. Luckily it’s a four year lease so I won’t have to worry about replacing it any time soon.
I’m surprised that Ford isn’t selling many. The CNBC article says they sold less than 25,000 so far this year, compared to the 600,000 or so of the conventional F-series trucks. I would have thought they could have converted more of their existing customer base to the EV version.
Well, Ford fucked up the whole thing. They initially offered it at a reasonable price, only to raise the price repeatedly within the first 2 years, going from 39k to 59k by the end of 2023. And then the reports came out that in the cold or when towing the range on this thing took a real beating (because it wasn’t great to start with, and seemingly moreso than other EVs, or at least enough for it to become a big story).
The fact that other EV pickups started in the range of 75-80k didn’t seem to matter, they got double the range and didn’t struggle as badly with towing, so once again Ford has mishandled what could have been a great vehicle.
And part of that was they focussed more on the high-end versions. They offered a base model, but it was pretty clear they didn’t actually want you buying that one. But that’s the one that could have really broken into the market. Focus on small contractors and tradesmen. Give them a vehicle that can haul their tools and materials, and which can also easily power all those tools without having to mess around with an extra generator, and it could have been massive. Get those guys all buying them, and then the rich macho-wannabes would follow along, like they did with pickup trucks in the first place.
But they marketed to the wannabes first, and those guys didn’t want to be seen in some woke, girly E-Truck. They wanted to roll coal and all that stupid kind of stuff.
Ford’s F-150 Lightning production line has fallen silent, and its employees are now building more gas and hybrid trucks. The automaker continues to retreat from the big bet it made on Americans embracing full-size battery electric pickup trucks, and will focus instead on cheaper vehicles, hybrids, and range-extended electric vehicles—or EREVs—instead, it announced today.
One of those EREVs will be the Lighting’s replacement. With a gasoline generator that just charges the battery—series hybrid fans rejoice—the next Lightning comes with the towing ability that Ford says its customers consider “non-negotiable,” and up to 700 miles (1,126 km) of range.
“Our next-generation F-150 Lightning EREV will be every bit as revolutionary. It delivers everything Lightning customers love – near instantaneous torque and pure electric driving. But with a high-power generator enabling an estimated range of 700+ miles, it tows like a locomotive. Heavy-duty towing and cross-country travel will be as effortless as the daily commute,” said Doug Field, Ford’s chief EV, digital and design officer.
Ford is writing down $19.5 billion of its investment in electric vehicles (Reuters cite). But they’re still pursing a $30,000 medium-sized electric pickup truck that, according to the New York Times, is being developed in a skunk works outside Los Angeles and will be built differently.
The front and rear sections of the pickup will be cast from molten aluminum in giant machines rather than being welded and glued together from hundreds of pieces, the way most cars are made today.
