Let’s begin by noting what most reviewers already have: The Ford Lightning is very quick. Despite weighing 6,000-plus pounds, it’s as quick as a V8-powered Mustang GT that only weighs about half as much.
You don’t have to wait for it to warm up, either.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that using that power takes power.
That’s equally true in a Mustang GT, of course. The difference being that it’s easy and convenient to restore the GT’s power by filling it up with gas – so range isn’t an issue, in terms of convenience, even if you burn through gas quickly.
The Lightning burns through range quickly, too. But getting it back isn’t convenient – if you haven’t got time to wait.
I made it down to the gym, about 25 miles distant, recovering some range along the way via regenerative braking – which uses the vehicle’s wheels as generators, converting the kinetic energy of motion into electrical energy. I got about six miles of range back this way. Unfortunately, I would lose about 15 coming back from the gym – and “up the mountain” – an elevation gan of about 2,000 feet over the course of about 2.5 miles.
It takes a lot of energy to pull more than 6,000 pounds of anything up a grade like that.
I also spent a lot of time – and for not much gain – at a commercial high-voltage “fast” charger, located down the road from my gym and about 25 miles from home. You have probably heard about being able to “fast” charge an electric vehicle at one of these . . . chargers. The usual claim is something on the order of 30 minutes to recover 80 percent charge.
This claim is bogus. At least, in this case. It may have nothing to do with the Lightning – and everything to do with the “”fast” charger I hooked up to. But the fact is I only got about 45 miles of range after waiting for 30 minutes at this “fast” charger. This proved to be just enough range added to get me home with just about as much indicated range left when I got home as I had when I left home to go down the mountain, to the gym. Which means I will have to stop at that “fast” charger again, the next time I go down the mountain again, in order to get back up the mountain again.
Assuming I haven’t managed to get the 120V AC home hook-up to put some charge in overnight, tonight.
I would have liked to put more charge into the truck than what I got after waiting for half an hour – so that I could drive farther – but I didn’t have time to wait for an hour – which, if the rate of recharge remained constant – would have left me with just shy of 100 miles of range added. That is a long time to wait for 100 miles of range. To put it in perspective: A gas-engined F-150 (with the 5.0 V8) goes 17 miles (city) on a gallon of gas, so about 5.5 gallons of gas will give you about 100 miles of range. One can pump 5.5 gallons of gas into the tank in about three minutes. One can fill the tank in about five minutes – and have a range of 442 miles (city) and more than 600 on the highway.
One can also carry five gallons of gas, easily.
And you know how much it cost you. At the “EVGo” commercial charger, all I know is they charged me for those 45 miles of range. How much I have no idea. I suppose I will find out when I get my credit card statement.
I do know what I spent waiting. Thirty minutes is a long time when you have somewhere else you need to be and other things you need to do. It is also a problem when all you get after a 30 minute wait is 45 or so miles of added range – because you’ll be waiting again, soon.
Per that –
After unplugging the truck, I had about 152 miles of indicated range. I lost about 15 of that coming up the mountain – which left me with about 132 miles of range at the top of the mountain. The trip up the mountain is only about 2.5 miles. No surprise, the type of miles greatly affects how many miles an EV can actually travel – as opposed to how many miles are indicated as remaining on the range display.
This is the Catch 22 of regenerative braking. Yes, you can recover range going downhill. But if you have to go back up the same hill, you will lose range – probably more than you gained coming down.
This isn’t necessarily a problem if you had ample range – a full charge – to start with, which leaves you with plenty of margin (unused range) even if you burn through more than the range indicator indicated. But that assumes you had the time to let the vehicle fully recharge, which is sometimes inconvenient to wait for home – even if your 120-240V AC is working – because charging that way will take at least overnight to get you back to fully charged.
So, if you haven’t got the time you start out without a full charge – and now it matters if your real-world range slips away faster than the range indicated, especially if you haven’t got 30 minutes (or an hour) to wait at a “fast” charger.
I’m hoping to see how pulling a load – ideally, in the cold – affects the Lightning’s range.
Stay tuned for that!
. . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in! Or email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com if the @!** “ask Eric” button doesn’t work!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
My eBook about car buying (new and used) is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy directly!
This is a very interesting series. I’m especially curious about why the home (110V) charging just didn’t work at all. What the hell with that?
Thanks, BaDnOn!
I’m trying to do a deep dive on this one – because I think it’s an important one. People need to know what these EVs are really like, in the real world.
Good Lord, that piece of electric junk would never work up here. Try sticking a heavy dog box on the back of that thing, or a couple of four wheelers, or snow machines, or try towing a trailer? It would not make it 50 miles out of town, and you would then be stuck in BFE on the side of the road. Oh, and if you are lucky, it would not be -20 below out, either. What if you want to go hunting up north somewhere? Sorry, no can do with junk like this. No chargers 150 miles from nowhere. Ugh. What idiots think that these electric driving boxes are good for anything but the trash heap? Oh yeah, the ones trying to force us to live in the city, walk everywhere, and eat bugs.
Hi Shadow,
I think the point of these things is to make living away from the urban hives as difficult as possible. So as to purge the country of us Deplorables.
True. Herd people into rack-’em-and-stack-’em apartments like cattle. They are much easier to control and manipulate that way. I am not sure which way this state will swing. We got too many “North Seattle” types up here….the thumb-sucking leftists, but we are not as bad off (yet) as Colorado or Montana that have since been destroyed by such locusts. Will we fight back like Texas and Florida? Against EV’s, among other things? I guess we will not have long to find out. I always anticipated the Russians re-claiming us first, which would really add an interesting monkey wrench into everything. Suffice it to say, I do not anticipate 2023 being a dull or boring year.
I never cared about manufacturers that made vehicles during and for the war. Foreign automakers didn’t do anything different than Americans have or will (AFAIK). Porsche made tiger tanks, right? Also, the turrets for various panzers ja vol. Maybe even made barrels for the dreaded anti-anything PAK-88 — maybe even the entire thing. I forget about those.
How many Mitsubishi aircraft were made specifically to attack & kill Americans and did so often enough? Doesn’t seem to stop people from buying Mitsubishis.
BUT! As a long term German car owner, I’ve had it with their shit. You’re asking for it to own/buy one.
Whoops! That was supposed to be a comment on the Borman Phone Home article! 🤣
Hi Eric, one thing I haven’t seen mentioned is the ride quality. I am assuming, since the truck is approx. 2000lbs heavier than a typical 1500 is it then has to have stiffer springs? One thing for sure has happened in the past 10+ years is these 1500 trucks have all gotten much better ride qualities, and are much less harsh over potholes.
Would like to know.
Thanks.
Hi Chris,
You should see the springs! And, you will… stay tuned…
Chris,
The reason that they ride better now is that a major portion of their market does not work them. I’ve worked trucks from all three major brands extensively. In olden times, if you wanted a truck to work hard, get a Dodge or a Ford. If you wanted one to ride well, get a Chevy. With “modern” tech, it may not now be so, but in the past a stiff ride was required if you wanted it to drive well with a heavy load. A thing old Chevys did not do as well as Ford and Dodge.
Hi John, your right, as always. Have had them since the mid 80’s when chevy was the first to go from the solid front axle to the IFS. Well you could say ford’s I-beam thing was first but I never like it cause the front tires tilted in under load. It bothered me when a plow was on and the tires were tilted in.
And probably why I went Chevy exclusively for a long time because they rode the best back then. I lived on the road, and when the big boat cars went away I went trucks. With some decent larger cars like the caprice, park ave, etc… in between when I couldn’t take the truck ride. Not now.
My current ram air ride is the best riding vehicle I’ve owned since my 90’s park Ave’s.
I never had to work them hard other than dirtbikes in the back, and towing rv’s.
Apparently the alternator on my ’02 A6 wagon went out! Took it out for its weekly spin — to keep the battery charged since I don’t daily drive — and whattaya know? The batter light came on, the central battery warning came on, the CEL came on and, worse than all that, the longer that I drove the lower the batter voltage meter went.
When I got out to Leonardtown, I was dropping stuff off, so I left it running! And it got lower and lower. Way down past 10v, close to 8v. Might have to have it towed to the shop.
Battery is probably fine because I had it replaced last year. Ah well, I’ll get it in the shop next week hopefully. Needs a few other things anyway.
Love the F-150 Lightning reports! Do tell about the “MMI” (or whatever they call it), knobs vs touchscreen, how plastic (or not) the interior is, how the steering wheel feels, etc, etc.
What packages does it have? I assume it’s loaded, yeah? Do have heated/ventilated seats? Is the steering wheel heated? Dual zone climate control? How’s the audio? Assuming it has no removeable media capability or does it? Does it have adaptive cruise control and/or traffic jam assist (or whatever they call it)?
Does it have voice command for car functions, GPS programming, audio/climate control?
How about body stuff? Does it have adaptive suspension? How about speed-regulated steering? Or a “sport” (and other) modes? If so, do they make any difference really?
No transmission huh? Is it then basically the same as AWL or is it different? How about the brakes to stop that hunk of shit? Is it like driving a tank ever? (i.e., like parking or maneuvering through a parking lot, etc?)
How about the headlights? Are they adaptive? Do they have auto-dimming? How about interior lights? Does it have an ambience package? Changeable color LED lights inside?
Just some questions that I usually have about cars — maybe don’t really apply to trucks but the damn thing is clearly a computerized golf cart that happens to be very large and fully enclosed without a club rack. So I’m guessing they try to add features like cars but I dunno!
I dropped in a factory replacement 50 gallon diesel fuel tank into my diesel pickup truck. It uses all the factory parts including the fuel pump. My full-size diesel pickup truck can then haul 3500 lbs in the bed of the truck while pulling a 17,700 camper trailer and at full tow-haul I get about 13.8 miles per gallon. So do the math, I don’t have to refuel for at least 600-650 miles. Why would buy an electric truck?
Amen, Electric –
And, to be clear – I don’t have an issue with EVs as such. People ought to be free to choose whatever alternative makes the most sense to them. What I oppose is people being denied alternatives.
No need to worry about range or charging Eric. If our “betters” have their way, you will not own any vehicles by 2030.
See article here: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/12/05/no-joke-climate-change-professionals-now-provide-goals-and-individual-allowances-for-transportation-food-and-clothing/
Actual pdf here (see table 5 for car ownership goals): https://www.arup.com/-/media/arup/files/publications/c/arup-c40-the-future-of-urban-consumption-in-a-1-5c-world.pdf
Anon
Wow, I skimmed that, too long to read but I might go back for more details. The control freaks/psychos have our lives figured out for us to the very last detail. I’m old enough to not give a flying f**k so bring it on, come get me; I’ll take down as many of these douchebags as possible on my way out.
These three “reviews” are hilarious.
Almost entirely about the batteries and charging them!
Finally, in part III, we had one mention about something else: Acceleration.
That’s interests the author because we all know he is a speed demon who loves to drive 120mph in reverse. But nothing else about the truck.
Can you imagine anyone discussing a new ICE truck and spending three articles talking mainly about the cost of filling the gas tank and the mileage range?
In addition, the most important specification was left out, unless I missed it: The price of the Lightening being tested. This is probably not important to a rich guy like the author, who lights his cigars with twenty dollar bills, but it’s important to many readers.
If the Lightening was a good vehicle for the money, I’d think we’d have read that in the first paragraph of the first article about it. I must have missed that paragraph.
Richard,
Range (real-world) and recharge times/hassles are the most relevant considerations, aside from cost, with regard to electric vehicles. My object here is to give people the facts – as opposed to the BS – about electric vehicles as they really perform in real-world driving. A full-length review is also coming. But right now I am focusing on showing people what driving – and living with – this truck is actually like.
If you want a blowjob piece about how quick the Lightning is, I suggest Car&Driver.
Hi Richard,
“Finally, in part III…”
Uh, no. I think it’s clear that there is much more to come. Eric has the truck until next Wednesday.
An electric truck. How stupid!! Those batteries would bring down the grid once they’ve forced everyone to get rid of the gas cars. Just make gas powered vehicles more economical. They have the technology but the car companies are in bed with the oil companies or they’d release cars that get incredible mileage.
Hi Name,
You’re right – about there being no good reason for the unavailability of light, simple, affordable and highly fuel efficient cars. The government doesn’t want them because it would ease the financial pressure on people; the industry doesn’t want them because it thinks there’s more money to be made selling (and financing) $35k-plus cars. In fact – as Henry Ford – demonstrated – there is a lot of money to be made selling simple, affordable cars. As by selling a lot of them.
As a former employee in the auto industry for 27 years, I know that tiny cars are not profitable. Full sized pickup trucks are very profitable. The tiny subcompact car market would be captured by cars made in China, where the low labor and energy costs would be a large competitive advantage over US manufacturing.
In fact, the 49moh EPA CAFE requirement for 2026 model will FORCE electric vehicle production by US auto manufacturers. Not what their customers want to buy, considering the inconvenience and high prices of electric vehicles:
2022 Model Base Prices,
excluding destination charge, options ales taxes and insurance:
Compact Tesla Model 3 Electric MSRP: $46,990
Mid-Sized Toyota Camry LE Hybrid MSRP: $27,380
The true lesson from Henry Ford was that the Ford Motor Company almost went out of business after he tried to keep the Model T in production for too long, after competitors were selling more desirable cars.
Richard,
The Model T – and its successor, the Model A – were massively successful because they sold in volume. GM currently sells less than a fourth of what Chevy by itself sold 50 years ago. The average new car transacted for more than $35k last year. This is not sustainable because average people cannot afford this. Let alone $50k-plus EVs.
Debt-financing has papered over this reality for years. But even that has limits – and we’re reaching them, if we haven’t, already.
Your notion that people struggling to pay for groceries would not be interested in a simple, $10k or so car that was capable of 60 MPG is risible.
Richard Greene,
“In fact, the 49moh EPA CAFE requirement for 2026 model will FORCE electric vehicle production”, and promptly put most US car makers out of business. Some or most foreign makers as well. It’s not a viable market. Pushing us back to the days when cars were handmade, and only the very wealthy had one. Which is the plan of course.
Richard, tiny cars are not profitable ENOUGH for the big 3 with their grossly distended executive and union labor wage and benefit packages. So they lobby for crash standards, emission testing, and sundry other forms of protectionism so that small fry like myself don’t have a chance of seriously competing with them.
If I start making more than a few hand built high functional resto-mods a year, getting 30+mpg on rock simple carbureted motors in fun, good looking cars which dont have any seat belts or air bags in them, if I get noticed, the suits will have the bad guys sicced on me.
Small cheap cars of good quality can be done, but you can’t be a crook and expect Mary the HR GRRL’s multimillion dollar comp package.
What if the power fails and you have no electricity? What are you going to do?
Buy a generator for your home, diesel fueled, you will be able to charge the battery in your EV and have electricity for your home.
Your very own power plant is what you’ll have.
The answer is to have an ICE vehicle, some extra fuel in the garage, when the power goes out, you have a place to go if it is cold outside.
Have an extra 100 gallons of diesel, far safer than gasoline in greater quantities. Have an extra vehicle with gas in the tank, you can siphon it if you have to. Three five gallon gas cans full will be okay, I suppose.
Buy an electric golf cart and spend the spring, summer and fall golfing 30 over par every day.
You don’t need no stinkin’ EV! The real answer, problem solved.
Back in the mid-50’s, the house had a coal bin in the basement and an octopus furnace with a firebox, you would remove the ashes and put them in an ash pail to cool. You had plenty of coal for the winter months, you were fairly safe and sound. You then load more coal into the firebox and let the burning begin.
When the power failed, you didn’t lose the ability to heat your home. The ’54 Mercury was in the drive way with gas in the tank. Propane stove and range, propane bottle stood outside next the wall of the house, plumb in the copper tubing with flared fittings, you could cook with no electricity. The console radio in the living room was replaced with a new television around 1955, no tv until 1954. Lights and a radio, not a lot of electricity was used back then.
The aunt on the farm used a wooden box crank to ring telephone into the early sixties.
Back in the good old days of huffing paint and sniffing glue, gotta miss something about those simpler times.
The good old days?
1930s Depression
World War II
Korean War
Cold War
Cuban missile crisis
President shot
1960s Race Riots
Vietnam War
Richard Greene:
Thanks for making this point. The “good old days” were never as good as one remembers today. Likewise, the current period of time is not as bad as the internet would have one believe. Yeah, there’s a lot to complain about now, but I think that largely is a result of us knowing what these fuckers are up to. We didn’t know back then because there was not as much information out there.
We shouldn’t let these fuckers ruin our lives. Fight the good fight and enjoy life. These are the good times! – Chic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er9xGRolrT4
Mister Liberty,
“Likewise, the current period of time is not as bad as the internet would have one believe.”
You’re right. It’s actually far worse than that. We are deep in a eugenicist moment. Billions may die.
Richard Greene,
The new days?
Mass extermination campaign by the “new world order”
Threat of REAL nuclear war with the US Psychopaths In charge playing with the idea we can win one.
Europe, and possibly the US going dark and cold without a war to blame it on.
A pending “depression” that could easily make the 1930s depression look like a cake walk.
31 trillion dollar deficit that my great grandchildren will never pay off.
President suffering acute dementia
Massive suffering over “climate change”, which climate is always changing, whether it please anyone or not.
I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.
Most important, the worst surveillance in the most totalitarian slave state ever. With more surveillance cameras in the good ol USA than Chi-Com China. With supercomputers sucking up all electronic communications. With standing armies of communist enforcers at every level of government.
In the good old days, these could be dealt with in a dark corner by a small group of decent men. Now there are very few dark corners.
You are quite an optimist !
Everything stated has not happened, or is exaggerated.
And you missed the biggest problem today:
A large increase of government power over we the people in the past few years
Dick,
You list a number of things that occurred over a period of forty years.
Now within a time span of 4 years we have/have had:
The burning and looting of many major US cities.
Mass ‘lockdowns’ in most US states, of US citizens.
The provocation of WW III.
The destruction of a significant percent of small businesses via gov’t policy related to the phony ‘pandemic’ they inflicted on us.
The mass injury and or killing of millions of people via a deadly vaccine which is not a vaccine, also related to said phony pandemic.
A senile coot installed as the head of our country, who in conjunction with his crack-head son has participated in fraud and treason against his own country with his buddies in the Ewe-kraine, to which he is now funneling much of our wealth.
The destruction of confidence in the electoral process due to obvious and blatant electorasl corruption.
We are on the doorsteps of the Greater Depression.
We have lost all international credibility.
Our industrial base has been destroyed.
All while society, morality and the family are in collapse.
Hoorah! Yes…these are the good old days!!!!
Battery operated cars, like battery operated tools, are convenient and useful for some in specific conditions and applications, and inconvenient/ineffective and virtually useless for the rest.
I applaud the development of EV, and for those that can make use of them (a subset of people that will increase over time) have at it and good luck.
But just like battery operated tools do NOT work for day-to-day activities in my wood shop, which requires reliable power and efficiency, EV will not work for my day-to-day activities on the road, in the woods, or in the field.
The government subsidizing EV is wrong.
The government driving up the price of fuel to drive people to EV is wrong.
The government mandating the use of EV is wrong.
The government banning the use of ICE is wrong.
Hi RT,
Your position is mine, as well. I have no issue at all with EVs as alternatives – for those who prefer them. So long as those who do not prefer them aren’t forced into them (or out of non-electric cars). People have a right to freedom of choice. But those choices are under assault – by those who would choose for us. What gives anyone the right to do that?
If the commie elitists wanted people in electric cars, or even just economical low emissions cars, they would start simply by requiring no licensing or bulls*&t mandatory anything in neighborhood electric vehicles with up to say, 40 horsepower. The fact that this is not even discussed shows the truth.
The government is wrong.
That’s the bottom line.
The people currently running the government hate this country and want to fundamentally transform it. And they are making great progress with climate scaremongering, Covid scaremongering and Nut Zero. Every leftist decision seems counterproductive. And they are, when viewed as conservatives see the world. But leftists know that to fundamentally change America, they have to ruin what works., from the borders to the electric grid.
Fundamental change is the new term for a communist revolution, in progress right now, but invisible to most people, unfortunately. There are no guns, only because leftists hate guns. There is censorship, political and political prisoners. This is not a fast moving revolution, led by the military. It is slow moving, led by the rest of the government. But the speed has accelerated in the past three years. And we the people are losing.
Richard Greene,
“There are no guns, only because leftists hate guns.”
They don’t hate guns, they hate your guns. As tyrants always have. It makes it much harder to load people on trains to the camps if they are shooting at you.
Full battery capacity (range) will also decrease as the battery ages. Range will be less in cold weather. Using the heater or AC will also reduce range.
A huge hidden cost no one is discussing is the impact on tire and break life from carrying an extra 2,000 pounds. Not only does this represent a significant hidden cost, the tire and brake pad particulates generated contribute significantly to visible air pollution/toxicity.
Hi George,
Yup – in re tire and brake pad “emissions.” Just wait, though. If EVs ever become a mass thing, these “emissions” will be used to limit use of EVs.
I have already heard / read similar stories………if you want the pickup to be a car that’s fine, lol…but if you bought the pick up to be a pick up FUGGETABOUTIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Battery powered vehicles are a TOTAL JOKE!!!
Also if you think by buying one you are saving the planet..better think again, the battery materials alone just to get create a carbon foot print that can never be made up in the lifetime of the battery vehicle…..it’s a total SCAM!!!! Also in about 5 to 10 years there may not be enough lithium / cobalt to be found to continue making these batteries…and right now thee batteries aren’t even recyclable…LOL…and don’t forget all of the other types of lithium batteries being made that will compete for resources against the car batteries…….yeah, buying a battery car is NOT SMART!!!!!!! They will very soon be relegated to the ash heap of history as a failed idea……
It should be named, “Edsel.”
Hi SSGT,
It’s worse than that. I haven’t even used it as a truck yet. All I’ve done so far is drive it back and forth, as I would any car I get to test drive. I am going to hook it up to a trailer and then see what happens. Stay tuned…
Does regenerative braking commence as soon as you lift, or do you have to step on the brake pedal for it to activate?
It can be configured for user preference.
If set to max regen, just lifting off the throttle is like slamming on the brakes. Even at medium regen, it’s disconcerting to most drivers, initially, until they get used to lifting the throttle being the same thing as applying brakes (without actually touching the brakes).
Hi Roland,
Regen is always operative; the amount varies depending on settings. Normally, it acts like normal engine braking in a non-electric car. But you can increase it via “one pedal” operation such that lifting off the accelerator acts like applying the brakes.
Thanks, Eric and KBC. Regen braking is one thing about EVs that does make sense. As an aside, the CNC vertical machining centers that I had before I retired (built in the late 90s and early 2000s) had regenerative spindle brakes. They had stacks of what looked exactly like kitchen range burner elements up on top with heat guards around them. When the spindle motor was commanded to stop by an M05 code in the program, it would convert to a generator to stop the cutting tool instantly. Since there was nothing useful to be done with that electrical energy, it was dumped into the coils to dissipate. I never saw it myself, but supposedly if you were running a program that had a lot of high-speed spindle starts and stops, the coils would glow orange.
‘the type of miles greatly affects how many miles an EV can actually travel’ — eric
Stubborn indeed are the laws of physics.
If our gas-powered vehicles had ‘remaining miles’ fuel gauges with 1-mile increments, they would drop noticeably faster on uphill grades than down. But it’s invisible with crappy ‘1/4 tank’ or ‘1/8 tank’ increments.
For sure, it takes twice as many kWh, Joules or BTUs to move a 6,000-lb vehicle up a hill as the 3,000-lb vehicle I normally drive.
Eric’s video of passing a slow pickup like it was standing still, recalled a Tesla pulling out in front of me from a dead stop in a 60 mph zone, at close range. Thought I had to brake hard. But in 3 seconds, the Tesla was going 60 too, and pulling away from me.
No doubt EeeVees can pin you to your seatback. Their massive batteries are needed for range; snappy acceleration is just a by-product of large drive motors.
But I deplore the ungainly feel of a ponderous vehicle. As a kid, I drove go-karts with lawnmower engines that could lap the subdivision faster than a car. Some of the parents owned tiny, wire-wheeled 1960s British sports cars, that tipped the scales at 2,000 lbs or less. VW bugs were ubiquitous.
I’m just not into the heavyweight lifestyle of high Body Mass Index people and vehicles and malformed McMansions. Skate like a waterbug; sting like a bee.
I don’t care if my liver is hanging by a thread
Don’t care if my doctor says I ought to be dead
When my ugly big car won’t climb this hill
I’ll write a suicide note on a hundred dollar bill
If you wanna run cool, you got to run
On heavy, heavy fuel
— Dire Straits, Heavy Fuel
Great tune…
“sometimes it all comes together baby, sometimes you’re gonna lose it all” Dire Straits, The Bug.
Hi Jim,
Ford did a very good job of masking this truck’s weight. You don’t notice it unless you throw it around in the curves. And then you do.
Jim,
Once looked at buying a used 2005 BMW Z4, went home and looked up the specs. Discovering it weighed well over 3000 pounds, more than a thousand pounds more than my Miata, and promptly forgot about it.
It also had “engine noise” projected by the stereo. I guess because BMWs are quiet?
Not all fast chargers are the same. The Tesla superchargers will DC charge the Tesla battery pack at a rate up to 480 Volts. There are pretty stiff interconnection requirements for these sites, and 480 service isn’t as common as you might think once you get out into the suburbs.
The EVGo website is pretty quiet about the electrical requirements for hosting a location, but I’d bet they also need a 480 Volt service drop for fast charging, but are willing to supply a slower charging option just to lock in a space. A 240V/300A service for two vehicles would be able to push a fair bit of current but not really all that much more than a home service. If you go back try to get a picture of the pole behind the “pump.” I’d like to see what sort of transformer might be hanging on it.
I’ve also heard they have a two tiered pricing schedule, so you might not have paid up for the big hose.
From their web site:
Level 2 Charging
Available at select locations. Check the EVgo app for pricing.
https://www.evgo.com/pricing/
So if you can get level 2 at that location it will probably cost you. Seems to get confusing pretty quickly and doesn’t help that the source of information was built by marketeers trying to obfuscate reality.
Hi RK,
I will do that today! I have to do that today… because it is not feasible to put any kind of charge into this thing at home. Takes all day/all night.
“it is not feasible to put any kind of charge into this thing at home.
Takes all day/all night.”
What’s your rush?
Charge at home and save money.
Read a good book while you wait.
Or watch a few football games.
Go to sleep for eight hours.
Then drive away in the morning.
This will be advertised as a benefit of electric vehicles:
“Buy an EV and get a good night’s sleep”
— Example of another advantage of EVs:
You are out driving in the country
Your EV charge runs down to 20 miles in the middle of nowhere.
No chargers within 25 miles, but you only have 20 miles range left.
So you stop at a farmhouse and beg to use an electrical outlet to charge your EV
It turns out the farmer has a beautiful daughter who is attracted to you.
That would never happen with an iCE vehicle.
Richard,
Some of us have tings to do, places to be. Time is money. It is a new species of imbecility to tout waiting half an hour or more for a “fast” charge… and planning your week around such.
RK,
Once worked for a printing shop that bought a monstrous four color press, at a great price. Then discovered their power service wouldn’t run it. Cost them over $20k to get that service, which ate up there “great price savings” and then some. 30 years ago. Probably twice that now.
Many/most areas have 400+ V service for distribution, but that’s not the same as a service drop. If a business wants it, they’re happy to supply it, but not if it means overloading the “nameplate capacity” of the distribution line.
This is why EVs are so fast! They have to be, so you can recover the time you lost waiting an hour or two for them to charge. Imagine when they become more popular, and there are lines at the chargers!
How can people live like that? It makes the horse and buggy look attractive. And to think, people are so insane these days that they pay $50-$100K+ for this crap!
With an EV pickup truck you can put a gasoline generator in the truck bed and cans of gasoline. Throw a green tarp over them until you need to use them to charge your vehicle. Ford out to sell a matching generator as a Lightening option.
In which case the whole point has been defeated. It is akin to going around the block to cross the street.
This is all great information and gives a very “real world” evaluation of the vehicle for rural drivers. The regen brakes are one of those things that sounds great, but really doesn’t add much to the range, especially on a round trip. What goes down must come up.
An EV just sitting loses charge:
tesla says a daily 3%-5% stationary range consumption.” (just parked)
So Tesla says it’s normal to fully discharge itself in under 3 weeks. Keep this in mind when parking it somewhere 90kwh @ $0.40 per kwh = another $36.00 per week loss just parked…lol
if you leave it parked, not plugged in the battery dies…goes to zero….discharges…costing you money…ice cars don’t….
Journalists Plug Ford Electric Truck in at Campground, Find Out It Will Take 5 Days to Fully Charge
https://ijr.com/journalists-plug-ford-electric-truck-campground/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ijr&utm_content=2022-10-06&utm_campaign=manualpost&fbclid=IwAR2rR_lcbEAQsUs7JEbf9c1zODoKPlsa8YP4F9qgqEc6_qFR1IcgDK6xu10
Imagine the impact of all the campground stalls charging. There’s no way that campground wiring will handle all that! And what happens when the operator gets the bill? That $35/night fee will skyrocket.
Indeed- in my nowhere burg we charge about .10/kWhr for our power. I read that Cali is over .40 at least in places. That adds up in a heck of a hurry- even without road tax on the fuel which I’m sure will be coming.