RickLightning
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22 day trip. SE Michigan to California and back. 5,336 miles across 11 days of driving. To those who say you can't take an EV on a trip, you're so, so wrong. To those who say it adds a tremendous amount of time - it adds time, yes, roughly 20% overhead. How long can you go without a bathroom break anyway? To those who say it costs more than driving a gas vehicle, you're simply wrong (see below). And, make sure you take into account the feasibility of taking less time. We drove 3 days to Colorado, about 1,300 miles. If I drive that in 2 days, I'm not going skiing the next morning at 8AM...
We did NOT have a Tesla DC adapter, used EA, ChargePoint, Shell, and no names. Trip was planned using ABRP (desktop), free edition, and checking locations with PlugShare. Enroute we used Ford Navigation to go to each charger (a lot of good that did, no preconditioning), ABRP, GoogleMaps, PlugShare, EA's app, ... I planned on driving 65, and adjusted the efficiency in ABRP to 2.0 at 65mph.
BlueCruise performed well despite never being updated since 2022... Sign recognition, specifically exit sign recognition via the database (not visual) was so bad I had to turn the feature off (never had to do this on my Mach-E).
Charging experience was overall much better than our past trips. Biggest annoyance was in California, where I had to go to FOUR locations to get an available charger. Nearly everyone charging at these locations were LOCALS, and most had no clue. At several EA locations I switched chargers because I was unhappy with the speed - but it was still fast, just not what it should be (unlike past experiences where chargers were running at ridiculously slow speeds).
For my trips, I like to note the amount of FREE CHARGING that I got as a percentage of the total. Total kWh usage was 3,260kWh. Of that, 943 or 29% was FREE (includes my remaining 65kWh balance). We spent $623.21 on charging, all EA charging was with the Pass+ 25% discount. Dividing by our miles driven, that's a cost of 11.7 cents per mile. To be fair, I need to add back my refill at home ($18.80), so 12 cents per mile. If I put in charging at my son's house on 120v, assuming 20 cents per kWh, that's another $18, so $660.27 total, or 12.4 cents per mile. Assuming $3.15 gas, and 18 miles per gallon on my 2013 F-150, that would be $933.80. So, cheaper to drive an EV...
Double checking my math, 3,260kWh over 5,336 miles is 1.64 efficiency. Trip odometer says 1.8 (and we know they round). Pretty close, some of my numbers are from FordPass, some are from a charging app and some of those show the gross, not the net (truck trip odometer is net of course).
For those that continue to proclaim that charging cost by the minute is unfair, I'll take it every day. 21 minutes for $6.53 to get 47.569kW. That's a rate of 2.27 per minute, or 13.7 cents per kilowatt, cheaper than home at 15.5 cents. How about 105.481kWh for $10.68, or 10.1 cents per kWh? EA charges by the minute in NE and WY on this trip.
Despite trying every way I could, preconditioning on the way to a DC fast charger is NON-FUNCTIONAL in my truck. I believe it was disabled by a Ford OTA update.
Unlike our last long trip (Mach-E) where the HVBJB failed and we fast charged for the rest of the trip at 42kW (wasted 14+ hours), the only problem on this trip was a near-flat. Happened to page over the Tire Pressure page, and saw one tire at 33, soon 31, ... Hit a air hose, then America's Tire (@Discount Tire on the west coast). Big shout out to Josh for professional patching (not plugging) the tire and getting us back on the road in under an hour.
Heading through Donner Pass right after the big storm (no, the other big storm), you can see the depth of the snow as compared the the size of the truck. On the way back (4 days later), we got a picture of the entrance to a rest area (closed, over the vehicle's height). You can see the top of the building's roof in the picture.
Stopped at Bonneville Salt Flats on way home. I hit a top speed of, well, nothing, since they were under water... I hit 91 on the exit road on way out, does that count? Picture below.
Our average efficiency on the trip was 1.8 miles per kilowatt hour. We did 65 on the way out for a while, then upped to 70 because it was warmer than I had planned. In the west where the speed limit was 75 or 80, I did 75. On the way home I did 73 in 70mph zones. We had frunk and bed full of stuff, hundreds of pounds. This includes climbing mountains, i.e. passes from Denver to Keystone, and up to Park City from Salt Lake City.
As we all know, when cold the battery has less energy. Specifically, at 100% it's not 131kWh, it's depending on temperature less. At various times it measured 124.08, 127.36, 121, even lower ... And my SOH is 100%. So plan your trip at like 122, not 131.
All in all, a good trip. Glad to finally put some miles on the Lightning.
Detail:
3 days from SE Michigan to Keystone, CO. Stayed for 4 days. 3 at Keystone, 1 at Breckenridge.
Day 1- 3 stops to charge, then 115.8kWh free juice from a charger next to the hotel.
Day 2 - 3 stops to charge, then $4 flat rate for 86.1kWh.
Day 3 - 3 stops to charge, then charged at lodging over 3 days, 35 cents per kWh.
1 day from Keystone, CO to Salt Lake City. Stayed for 4 days. Skied 3 days at Park City.
Day 8 - 2 stops to charge, then free at hotel for stay.
1 day from Salt Lake City to Reno, NV. Stayed overnight.
Day 13 - 4 stops to charge. As we passed a Ford dealer, I saw they had the DC fast chargers, so I drove in. Big heavy cord, and slow FREE charging for DC (116 max after a while, as compared to EA. Sales Manager came out towards the end, said they hadn't figured out how to enable the payment, so no problem I was getting a free charge (76.5kW). He said they sold their 2 Lightnings to retirees, but can't sell the Mach-Es they have. He was quite negative on EVs, shocked we had driven 4 days so far and knew he was full of it...
Charged that night for free at hotel.
1 day from Reno, NV to just east of San Francisco. Stayed for 4 days. Visited family.
Day 14 - 1 stop to charge. Then charged at my son's over a few days, plus a quick hit at EA (we used the truck every day).
5 days from east of San Francisco to SE Michigan.
Day 18 - 3 stops to charge, then free charging at hotel.
Day 19 - 3 stops to charge, then charged after dinner at EA.
Day 20 - 3 stops to charge, then charged in the morning at EA before leaving.
Day 21 - 3 stops to charge, then free near hotel.
Day 22 - 3 stops to charge, then home.
We did NOT have a Tesla DC adapter, used EA, ChargePoint, Shell, and no names. Trip was planned using ABRP (desktop), free edition, and checking locations with PlugShare. Enroute we used Ford Navigation to go to each charger (a lot of good that did, no preconditioning), ABRP, GoogleMaps, PlugShare, EA's app, ... I planned on driving 65, and adjusted the efficiency in ABRP to 2.0 at 65mph.
BlueCruise performed well despite never being updated since 2022... Sign recognition, specifically exit sign recognition via the database (not visual) was so bad I had to turn the feature off (never had to do this on my Mach-E).
Charging experience was overall much better than our past trips. Biggest annoyance was in California, where I had to go to FOUR locations to get an available charger. Nearly everyone charging at these locations were LOCALS, and most had no clue. At several EA locations I switched chargers because I was unhappy with the speed - but it was still fast, just not what it should be (unlike past experiences where chargers were running at ridiculously slow speeds).
For my trips, I like to note the amount of FREE CHARGING that I got as a percentage of the total. Total kWh usage was 3,260kWh. Of that, 943 or 29% was FREE (includes my remaining 65kWh balance). We spent $623.21 on charging, all EA charging was with the Pass+ 25% discount. Dividing by our miles driven, that's a cost of 11.7 cents per mile. To be fair, I need to add back my refill at home ($18.80), so 12 cents per mile. If I put in charging at my son's house on 120v, assuming 20 cents per kWh, that's another $18, so $660.27 total, or 12.4 cents per mile. Assuming $3.15 gas, and 18 miles per gallon on my 2013 F-150, that would be $933.80. So, cheaper to drive an EV...
Double checking my math, 3,260kWh over 5,336 miles is 1.64 efficiency. Trip odometer says 1.8 (and we know they round). Pretty close, some of my numbers are from FordPass, some are from a charging app and some of those show the gross, not the net (truck trip odometer is net of course).
For those that continue to proclaim that charging cost by the minute is unfair, I'll take it every day. 21 minutes for $6.53 to get 47.569kW. That's a rate of 2.27 per minute, or 13.7 cents per kilowatt, cheaper than home at 15.5 cents. How about 105.481kWh for $10.68, or 10.1 cents per kWh? EA charges by the minute in NE and WY on this trip.
Despite trying every way I could, preconditioning on the way to a DC fast charger is NON-FUNCTIONAL in my truck. I believe it was disabled by a Ford OTA update.
Unlike our last long trip (Mach-E) where the HVBJB failed and we fast charged for the rest of the trip at 42kW (wasted 14+ hours), the only problem on this trip was a near-flat. Happened to page over the Tire Pressure page, and saw one tire at 33, soon 31, ... Hit a air hose, then America's Tire (@Discount Tire on the west coast). Big shout out to Josh for professional patching (not plugging) the tire and getting us back on the road in under an hour.
Heading through Donner Pass right after the big storm (no, the other big storm), you can see the depth of the snow as compared the the size of the truck. On the way back (4 days later), we got a picture of the entrance to a rest area (closed, over the vehicle's height). You can see the top of the building's roof in the picture.
Stopped at Bonneville Salt Flats on way home. I hit a top speed of, well, nothing, since they were under water... I hit 91 on the exit road on way out, does that count? Picture below.
Our average efficiency on the trip was 1.8 miles per kilowatt hour. We did 65 on the way out for a while, then upped to 70 because it was warmer than I had planned. In the west where the speed limit was 75 or 80, I did 75. On the way home I did 73 in 70mph zones. We had frunk and bed full of stuff, hundreds of pounds. This includes climbing mountains, i.e. passes from Denver to Keystone, and up to Park City from Salt Lake City.
As we all know, when cold the battery has less energy. Specifically, at 100% it's not 131kWh, it's depending on temperature less. At various times it measured 124.08, 127.36, 121, even lower ... And my SOH is 100%. So plan your trip at like 122, not 131.
All in all, a good trip. Glad to finally put some miles on the Lightning.
Detail:
3 days from SE Michigan to Keystone, CO. Stayed for 4 days. 3 at Keystone, 1 at Breckenridge.
Day 1- 3 stops to charge, then 115.8kWh free juice from a charger next to the hotel.
Day 2 - 3 stops to charge, then $4 flat rate for 86.1kWh.
Day 3 - 3 stops to charge, then charged at lodging over 3 days, 35 cents per kWh.
1 day from Keystone, CO to Salt Lake City. Stayed for 4 days. Skied 3 days at Park City.
Day 8 - 2 stops to charge, then free at hotel for stay.
1 day from Salt Lake City to Reno, NV. Stayed overnight.
Day 13 - 4 stops to charge. As we passed a Ford dealer, I saw they had the DC fast chargers, so I drove in. Big heavy cord, and slow FREE charging for DC (116 max after a while, as compared to EA. Sales Manager came out towards the end, said they hadn't figured out how to enable the payment, so no problem I was getting a free charge (76.5kW). He said they sold their 2 Lightnings to retirees, but can't sell the Mach-Es they have. He was quite negative on EVs, shocked we had driven 4 days so far and knew he was full of it...
Charged that night for free at hotel.
1 day from Reno, NV to just east of San Francisco. Stayed for 4 days. Visited family.
Day 14 - 1 stop to charge. Then charged at my son's over a few days, plus a quick hit at EA (we used the truck every day).
5 days from east of San Francisco to SE Michigan.
Day 18 - 3 stops to charge, then free charging at hotel.
Day 19 - 3 stops to charge, then charged after dinner at EA.
Day 20 - 3 stops to charge, then charged in the morning at EA before leaving.
Day 21 - 3 stops to charge, then free near hotel.
Day 22 - 3 stops to charge, then home.
