I love this truck but GD!

[TMND]

This thread should have a “precondition” counter on it I swear seriously, though the battery temp itself wasn’t that bad (just below line). Look at the gauge again.

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[Henry Ford]

This thread should have a “precondition” counter on it I swear seriously, though the battery temp itself wasn’t that bad (just below line). Look at the gauge again.

If the battery is using energy to warm itself it can't use that energy to drive. The temperature below the tic mark is a pretty good indication that the battery is using energy to warm itself. That's why people keep mentioning it!

You: my range isn't good.

People: you could increase your range by preconditioning.

You: that doesn't matter, my range isn't good.

 

[TMND]

I'm pretty sure that line is a random marking intended to keep owners feeling happy, not to actually tell you anything. And OBD reader and an app would be MUCH better.

In all seriousness though, your battery was probably "warm enough" in the garage to register as normal, but probably cool enough to trigger the battery heater. Then once you pulled outside the outside weather started sucking every btu out of that battery. It's highly likely that preconditioning would have warmed the battery up more than the garage temp and the onboard heater would not have to had work AS hard. Nowhere near as much energy as warming a stone cold battery, but still energy.

What is your speed and how are the winds?

Between 60 and 67 never over. Thankfully that night there was no wind. head wind would’ve had me driving 35-40 mph or less. But generally, the winds around here are straight line and over 20 so you’ve got bad wind One Direction good wind hopefully coming home as long as it hasn’t changed. But I’ve fought wind both directions before. I’m just that lucky.

 

[21st Century Truck]

I'm pretty sure that line is a random marking intended to keep owners feeling happy, not to actually tell you anything. And OBD reader and an app would be MUCH better.

In all seriousness though, your battery was probably "warm enough" in the garage to register as normal, but probably cool enough to trigger the battery heater. Then once you pulled outside the outside weather started sucking every btu out of that battery. It's highly likely that preconditioning would have warmed the battery up more than the garage temp and the onboard heater would not have to had work AS hard. Nowhere near as much energy as warming a stone cold battery, but still energy.

What is your speed and how are the winds?

This pretty interesting thread reminds me just how enormous our ER traction batteries are on the Lightning, in a relative sense.

Change to internal conditions of traction battery X takes time... change to internal conditions of a yuuuuuge Lightning ER battery takes that much more time and energy. Especially in weather which is sub-optimally hot or sub-optimally cold.

Tooling around daily in my own Lightning, I tend to easily forget that.

 

[Dlindvig]

It’s like loving a cheater sometimes. ? (This is supposed to be an extended ranged btw)

 

[TMND]

Yeah, she always lies to me when I’m above 80% too. once I start driving I’ll lose 80 miles or so after going 10 miles

 

[Pioneer74]

Yeah, she always lies to me when I’m above 80% too. once I start driving I’ll lose 80 miles or so after going 10 miles

Ford did that to satisfy the people complaining about their "range".

Any state of charge above 80% automatically defaults to EPA numbers, no matter the current or predicted conditions.

The numbers used to be spot on in the beginning.

 

[Bob zimmerman]

Sorry I have nothing to offer.
I was all in on a Lightning. 100%
After joining this forum and reading all about the truck, I ended up ordering a 2025 Ford Maverick AWD hybrid for 34k loaded.
I just couldn‘t buy the lightning.

And I really gotta laugh when people suggest a fuel operated heater or carrying a generator to charge the truck. It’s at that point that you need to get rid of your truck. Sorry.
Like I said, I have nothing to offer.

I’m ready to jump in on an EV when they are ready for me. I live in MN so there’s that.
Tom

 

[BigAle244]

It’s like loving a cheater sometimes. ? (This is supposed to be an extended ranged btw)

Check to see if you have a recall on any of the components. Mine recently notified me of a charge fault, reduced power, and a powertrian maintenence light came on. Took it to the dealer and there was 2 modules that needed to be replaced and one of them was a recalled item. 2024 lariat under 5k miles on it...smh

 

[Webbo85]

Ford did that to satisfy the people complaining about their "range".

Any state of charge above 80% automatically defaults to EPA numbers, no matter the current or predicted conditions.

The numbers used to be spot on in the beginning.

So I feel like this may have changed recently. When I charge to 90% and it's been in the 20's to 30's at night, my truck will say my range is between 265 to 270. I have a Lariat ER so that equates to less than 300 miles. I remember when they did the 'feel good' mileage change to make people feel better. Almost feel like they did a compromise now, better than it actually is in the cold, but not full EPA. I'll have to see what I get next time I charge to 100%, see if it resets to 320.

 

[Lolat]

This your first winter in the truck? 18,000+ miles, would have thought had that experience before. We’re 30 miles from town, but our winter temps usually above zero. With SR truck, have not had your kind of issues, although we brought in winter 2022 in Alabama, it was an adventure getting back to Oregon through Iowa/Nebraska at -4°. Lowest mileage was 0.8 m/kwh and charge stations pretty sparse at best. Do use 240v charger at home so easy to keep it charged up and preconditioned.

 

[hturnerfamily]

- no matter the weather, or the temps, your SPEED is going to either hurt you, or HELP you... getting home an hour later, driving slower, versus all the other stresses, makes more sense... but, some just can't bring themselves to EVER be slower than 'others' while on the road...

EVs and travel, and temps, bring a whole different 'thought process' to planning, even when you think you've seen it all...

 

[TMND]

Picked it up in June with 6 k. So yes first winter. And of course, changing our driving habits will affect our economy no matter what we were driving. Still 60%+ loss is undocumented from what I found. Not saying it’s not out there, but I did a ton of homework before taking the leap on this. Everyone said expect a 35 to 45% which I was perfectly OK with and honestly could make this work for me as well but making this work on top of the payment is just a kick in the balls.

 

[Pioneer74]

In case anybody is interested, here is the thread that discussed the OTA that Ford sent out to "fix" the displayed DTE. It was accurate for me in the winter before they did this update. The realization of the effects of the update start on page 6.

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-update-22-pu-1009-mil-dte-calculation.13449/

 

[Newton]

In winter time in your area I would charge to 100% on days that I was going to use the truck (Ford recommends 90%). You are playing with temperatures that could kill you if you misjudge and run out of power. It might degrade the battery a little bit, but the issue with fully charged batteries is more for people in hot climates. There are issues with charging to any level at freezing or below but I would assume that Ford handles that and will heat the battery first and then charge.

You live in an edge case for EVs and you need an excellent EV to make it work smoothly. The Lightning is an excellent truck but it is not a state-of-the-art EV. I don’t think that your model even has a heat pump (Although it might not make much difference below zero). Ford has said that from the beginning, they always planned to have a “from the ground up” EV in their product line. I think it works amazingly well for an ICE EV conversion and is probably as much electric truck as *most people* need. You are not *most people*.

If you have money and need a truck, the Silverado/Denali would probably be a better choice because it has a much bigger battery, heat pumps, and EV tricks that the Ford does not have. Amazingly it gets the same efficiency with a much heavier battery pack (which shows how much room for improvement there is in the LIghtning). If you don’t need a truck, almost any of the offerings from Hyundai (Hyundai, Kia, or Genesis) would be a better choice. They were. built to be EVs and get almost twice the efficiency. The Ultium platforms (Blazer, etc.) from GM might be worth a look for you although I don’t know much about them. BMW is pretty good if you want to go that route, I’m not convinced about Mercedes or Volkswagen.

One thing that I will say for the truck is that the drop off in range is not linear. If the resistive heaters have to come on that is a big hit, but it isn’t like they have to come on twice as hard if the temperature gets even lower. You are in an excellent position to give us data on what that curve actually looks like.

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