I love this truck but GD!

[21st Century Truck]

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.

Hmmm... have You considered a checkup of the traction battery's cell balance (of the cells' uniform relative ability to hold a charge)? A good dealership could do this type of check. This might perhaps be a hidden fault within Your truck.

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[TMND]

I gave the only dealer I have within 200 miles my truck for a week to check the mobile charger and they never touched it instead they replaced the port on the truck ?

They’re nice people but competent they’re not

 

[TaxmanHog]

I never charge to 100% less going on a long road trip just like Ford recommends. If I need 100% to go 90 miles round-trip on an extended range ?

and this isn’t about me not having enough range to get home I’m fully capable of making sure of that. It’s about the range being abysmal.

In a Northern state winter conditions, I'd be charging to 95% and then setting that departure timer even if in a warmed shop, the PTC might not warm the battery much but that extra 15% would give a better safety margin with a mid trip charge being a necessity, be it a trip to a sport event or a hospital ER after the event has passed.

The ABC rule in winter is important for routine long trips {not summer long} WINTER long.

 

[TaxmanHog]

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.

Agreed, lately the feel good value above 80% isn't as optimistic as last year.

This is today, after topping up to 90%, the past 48 hours I've done a lot of inefficient warm idling and off plug cabin warming sessions so the recent historic efficiency has plummeted, as I expected.

 

[Newton]

One thing I will caution you on the LIghtning is that there are issues with taking it to lower levels of charge. Most EVs will give you some range after zero (often quite a bit) but YouTubers have had the truck die at 5% or so (they can be frustratingly vague about the exact point so I don’t have a good number to follow). This is part of the “converted ICE vehicle to get to market quickly” behavior

I believe that there are issues with the Ford BMS, they have sort of acknowledged one issue where it is inaccurate immediately after DC fast charging (!). I find weirdness when I track the internal and external state of charge with my OBDII scanner. (Get one, they are cheap.) It only matters if you are taking the truck to fairly low charging levels, but it sounds like that might be you. I have no issues taking my EV6 or e-Golf to near zero but would never do that with the Lightning.

Charge it to 100% when you go out in the extreme cold, damn the battery life.

 

[Newton]

Another tip - turn down the heat and use the seat warmers (but don’t put anything over them) and the steering wheel heater if you have one. It takes much less energy to heats the seat than the whole cabin.

 

[Scorpio3d]

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

I understand where you’re coming from being in Minnesota, it may not have worked for you but you cannot really compare a Maverick to a Lightning. I was driving an Expedition, EL and started looking at the Maverick hybrid because I was getting 16 or 17 miles per gallon and was tired of it, 40ish miles to the gallon really sounded awesome but the Maverick could almost fit in the bed of the Lightning. I bought my daughter a Ford fusion hybrid when she started driving a few years ago and my dad has an escape hybrid, which are almost the same platform as the Maverick if I was used to driving something that size the Maverick probably would’ve been great but going from the “bus” as my kids used to call it because I would haul them and all their friends around before they were able to drive to the Maverick just did not work for me. Of course I live in North Texas so the cold weather is not as much of an issue just the heat.

 

[Hammick]

We just did a 1320 mile trip from Kansas City to Red Lodge, Montana via Fargo and across I-94. Coldest temp we saw was -7 on Saturday night. Without the supercharger access and the Level 2 hotel charger in Bismark I believe the trip would have been impossible.

Average for the trip was 1.3 mile per kph and we did the speed limit for the most part. ABRP using live data from our OBDII reader was indispensable for giving me the confidence to not charge past 80% for most legs and to go the speed limit.

Ignore the total trip time as we left the truck on overnight to power our 12 fridge/freezers

 

[Henry Ford]

Still 60%+ loss is undocumented from what I found.

You haven't even documented a "60%+" reduction in efficiency. The photo you posted shows 1.2 m/kWh. That is the efficiency you actually got. You need 2.4 m/kWh to hit the EPA range.

EPA range is pointless in my opinion, because it includes city driving. No one cares what your range is driving around town. I want to know what the highway range is.

Someone actually did the math on this and put it in a handy spreadsheet. I apologize to the person who did the work; I don't recall who it was and can't give attribution.

 

[TMND]

@Henry Ford

Um…. 21 percent x 131 = 27.5 kW
27.5 x 1.2=33 not the remaining shown
Remainder shown is 22 miles

anyways I never get the EPA ever best I’ve gotten was two but I still consider that a loss since that’s the range we were told to expect kwh 27.5 x.2.4= 66

22 / 66=0.33 (percent realized)
100 - 33 = 66 percent loss

I mean, I’m all for someone correcting my math here and making me feel not so terrible about it but that’s the way I crunch the numbers.

 

[Henry Ford]

@Henry Ford

Um…. 22 percent x 131 = 28.2 kW
28.2 x 1.2=33.84 not the remaining shown
Remainder shown is 21

anyways I never get the EPA ever best I’ve gotten was two but I still consider that a loss since that’s the range we were told to expect kwh 28.2 x.2.4= 67.68

21 / 67.68=0.31 (percent realized)
100 - 31 = 69 percent loss

I mean, I’m all for someone correcting my math here and making me feel not so terrible about it but that’s the way I crunch the numbers.

It is baseline around here that the range estimation displayed on the screen is unreliable. It's referred to as the GOM or guess-o-meter. The m/kWh is real and is based on how you were actually driving.

Look at the chart I posted. That is based on observed data and your experience matches it almost exactly. In the conditions you were driving in you could expect to get about 150 miles of range with a full charge. The m/kWh on your photo backs this up.

You will likely never get the EPA range given where you live. When it warms up your efficiency will improve but if you live in the sticks you will be driving faster than "city" speeds. My lifetime m/kWh is about 2.0. I do some city driving but I drive to work on the highway and I don't do much to optimize my efficiency.

 

[TMND]

I’ve known before I bought it not to expect to get the EPA. Again I just didn’t expect to see losses this great and nowhere was it posted. Everyone said 35 to 45% (I really wish that was so). Only reason for that post was you said I didn’t document it so I did the math and I have since found an error in it and corrected it still 66% loss off of EPA.

 

[Henry Ford]

I’ve known before I bought it not to expect to get the EPA. Again I just didn’t expect to see losses this great and nowhere was it posted. Everyone said 35 to 45% (I really wish that was so). Only reason for that post was you said I didn’t document it so I did the math and I have since found an error in it and corrected it still 66% loss off of EPA.

You are doing the math wrong. Based on the photo you posted you got about 50% of EPA range. That's a bit worse than what you expected, no doubt. If you would have asked me how much range I lose in the winter I'd have said 30%-40% but I live in southern Michigan, not North Dakota.

Range loss is real but I don't think it's as bad as you think. If you love the truck and use it like you've described I think you could be happy with it with a few modifications to the way you use it. Your biggest concern seems to be range so charge it to 100% and use Departure Times when you can. If your biggest concern was battery longevity and you had another vehicle you could use if say keep charging to less than 100% and don't use the Lightning as much.

 

[TMND]

60-67 mph. Some stretches are 55. And in the summertime I do see about 1.9 doing that sometimes 2

And if it’s true, and the EPA says Highway speed is 48. I guess I don’t know what to say besides that dumb.

 

[Zprime29]

@Henry Ford

Um…. 21 percent x 131 = 27.5 kW
27.5 x 1.2=33 not the remaining shown
Remainder shown is 22 miles

Do...not...trust...the range estimate....ever. Like @Henry Ford mentioned, it is a guess and it's often wrong. Sometimes it over estimates and sometimes it underestimates. I have 35k miles on mine, believe me and others in that you can trust the mpk number to get your own estimate. 33 miles was more likely to be correct than the truck's guess. If you want a more up to date mpk then reset one of the trip counters.

I’ve known before I bought it not to expect to get the EPA. Again I just didn’t expect to see losses this great and nowhere was it posted. Everyone said 35 to 45% (I really wish that was so). Only reason for that post was you said I didn’t document it so I did the math and I have since found an error in it and corrected it still 66% loss off of EPA.

The 35-45% loss is as compared to summer driving, not off EPA. Pretend the EPA number doesn't exist. It doesn't matter, it's not applicable to your situation. Your winter driving should be 35-45% lower than your summer driving.

I have the opposite, I use no climate control and have mild winter temps (it was 84F yesterday). So I actually have worse summer efficiency when I'm cranking the A/C. I lose about 10-15% in the summer compared to my ideal temperature driving efficiency . Althought the A/C takes far less power than the heater. If you want to keep it, then you have to adapt. TRUST the efficiency number and use that combined with your driving history/conditions to make the best possible decisions.

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