Another Post on Range Lower than Expected

[DoyouLightning]

I have had my truck below 10% multiple times. Down to 8% this weekend as long as I know I have a L2 charger to plug into and know it will not sit for long under 10%. As others mentioned the dash will show you how much power you have available. It does not limit the top speed just the power to hit that speed. So for example to get upto 60 miles an hour might take 6-7 seconds instead of 3 sec or what ever at full charge.

I would also add into this conversation the battery pack is actually larger then 131kwh. Ive also charged my truck to 100% and went over 10 miles before any percentage ticked down. Plus Ford even says to charge upto 90% instead of the typical 80% I believe because they have factored in the extra cushion for battery consumption/degradation. Just my 2 cents maybe some one smarter then me can chime in but my normal average is 2.2 mi/kwh running 65% hwy and 35% city.

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[trev5150]

This subject has become SO tiresome.

And as long as people are new to the Lightning and EV's in general, you're gonna see new people coming in with the same questions for the next 10 years. You can live your life two ways:
1 - You can bitch every time you see the same topic spring up because people who are new to forums don't use the search function and roll your eyes or
2 - Don't click on the fkn thread if you're not going to come in and be helpful with data, links, anecdotes or whatever. Go do something else.

 

[srowley]

I don't think comparing a Chevy bolt to the lightning is a fair comparison. Different shape, different software, different battery. I feel like it's safe to assume that Ford didn't hire Chevy engineers to make the lightning. Just because the Chevy works one way, it doesn't mean every other EV on the road acts the same.

Sorry, this is what we have. Doing your own math is what 90% of us do. I've been under 20% several times. My own math based on past experience gave me the confidence I would be ok.

I was only comparing the Chevy Bolt's GOM accuracy to the Lightning's - nothing else. I still have both cars and love them both.

Doing your own math means what exactly? If my trip meter says I'm getting 2.3 mi/kWh and I will be experiencing the same driving conditions for the next 100 miles of my trip, then just look at the SOC and multiply that by 2.3 to calculate my expected range (regardless of the GOM)? For example, if SOC is reported as 52% then .52 * 2.3 * 131 = 156.7, then that is range I should plan on (assuming my mi/kwh stays at 2.3) even if the GOM says 108?

 

[Zprime29]

I was only comparing the Chevy Bolt's GOM accuracy to the Lightning's - nothing else. I still have both cars and love them both.

Doing your own math means what exactly? If my trip meter says I'm getting 2.3 mi/kWh and I will be experiencing the same driving conditions for the next 100 miles of my trip, then just look at the SOC and multiply that by 2.3 to calculate my expected range (regardless of the GOM)? For example, if SOC is reported as 52% then .52 * 2.3 * 131 = 156.7, then that is range I should plan on (assuming my mi/kwh stays at 2.3) even if the GOM says 108?

Comparing the GOM from Chevy to Ford is like comparing the sweetness between a banana and a kiwi. I don't believe there is anything to learn by comparing the two. Two vehicles that have a similar drag coefficient or have similar engineering team are comparable. For instance, comparing the GOM between the MachE and the Lightning is fair since it's the same company producing them and they share a lot of the same software. Also, comparing the Lightning to the Sierra EV is comparable, they're essentially the same shape. The Bolt is neither the same shape nor the same company. That all being said, I've never driven an EV prior to the lightning so I'm basing all this on my back seat internet research.

Yes, that math is exactly how the vast majority on this forum prefer to ball park our range. @invertedspear made a handy calc for just this: https://lightningcalcs.pages.dev/

@luebri made a nice "back of the hand math" chart for easy reference when planning:

You can also use the chart to ball park your range a bit easier. Let's say I'm getting 1.8mpk and have 33% SoC left. A quick glance tells me ~23miles per 10% so ~69-70miles would be a conservative estimate. Another example is a road trip I take between Tucson and El Paso. There are a few elevation changes. Even though I see lower than usual numbers for efficiency, I know I'll make it up further down the road. In those cases, with the benefit of past experience, I know what % SOC I should be at and I use it directly to determine if I need to slow down (maybe due to unexpected headwinds).

 

[davehu]

Yes, if 2.2 is the average for that trip it could be 2.151 to 2.249, so why assume the lowest? Over 1500 miles that I tracked it should be very close to the average. For my trip on 7/20/2025 my spreadsheet lists it as 2.2, but on that trip of 276.8 miles it changed from 2.3 to 2.2 about 4 miles from home, so at least on that trip it was for sure on the high end, probably 2.245, which would equate to a range of 294, rather than the calculated 242 the GOM displayed at the end of the trip.

I don't think anyone has figured out how many miles are used to estimate the GOM. However my own experience had me very skeptical of the GOM but now with over 15k miles I find it pretty good, particularly if you plug your destination into the NAV.

 

[srowley]

Comparing the GOM from Chevy to Ford is like comparing the sweetness between a banana and a kiwi.

Yes, that math is exactly how the vast majority on this forum prefer to ball park our range.

As a user, wouldn't you prefer that you didn't have use lookup tables and to do the math yourself because you could rely on the GOM? That is the difference between the Bolt and the Lightning; the Bolt has a better user experience with GOM. Of course, just like with an ICE, I have to account for a reduced range based on special driving conditions like highway with a headwind, heavy load, etc. but without special conditions, the Bolt GOM is friggin' accurate.

What if instead of tables and math and ignoring the inaccurate GOM, Lightning owners pushed Ford to improve their GOM?

All that said, I still love my Lightning!

 

[Zprime29]

As a user, wouldn't you prefer that you didn't have use lookup tables and to do the math yourself because you could rely on the GOM? That is the difference between the Bolt and the Lightning; the Bolt has a better user experience with GOM. Of course, just like with an ICE, I have to account for a reduced range based on special driving conditions like highway with a headwind, heavy load, etc. but without special conditions, the Bolt GOM is friggin' accurate.

What if instead of tables and math and ignoring the inaccurate GOM, Lightning owners pushed Ford to improve their GOM?

All that said, I still love my Lightning!

If you dig far enough into the history, you'd discover that the initial GOM was actually quite accurate. However, it turns out the majority of new owners where new to the EV world and uneducated in the way EV range works. So when that first winter hit, there was outrage over these brand new trucks not showing the range that was on the sticker!! So...naturally, rather than educate these people Ford decided to update the GOM to show us what we want to see. Ever since that update, the GOM has been at best, slightly better than a wild guess. Many of us would love to have the original SW back. There's a wish list of SW updates we'd like somewhere around here and I'm pretty sure an updated GOM is on it.

Ford seems to have limited resources when it comes to SW updates, so we are picking and choosing our battles. The GOM is not particularly high on that list if I recall. It's "good enough" that we can live with it. The only time it's problematic is on road trips which are 5-10% of most user's life so we'd rather push to have day-to-day features enabled.

I sometimes wonder if I'd be as happy with another EV as I am the Lightning. I've never even test driven another one. But I'm so enamored with the Lightning that I don't really see myself driving anything else in the distant future. Good excuse to find something neat for the kiddos in 6-8 years I guess.

 

[chl]

I can't just ignore the GOM and go by mi/kWh. That is like saying "don't pay attention to your gas gauge".

In my opinion, the "range" estimation is NOT equivalent to a gas gauge - the percentage charge left in the battery is most like a gas gauge.

A gas gauge tells you how much gas is left in your tank, not how many miles that gas will take you at your average speed based on driving history. Some ICE cars CAN DO THAT, like our 2015 Prius, but the gas gauge is different.

The percentage on your Lightning display tells you how many kWh are left in your HV battery by a percentage. So if you have 131kWh total, 50% would be 1/2 of that.

The range displays is a calculation that tries to estimate how far you can go with what's left in the HV battery based on your past driving style, speed, etc, i.e., recent past energy usage per mile.

Your usage is your miles per kWh, the rate at which you are using energy stored in your battery every recent mile.

So if you are coasting down hill in your recent driving, the range estimate will be higher than if you were pulling a trailer up a steep slope. Likewise your miles per kWh will be higher.

So here's what I recommend: look at the percentage left in your battery as a gas gauge.

Consider the miles per kWh you get on average on that particular round trip.

Then use that to decide if your HV battery has enough kWh to make the trip.

The range of the truck for a given level of stored energy depends on many factors, including ambient temperature, use of AC, head wind/tail wind, the traffic conditions, the average speed, the load you are carrying/towing, your driving style (aggressive or little old lady - not from Pasadena), etc.

So it is a rather complicated equation and therefore hard to calculate with 100% accuracy, hence the term "guess-o-meter."

Sometimes it may be spot on - like a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day.

So, don't over-think it.

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