After 2 years it finally happened. Bricked/Ran out of juice in rush hour traffic with wife & dogs onboard

[StrikesTwice]

If the entire battery isn’t available, what’s the point?

On a road trip, I’m monitoring how much I charge and compare it to how much I’m using. With the standard range battery, it’s simple math. And the GOM may be inaccurate, but the BMS is spot on. That’s why I’m confident to run it down to 5-10%.

If the truck is no longer predictable, something is wrong.

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[HaOsLsE]

If the entire battery isn’t available, what’s the point?

On a road trip, I’m monitoring how much I charge and compare it to how much I’m using. With the standard range battery, it’s simple math. And the GOM may be inaccurate, but the BMS is spot on. That’s why I’m confident to run it down to 5-10%.

If the truck is no longer predictable, something is wrong.

That's what I assumed too. I never had issues running under 10-15% in our etron. I'll just continue to monitor the forums and try my best to stay above 20%. Where 20% should be around 50-60 miles for me...which seems a little high but it is what it is. If my truck starts doing what's mentioned in this post I'll probably have the dealer look into it.

 

[djwildstar]

GOM said I had 15 miles of range, and then went down to zero in 60 seconds. I had taken this trip at least 50 times and always made it home even though I had less than 10% SOC [...] once under 10% SOC you're in "no man's land".

Yep. Never trust a single-digit SoC -- you could drop to zero without warning.

 

[wescravinshocker]

Yep. Never trust a single-digit SoC -- you could drop to zero without warning.

Yup, lesson learned, I gambled and lost. Pushed it too many times.

 

[HOTAS]

Nope! I had charged it up to 90% 2 days prior and should've had 20-30 miles to spare from point A.

How many miles did you drive after charging to 90%, during those 2 days prior?
Why not leave the truck plugged in?
Why not charge to 100% for this trip?
Routinely taking the battery down below 10% is worse than routinely charging to 100%.
ER or SR battery?
If SR, I’d recommend changing your approach.
Charge to 100% and let it sit plugged in for a while to get good cell balancing.
Always B Charging when at home.

 

[HOTAS]

I've routinely returned to my home on 2%, 1%, or even the other day 0%, with no issues... no turtle mode to slow me, nothing.

This is not affected by whether I've DCFastCharged, or not.

such practice is not wise and certainly not good for the battery. If that can be avoided by starting out at higher SOC, then I’d encourage you to charge to a higher SOC or charge more. Just killing your truck’s battery.
Sadly it’s people that do this, who then bash EVs when the battery dies early.

 

[Free Charging]

such practice is not wise and certainly not good for the battery. If that can be avoided by starting out at higher SOC, then I’d encourage you to charge to a higher SOC or charge more. Just killing your truck’s battery.
Sadly it’s people that do this, who then bash EVs when the battery dies early.

Riding that part of the charge curve is definitely the fastest way to road trip. ABRP will definitely optimize for running low in the pack, for example.

 

[potato]

Riding that part of the charge curve is definitely the fastest way to road trip. ABRP will definitely optimize for running low in the pack, for example.

I think that's only true for cars that charge faster at a lower state of charge. The Lightning's charge curve is pretty flat all the way up to 80%, so there's no benefit to running on fumes. In fact, its relatively low pack voltage means it's often limited by the amps available from the charger, so higher state of charge = higher pack voltage = more kW.

If you're only using Tesla chargers, those can supply 500 amps all day, so it doesn't apply. But many CCS chargers have lower current limits so it's really noticeable. If your planned route uses those, in the Lightning it's better to make more charging stops and keep it close to 80%.

 

[K6CCC]

The Lightning's charge curve is pretty flat all the way up to 80%,

Not my experience. I have never had the charge rate stay up in 180+ KW rate for more than the first few minutes (call it 10 minutes or so). Granted, it's not dropping in half, but 120-150 KW rate is very common.

 

[potato]

Not my experience. I have never had the charge rate stay up in 180+ KW rate for more than the first few minutes (call it 10 minutes or so). Granted, it's not dropping in half, but 120-150 KW rate is very common.

I glossed over that... yes, the first 10 minutes gets a boost no matter where you start, in my experience, so it doesn't affect my point which is there's no benefit to rolling into the charger running on fumes like there is in a Tesla.

 

[DavidS]

I think that's only true for cars that charge faster at a lower state of charge. The Lightning's charge curve is pretty flat all the way up to 80%, so there's no benefit to running on fumes. In fact, its relatively low pack voltage means it's often limited by the amps available from the charger, so higher state of charge = higher pack voltage = more kW.

If you're only using Tesla chargers, those can supply 500 amps all day, so it doesn't apply. But many CCS chargers have lower current limits so it's really noticeable. If your planned route uses those, in the Lightning it's better to make more charging stops and keep it close to 80%.

Agree, the Lightning seems to get the highest 10 min boost charge when plugging in around 30%. It’s not a Tesla, its charge behavior is pretty much designed to be 180 degrees from Tesla. Just plug it in and charge to 80%. No games or guessing or spreadsheets.

 

[djwildstar]

The Lightning's charge curve is pretty flat all the way up to 80%, so there's no benefit to running on fumes [...] it's better to make more charging stops and keep it close to 80%

Ford has updated the charging curves several times since 2022. With the latest charge curve, the Lightning will charge at 160kW-190kW up to somewhere between 30% and 45% SoC. It'll then transition to ~120kW. At ~80%, charge rate drops to ~55kW until the battery is just shy of 95%, and then in drops again, to ~20kW for the rest of the session. The exact transition point probably depends on battery temperature, cooling efficiency (which in turn depends on external temperature) and perhaps other factors.

Charge rates above 160kW require a charger that can sustain 500A charging current for ~20 minutes or more. The better chargers (like Tesla V3 and V4, or newer 400kW chargers from ABB, Blink, SK Signet, and Siemens) can do this. This means that there is a significant time advantage charging at lower states of charge.

One of my frequent road trips is ~450mi each way. There are plenty of charging stops along the route, so I can choose to manage my state of charge however I want. I get ~1.9 mi/kWh in highway driving on this route, and we'll assume that I depart at 100% SoC, and need 30% on arrival to support in-town driving before I can charge. Finally, let's assume that each charging stop means that we spend 10 minutes getting off and then back on the Interstate.

For the high-SOC trip, we'll "keep it close to 80%" by charging 40% to 80% at each stop. This is how I planned in 2023, when charging stations were fewer and less-reliable, and I was less-familiar with the truck. So there are 3 stops, at about 145, 240, and 335 miles; at each one, we spend 26 minutes charging, for an overall charging time of 1:48, and overall trip time of 8:14 (for a 23:77 split between charging time and highway time).

The same trip can be done in 3 stops at a lower state of charge. This would mean charging from 10% to 50% at 220, 315, and 410 miles. Each stop puts the same amount of energy back in the battery as before, but takes only 20 minutes. Overall charging time is 90 minutes, overall trip time is a shade under 8 hours, for a 20:80 split between charging time and highway time.

We can actually do slightly better by utilizing more of the battery, because the trip can be done in 2 stops, charging from 10% to 70%. This means a 33 minute charging session, but saves the 10 minutes of overhead associated with the third stop. Overall charging time is 86 minutes, trip time remains just under 8 hours, and we now get a 19:81 split between charging time and highway time.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Next time you get that close or run out completely, find another truck and have them tow or pull you. It will charge the battery enough for you to get home.
There's a thread here somewhere about tow charging.
It should work.
Also, the generator should work as well.

I think you missed the point: I do this routinely, with no concerns...

and, no, I've never 'run out', and don't know anyone else who ever has... not a concern.

 

[PJnc284]

I think you missed the point: I do this routinely, with no concerns...

and, no, I've never 'run out', and don't know anyone else who ever has... not a concern.

It only takes one time. lol. Odds are it's not a matter of if but when. There have been quite a few instances of people running out with as much as 5% and still showing several kWh in Car Scanner.

 

[wescravinshocker]

It only takes one time. lol. Odds are it's not a matter of if but when. There have been quite a few instances of people running out with as much as 5% and still showing several kWh in Car Scanner.

It is the "Icarus Line" I suppose. I pushed it too far too many times, and learned a hard lesson. It was embarrassing for sure, humbling, because I drove with zero SOC, for 10 miles before. I will not let it go under 20% ever again, unless I have a jenny in the bed and a LVL 2 charger.

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