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Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway?

sotek2345

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Thanks, I hadn't even thought about how rain affects range! Does anyone have any data or real world experience?
Based on real world experience, just raining is 5% to 10% range loss. Once you get to heavy rain or significant water on the roadway it can get closer to 20%. Based on my experience to date. Takes energy to push through the water.
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LightningShow

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Based on real world experience, just raining is 5% to 10% range loss. Once you get to heavy rain or significant water on the roadway it can get closer to 20%. Based on my experience to date. Takes energy to push through the water.
But hopefully you aren't driving 85 mph with standing water on the road, so heavy rain actually increases your efficiency. 😉

ETA: After having the Lightning for 7 months I can say I definitely drive *faster* in the Lightning than any vehicle I've ever owned. It's so quiet at high speed. It makes it very easy to cruise at high speed. Even so, my warm weather efficiency was 2.3-2.4 through the summer/fall and 1.8 since the beginning of the winter. The worst efficiency I've experienced on a longer trip was 1.5mi/kWh when I was up hiking last weekend. I started the morning at 5 degrees (preconditioned) and left the mountain at 10 degrees (with driving wind and snow the entire day). The trip up to mountain was around 1.4 and return was 1.6. Total 190ish miles using 94% of battery, virtually 100% expressway. I would consider this just about the worst case scenario and I was still seeing 1.5 for the trip. I can live with that.
 
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NeilO

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On a road trip, it's faster to drive fast and charge more. The reality is you almost never go 80mph straight out for hours. I drive 80 all the time on my commute to work but occasional slowdowns and the 25% portion of the trip on surface roads means my efficiency for the trip is 2.5mi/kwh despite driving 75-85mph whenever the conditions allow it. IMO it has to be damn near impossible to get under 2 mi/kwh when you average out all of your driving unless you live and work 100 yds from the expressway and there is absolutely no traffic where you live. (ETA: Assuming good weather conditions, lots of HVAC use will knock you down lower)

I went on a roadtrip last week and I left at 5am in both directions so I could knock out as much as possible without traffic. I was driving 78-80 almost the entire first leg of each trip (150-200mi) and I still ended with 1.9mpk going south and 2.0mpk going north.
Agree with you completely. I just started thinking about it myself. Just because I can drive 80 mph doesn't mean my average speed will be that high. There are usually a lot of slowdowns during a trip.
 

Txxthie

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If you are not worried about running out of juice on a long leg of a trip, just drive 80 and don’t look at the numbers. Even if you get 1.8 mi/Kwh instead of 2, it is still a lot cheaper than gas charging at home.
Depends upon where you live.🧐


Figuring out an EV’s energy costs is a lot more complex than doing the same for a gas-powered car. But the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center has an easy-to-use calculator at afdc.energy.gov/calc.

And it helps to keep a few general principles in mind. For example, if you live somewhere with high gas prices and low electricity costs, such as the West Coast, an EV will almost always be less expensive to run than a conventional car or hybrid. But in New England, where gas prices are lower and electricity prices are generally higher than out West, those savings may be negligible and tilt the balance in favor of a gas-electric hybrid with a less-expensive purchase price.


Per Consumer Reports:

Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 0457EDA5-38DA-43FA-8D7F-A20C4E878B1D
Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 9D9213EF-EA51-4E67-850D-A268EF85E6FF
 
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azypather

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So I took my first long, well "longish" trip with the truck. 70 Miles round trip (Navarre, FL to Pensacola, FL and back). About 90% interstate. Temperature was around 70F with light intermittent rain and gusty winds. On the interstate I averaged 75 - 85 mph. 30ish mph on local roads
Here are my observations. When I left home, my range was 175 miles. By the time I returned, the range was 75 miles. So, it seems like I consumed 100 miles of range on a 70 mile trip, driving as I would normally drive an ICE vehicle. On both the outbound and inbound trips, i achieved 1.9 mpkwh, which I've read is not terrible. I typically get between 3-3.3 on my local running around. This tells me that on a full charge (221 miles for me) I would only get about 140-150 miles of range driving the way I do. I'm perfectly fine with that...I have an ICE vehicle for road trips. But just thought I should share for anyone interested.
But man, what a truck! I am so impressed with the ride, the comfort, the driving position. The acceleration brings a huge grin every time, be it from standstill or 70 mph!
 

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jplaplante

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All of the advertised numbers are best case clearly. I just did my first big trip in my XLT SR across i90 in Washington. The Ford app calculated my first stop at 15 minutes in Ellensburg for a fast charge. That experience took nearly 1 hour between my wait for a charger, and the fact that 2 of the 4 chargers were unreliable or not working. Then my 150 kW charge quickly dropped to 90 and then dropped to 45 kW about half way through my charge. I picked up my pace to 80 ish MPH and saw my efficiency drop a lot. Subsequent to that I had to stop several times and spent a lot of time trying to find a charger and then charging. My takeaway - fewer charges is better. We have a long way to go before the charging infrastructure is not a cluster
 

mr.Magoo

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Here's a quick test I did this morning as I had some tinkering to do anyway...
65mph = 2.2 m/kW
75mph = 2.0 m/kW
80mph = 1.7 m/kW

It's not scientific by any means as each run is in opposing directions and as such not accounting for elevation changes , wind direction, etc. but that stretch is relatively flat and there was hardly any wind this morning so...

This run was with the Ford 22" (non aero) wheels, but ironically, another trip that I logged on the same section (different day so obviously different circumstances, but it wasn't raining) with the stock Lariat wheels, registered 1.9 m/kW @ 75mph so I'm kind of surprised / pleased the change didn't make it much worse.

[EDIT] Added a 80mph comparison as well.


Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 65mph
Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 75mph

Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 1685985191204
 
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RickLightning

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Here's a quick test I did this morning as I had some tinkering to do anyway...
65mph = 2.2 m/kW
75mph = 2.0 m/kW

It's not scientific by any means as each run is in opposing directions and as such not accounting for elevation changes , wind direction, etc. but that stretch is relatively flat and there was hardly any wind this morning so...

This run was with the Ford 22" (non aero) wheels, but ironically, another trip that I logged on the same section (different day so obviously different circumstances, but it wasn't raining) with the stock Lariat wheels, registered 1.9 m/kW @ 75mph so I'm kind of surprised / pleased the change didn't make it much worse.
The only way you know that, as you know, is to test it scientifically. People have registered a 10% loss with non-aero wheels.

Question - how did you measure speed? If you changed the circumference of the tire, but the setting in the vehicle still has the old tires, then your speed is off.
 

mr.Magoo

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Question - how did you measure speed? If you changed the circumference of the tire, but the setting in the vehicle still has the old tires, then your speed is off.
Most people with non aero wheels are using "off road" tires with aggressive thread patterns so I don't think one can make a general statement that non-aero means a 10% loss, now, I'm not saying that it won't be a loss, it definitely will be, simply from non-aero and the fact that the 22's are 17lbs heavier (92 vs. 75 as measured on a scale) than the stock rims/wheels.
How much is hard to quantify and depends on a lot of factors, I was just happy / surprised it stayed roughly on par in my highly non scientific comparison and wasn't the "automatic" 10% loss.
I have other measurements just the day before I swapped tires that shows 2.1-2.2 m/kW @ 74mph on the OEM wheels, but those runs where too short and on a different stretch of road to be a "direct comparison".

The speed in the graph is vehicle speed as registered on the gauge cluster / by the vehicle, but compared to GPS speed (see below) it's only off by 0.5% with actual speed being higher.
OEM Wheels have roughly 1% difference (again, actual speed is higher)

22's
Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 1685897200140


Lariat 20 OEM
Ford F-150 Lightning Efficiency at 70 vs. 75 vs. 80 on highway? 1685897629272
 
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Jseis

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Where I live there’s no way you can average 60 much less 70 or higher. At 58 the state bulls won’t pull you over, maybe flash their lights though. Besides there are way too many elk, deer, bear, hunters making them move, plus downed tree limbs, etc for any sane driver to want to haul ass. And that’s nice weather.

I just came east from Montana on I-90 with a stiff easterly headwind. Lucky to average 1.6-1.7 at 64-65.
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