Maybe scrapping the Lightning is a good thing

[rbott]

We are in an all EV household. My wife has a 2023 Mustang Mach-E Premium with ER battery. She is not a car person at all, but if you ask her what her favorite car is, it's this one by a mile. Her last two vehicles were 2010 and 2014 Acura MDX.

I have the 2024 Lightning Lariat ER. We are taking a 1k mile round trip road trip in a few weeks, heading north. We live on the east coast, so the cold weather is a factor. Just for giggles, I plotted out the route in Plugshare and ABRP. The situation with public charging has improved so much over the last few years; my route is littered with DC fast chargers. I tend to prefer Tesla, Electrify America stations in Walmart and Targets, and IONNA (if it's available). It's not quite at the density of gas stations yet, but in most of the USA, you can easily just get into the truck and drive without worrying about being too far from a DC fast charger.

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[Maxx]

Couldn't agree more, but I'd like to add a lil bit.

The general consensus in the 70's wasn't that we were supposed to be going into a cooling trend by now, not necessarily an ice age. The global average temperature has since risen instead of falling. Correlation is not necessarily causation, but with enough correlation you should step back and say, you know, maybe we need to look into this.

My vehicle before this was a Fiesta ST, averaged 30 mpg as well, but I only put premium for the zoom zoom. DCFC is also cheaper in my region so at the time I traded her in the lightning was ever so cheaper per mile, but gas has dropped since then. If it weren't for the occasional overheating (common in the 1.6), perpetual AC blend door clicking issue and the great deal the dealership gave me towards the truck I definitely would've kept her.

To be honest, if I had to choose between Lightning and the outback (if I had to keep one), I would still pick Lightning. I know outback may make more financial sense and it is better for me for long distance travel and in general, less risky to own but the grin factor of Lightning is in its own class.

Luckily, I don’t have to choose. We have both and take the one that fits the situation the best. 95% of my Lightning use is within it’s range so both the cost benefit and convenience is maximized for me.

All that said, I had a great piece of mind when I drove my 20 year old truck. I was not as afraid of accidents, door dings or breakdowns.

 

[Maxx]

I guess I just have a different experience than others. I had a Subaru outback for awhile, and 30mpg on the freeway would be really optimistic. This sort of discussion is always interesting, you find the ICE people who constantly got 25mpg on their Ecoboost (which I also owned) while towing trailers uphill and the EV people who get 6 mi/kWh in the winter. We look down and see a number on the screen while driving but few people other than data nerds like me bother to compute the actual mileage from fill-up to fill-up or charge to charge. If you use the odometer readings you will find that the onboard computers are not very accurate and oddly err on the high side. (There are lawsuits about that). EVs are a little better in the way that they present information although they are not always honest. I can tell you that if you drive really carefully you can get an honest 30 mpg from a Diesel Mercedes R which way exceeds the EPA rating and is about the only car that I have owned that had that pleasant result.

Ultimately though you are not talking about very much money even on a 2000 mile trip (like I do from time to time). If it was an issue, people wouldn't have been driving 85 mph while gas was $5.00/gallon. (Is there any way you could send a tanker of diesel from your state to me?)

We tend to stay at air BNBs and prefer ones that have a dryer outlet or RV outlet to charge at. This makes my cost $0.00 per mile. We always ask first and can usually find something that we are allowed to plug into even at a hotel. It is just part of selecting where to stay - non smoking, queen sized bed, bathtub, EV charger? Many of the nice smaller hotel type places to stay have free* EV chargers, which is ideal although not essential. Sometimes you can really score by finding a campground with a tiny house to stay in, they will probably have a 50A outlet that you can use somewhere. Sometimes I just plug into a 110 outlet, miles are miles - although I tend not to bother that much anymore unless we are staying awhile.

I have fast charged many times and so far (touch wood) have never had to wait. I have had issues with non-working chargers and have thought I might have to wait a few times, but it hasn't happened. If a charger were full (and when they don't work) I just go down the road. I don't wait until it is empty to charge, and I don't always charge to 80%.

Now that we have Tesla access the whole process is seamless, for fast charging we choose where we want to stop rather than when. There is one near an REI store a bit south of Seattle that we like, we browse for a bit (which can really make our cost per mile go up!). There is a great one at the Tillamook cheese factory (they don't care how many times you go through the cheese sample line) and another one north of us that is near a pretty decent little place with good sandwiches. One stop is a quiet Fred Meyer in Newport where my wife spends more time that it takes to charge. Sometimes we stop where we want to hike or look at something.

I have never seen a line at at Tesla station. I know it can happen in dense urban areas, but I deliberately don't charge in places like that because I don't like to sit in traffic. Getting to the charger is really the biggest hassle of having an EV at this point, and Tesla has done a good job of putting chargers where they are easy to access.

*Pro tip - many smaller hotels use a system, I think EVGo that will cost you unless you stay at the hotel. Be sure to ask! It has always been free for me.

*Pro tip 2 - My wife would legit kill me if I suggested taking a 2000 mile trip in the Outback (which we no longer own) instead of the Lightning.

I would never suggest my choices would work for you or your wife. I would never do a joint trip without my wife’s sign off on the trip choices and she will do the same with me. We both agreed, this is the sensible thing to do and on the first leg of the trip we realized we made the right choice. We put every minute that we were not driving in good use. All stops were places we enjoyed greatly, none of which was close to a supercharger.

At the end of the day, it was around 450 miles, we still had a little less than quarter of the tank left. And the Lowest average mpg we saw was above 31. and that is typical for her Subaru (30-33). I don’t know about yours but her soob is 4 cylinder and has CVT. I did the math at fill up; it was 30.4 mpg. 1 mpg bellow the gesso meter but still good enough for me.

regardless of the details, I have no range anxiety with Lightning. I have made road-trips with it, without prior planing (figuring out the next stop at every DCFC). I know I can make it anywhere in the country. But there is still a difference. Subaru didn’t require a minute of thought to get us from A to B. To me that is valuable. Opportunity cost of planning for me is high. Every minute that I spend thinking about charging, is a minute I am not doing something I rather do. That cost is close to zero for 95% of my Lightning use when I am within its range. Some people enjoy planning and for them that is no cost at all.. I am just not one of them.

photos from today. I was driving closer to 70 mph for 60% of the time, 80 mph 30% and bellow 70, 10% (some city, red lights).

I saw gas as low as $2.39

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

Thanks for that.

That was not my whole statement. I don't know why it came out that way. My previous comment is complete.

 

[jeep2liberty]

sometimes it seems like people assume a lot when they see the lighting, but at home between my wife and I we have the '24 Lightning, '23 Hybrid Escape, a 2010 Mazda Tribute (camp-mo-bile) and I also still have my 2500 Ram when needed -ie company truck generally for towing heavy long distance.
No "one size fits all" at least not yet.

To me, Ford did a good thing building the Lightning, and getting to market early. They learned some things, and consumers saw and noticed the trucks, even if they didn't buy one. The long game needs higher energy lighter weight batteries, faster charging, and we need pull-through chargers along hwys for EV's pulling trailers. All this will take time, and a lot of infrastructure build out. It will come, but it will take time.
Meanwhile I feel lucky to have been able to land a 2024, with a HP & lot of great features, at a price that was comparable to the 5.0L XLT at the time, that runs for so cheap I almost feel guilty about it, at a time when there were few other options in a truck. I know the truck cost Ford more than what I paid, and it saves me $7,000/year in Not-Gas travel, while perfectly fitting in with my off grid solar and independant living, while also being a backup electrical power source, job site power source, super driving experience machine.
I hope to see the next gen in about 8 years time and be blown away by what it can do. Meanwhile Ford need to sell what people what to buy, and exist to develop and launch the next gen.
One of the main selling points for me, was Ford has dealers 'everywhere' and I felt they were the best option for future parts and service. Still feel that way.

Curious about your off grid setup. I too charge EVs off grid, although not much this time of year. Two 1860W arrays on the barn roof on this end. Fun to get your motor fuel from the barn roof.

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

Curious about your off grid setup. I too charge EVs off grid, although not much this time of year. Two 1860W arrays on the barn roof on this end. Fun to get your motor fuel from the barn roof.

I have an offgrid homestead set up on 30 acres, good deep well, septic, 20 acres of forest.
Bought the place in 2001, and for the longest time I "really wanted" solar, but the costs were just far too high at the time.
That all changed pretty recently - 2020 I got excited when the cost of PV and LFP cells got down into affordable territory and the off-grid "all in one" inverters that hit the market were not just affordable but very capable equipment.
We built the solar set up in a few stages, and currently have 13kW of PV on tilting racks (35-degrees from Hor in summer, 72-degrees for winter)
I run SRNE 12kW HESP inverters (3) and the battery set up is 147kWh (another 31kWh on order).
More PV planned for 2026, once the weather is nice again.

Before the Lighning, I was good for 9 months per year on Solar, and 3 months of "add some overnight ULO rate utility" when it was cloudy. With the added load of the Lightning, I am only fully solar for 6 months per year now, but we have more space for PV and it will come, a bit at a time.

As you say, there is something amazing about collecting sunshine over the roof, and use it to drive everyday.

 

[jeep2liberty]

I have an offgrid homestead set up on 30 acres, good deep well, septic, 20 acres of forest.
Bought the place in 2001, and for the longest time I "really wanted" solar, but the costs were just far too high at the time.
That all changed pretty recently - 2020 I got excited when the cost of PV and LFP cells got down into affordable territory and the off-grid "all in one" inverters that hit the market were not just affordable but very capable equipment.
We built the solar set up in a few stages, and currently have 13kW of PV on tilting racks (35-degrees from Hor in summer, 72-degrees for winter)
I run SRNE 12kW HESP inverters (3) and the battery set up is 147kWh (another 31kWh on order).
More PV planned for 2026, once the weather is nice again.

Before the Lighning, I was good for 9 months per year on Solar, and 3 months of "add some overnight ULO rate utility" when it was cloudy. With the added load of the Lightning, I am only fully solar for 6 months per year now, but we have more space for PV and it will come, a bit at a time.

As you say, there is something amazing about collecting sunshine over the roof, and use it to drive everyday.

I have two systems. About 2. 5 years ago, did the grid tie / net meter and that has been working very well. I purchased all used panels Enphase IQ8+ micrometers. Reasonably reliable system. LG replaced 7 of the 22 panels under warranty all though they got out of the PV business. Appreciate them standing behind a product they don't make anymore. Rare these days.

Adding two EVs over the summer (much like you mentioned about your Lightning did) put me closer, or maybe a bit behind on solar harvest to feed the BEVs beasts.

I still think it's difficult to justify and recover the investment in solar. I found that doing all the work myself saved me about $11k. I too have built up the "house" batteries and now at 27 KW/HRS (WAY behind your set up, but I also have grid connection).

Too much fun.... it's basically my hobby, the only hobby ever to pay back.

 

[jwrezz]

it's basically my hobby, the only hobby ever to pay back.

Truth!

 

[jeep2liberty]

Truth!

I have an offgrid homestead set up on 30 acres, good deep well, septic, 20 acres of forest.
Bought the place in 2001, and for the longest time I "really wanted" solar, but the costs were just far too high at the time.
That all changed pretty recently - 2020 I got excited when the cost of PV and LFP cells got down into affordable territory and the off-grid "all in one" inverters that hit the market were not just affordable but very capable equipment.
We built the solar set up in a few stages, and currently have 13kW of PV on tilting racks (35-degrees from Hor in summer, 72-degrees for winter)
I run SRNE 12kW HESP inverters (3) and the battery set up is 147kWh (another 31kWh on order).
More PV planned for 2026, once the weather is nice again.

Before the Lighning, I was good for 9 months per year on Solar, and 3 months of "add some overnight ULO rate utility" when it was cloudy. With the added load of the Lightning, I am only fully solar for 6 months per year now, but we have more space for PV and it will come, a bit at a time.

As you say, there is something amazing about collecting sunshine over the roof, and use it to drive everyday.

The Tabby cat in your avatar pic looks exactly like our cat. They are little 'monsters' at times. Crazy

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