Unreliable Guess-o-meter, range anxiety, and the frigid weather...

[nanohead]

Well, I followed all of Fords recommendations, but was scared silly with range anxiety on Xmas day. It was around 17 degrees in northern NJ. Point of note, we've owned a Mach E for the past year and half and am familiar with some form of cold weather range decay. Also an engineer, and I understand many of the trade-offs the engineers at Ford dealt with to get this truck into production as designed. I also understand this is the first winter with these F150 Lightnings in service, so we are all going to have to figure this out on the fly.

Kept the truck plugged in yesterday morning, couldn't get the "precondition" schedule thing to work, but did 2 cycles of remote start for 15 minutes, and then actually got in and started the truck with it plugged in. It gave me this idiotic Pro Power message, which makes no sense.... It was plugged into the Charge Station Pro and the charger was charging (flashing blue light). While it was plugged in and on, range INCREASED from 302 to 306 miles, presumably as the truck was heating itself, but I have no way of knowing.

We then set out for the family gathering, which was 70 odd miles away. I actually decided to modulate speed, and try to maximize for range on the drive. I stupidly assumed that the GOM saying 306 miles of range should smartly get me through the 140 mile round trip. Wrong

The cabin was warm, we turned down the seats and set heat to 68. There were three of us in the truck. It was cold outside, and while we tried turning the heat off, it got too cold in the cabin.

Range was plunging at DOUBLE the rate it should have during the first leg of the trip, which was 70 miles. Range dropped from 306 to 165, which is a giant miss..... 141 GOM miles consumed for 71 real miles. That is bad... really bad.

We left to return home after around 5 hours, the truck wasn't plugged in, and I did 1 remote start to heat the cabin. During the remote start period, the truck lost another 5 miles and was at 160 when we set off for the 70 mile return trip. At this point, I was pretty terrified we weren't going to make it, and while there is 1 charger on the route, we were time pressed and was hoping we'd just scrape by.

Again, the GOM plunged by way more than actual miles. I had cruise set to 65, seats on 1, cabin heat on 68. By halfway through the trip, I went into white knuckle mode, and became convinced the battery would die hard before I could make the driveway at home. I was somewhat shocked that this $80k+ truck with a published range of 320 Miles could barely make 140 miles. Not good

By the last 1/3rd of the trip, I was cycling 1 pedal drive regen somewhat aggressively on the down hill sections of the southern most part of the NYS thruway, and started to reduce range decay a bit. The short of it is, the 141 mile round trip consumed 232 on the GOM, which is terribly unsatisfying and candidly, just bad.

My basic takeaway is that the truck's range of 320 is not true in general. All the stuff that the Ford EV GM said during the SOC youtube interview about cold weather operation didn't work at all, and that those of us who purchased the Lightnings as a family hauler need to be super cautious this winter to not get stranded.

Choosing between range and freezing inside the cabin, or being basically comfortable inside the cabin and getting stranded is a terrible trade-off. The fact that they deleted my heated steering wheel doesn't help.

This truck is one of the most beautiful vehicles I've owned (out of way more than 100), but if it can't be reliable with some reasonable range, then it might be too early for something this big and heavy to be a practicable EV for family service.

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[SilverBrewer]

The ol lady has a Tesla and I’ve got to tell you they have solved my range anxiety - the super charger network is incredible. It’s the thing I miss most.

as for range anxiety - I took my 21PB on a 150 mile drive from Charleston WV to Cincinnati on Christmas Day and in my truck that generally gets 24 mpg was getting 14 because of headwind and winter blend.

this goes to show that ford needs to focus ona solid charging network.

 

[SmoothJ]

The more you drive, the more the GOM is more "accurate". Its not the best, but it just gives you a idea. However I was even surprised by how much it dropped when I did a 111 mile round trip recently. Like you, I got 1.6 mile/kwh.

 

[Tony Burgh]

As an engineer I use the calm screen and look at % charge remaining. Cold weather, snow tires, slushy roads are probably more than GOM AI can handle. I know my 2016 3.5 TT Lariat dropped 4-6 mpg in single digit temps with snow tires on as opposed to 16.5 mpg average year round. I reset trip odo #2 when I bought the truck with 24 miles on it. Never reset and traded it in with 85,000 miles so 16.5 mpg is real.
I expect to lose 1/4 to 1/3 range on average as a truck and more on the highway because of aerodynamics. And plan accordingly.

BTW, I’ve never has a truck or car in 50 years do as well as the Lightning with snow tires in snow and slush.

 

[Maxx]

Surprised that heat pump heated up the cabin faster in super cold conditions:

 

[laselvasurf]

Just to clarify things. You traveled 141 miles on a full charge in sub-freezing temps, most of time time keeping the cabin at 68 degrees. After your trip you still had 74 miles remaining, which would put your actual max range under those conditions at 215, which is about a 35% loss because of the weather and sub-optimal driving conditions. That seems close to what is advertised and what others have experienced and honestly doesn't seem that bad to me.

One thing that you do not mention is your speed on the highway. Based on the math, your average for the whole trip was around 55mph, but if you traveled at 80mph for some of it, your range would be effected very quickly.

I understand that range anxiety can be very stressful, especially when the GOM is not accurate. But if you just keep in mind your battery capacity and the average mi/kWh you will be able to drive with more confidence and less stress. @1.6mi/kWh your ER battery has a range of 208 miles. That usage data on your dash is more accurate than the GOM, especially for longer trips in cold climates.

 

[luebri]

.... I stupidly assumed that the GOM saying 306 miles of range should smartly get me through the 140 mile round trip. Wrong

The cabin was warm, we turned down the seats and set heat to 68. There were three of us in the truck. It was cold outside, and while we tried turning the heat off, it got too cold in the cabin.

Range was plunging at DOUBLE the rate it should have during the first leg of the trip, which was 70 miles. Range dropped from 306 to 165, which is a giant miss..... 141 GOM miles consumed for 71 real miles. That is bad... really bad.

We left to return home after around 5 hours, the truck wasn't plugged in, and I did 1 remote start to heat the cabin. During the remote start period, the truck lost another 5 miles and was at 160 when we set off for the 70 mile return trip. At this point, I was pretty terrified we weren't going to make it, and while there is 1 charger on the route, we were time pressed and was hoping we'd just scrape by.

Again, the GOM plunged by way more than actual miles. I had cruise set to 65, seats on 1, cabin heat on 68. By halfway through the trip, I went into white knuckle mode, and became convinced the battery would die hard before I could make the driveway at home. I was somewhat shocked that this $80k+ truck with a published range of 320 Miles could barely make 140 miles. Not good

By the last 1/3rd of the trip, I was cycling 1 pedal drive regen somewhat aggressively on the down hill sections of the southern most part of the NYS thruway, and started to reduce range decay a bit. The short of it is, the 141 mile round trip consumed 232 on the GOM, which is terribly unsatisfying and candidly, just bad.

My basic takeaway is that the truck's range of 320 is not true in general. All the stuff that the Ford EV GM said during the SOC youtube interview about cold weather operation didn't work at all, and that those of us who purchased the Lightnings as a family hauler need to be super cautious this winter to not get stranded.

Choosing between range and freezing inside the cabin, or being basically comfortable inside the cabin and getting stranded is a terrible trade-off. The fact that they deleted my heated steering wheel doesn't help.

This truck is one of the most beautiful vehicles I've owned (out of way more than 100), but if it can't be reliable with some reasonable range, then it might be too early for something this big and heavy to be a practicable EV for family service.

I think everyone is in pretty large agreement. IGNORE THE GUESS-O-METER! That is why it's been derisively named such a thing on this forum! hopefully it gets better, but for now just ignore it.

You're new to the truck, obviously by your mileage. Hell, Im still new to mine, but understand it a lot more then the 1st week (my first EV). I've had it for 7 weeks and have 2000 miles on mine.

The bottom line is I just pay attention to my Miles per KWH. You got 1.6 miles/KWH on an interstate drive in cold weather is pretty phenomenal! So everything you did helped your efficiency for sure. 1.6 X 131 (battery size) = 209.6. You used ~65% of your battery on a 141 mile trip. You were good the whole time with room to spare, no need for anxiety. All your efforts (lower speed, lower cab temp, etc) helped but were probably also unnecessary for this trip. For a 180 mile trip yes then you would have been tight and those things would be smart.

That said, This must have been your first drive in cold weather for the GOM to be that far off. My GOM has actually been fairly accurate it just took some miles to get the data to do its guessing. My first 2 days I had the truck the weather was 60 degrees or so and the GOM was ~280 and then the 3rd day (Mid November) it got cold and has been cold since. Since my 3rd day with the truck GOM has been ~200 at 90% consistently at around 30 degrees F. If it's even colder than that and it was all interstate speed 70+ mph then I can easily and confidently predict that range would be around 150 to 175 miles.

The one caveat, I would say to be mindful of is WIND! If you are down wind on a trip and then are coming back the other way dead into a headwind, you mi/KWH are going to vary drastically.

One other thing, using 1 pedal Regen going down a hill at highway speed is not giving you any benefit if you end up losing speed. Yes, you get energy going down the hill but if you lose speed you will lose all that energy when you accelerate back up to speed. If you are going down a mountain for an extended period of time, then yes you will gain energy, but just the up and down of normal driving at highway speed wont do anything more beneficial then maintaining speed.

Last thing... you've owned 100+ vehicles!?!?!? If you do not own a business that needs a lot of vehicles then I am flabbergasted by that number.

 

[Lightning Rod]

What was the average temperatures during your trip?

 

[nanohead]

Just to clarify things. You traveled 141 miles on a full charge in sub-freezing temps, most of time time keeping the cabin at 68 degrees. After your trip you still had 74 miles remaining, which would put your actual max range under those conditions at 215, which is about a 35% loss because of the weather and sub-optimal driving conditions. That seems close to what is advertised and what others have experienced and honestly doesn't seem that bad to me.

One thing that you do not mention is your speed on the highway. Based on the math, your average for the whole trip was around 55mph, but if you traveled at 80mph for some of it, your range would be effected very quickly.

I understand that range anxiety can be very stressful, especially when the GOM is not accurate. But if you just keep in mind your battery capacity and the average mi/kWh you will be able to drive with more confidence and less stress. @1.6mi/kWh your ER battery has a range of 208 miles. That usage data on your dash is more accurate than the GOM, especially for longer trips in cold climates.

Thanks for the perspective... On our 21 Mach E, we only lose a small amount in the winter, so didn't expect to lose 35-50% on the Lightning. Its actually startling, especially given the premium the Extended Range battery cost.

FYI, cruise control set at 65 most of the time as I was optimizing for range.

It is not rational to choose between freezing inside the cabin, OR making it to your destination. While I understand the trade offs and the limitations of batteries in cold temps, a 200 mile or less range on the Lightning, much as I love the truck, is simply nonsensical.

What's becoming apparent, is that while Ford tried to make the Lightning as broadly F150 like as possible, they missed the mark. For certain missions, local ones for the trades, maybe local family hauling, temperate climates, etc, its probably fine. But for anything that even remotely resembles more trucklike missions, they over optimized for power, towing capacity, weight, acceleration, etc.

I would have been incredibly satisfied with only say 400 HP, limited towing or none at all, and 25% more static range. Instead, we have a stark choice, which is to either shut off all creature comforts simply to make your destination and preserve limited battery, or stop and charge every say 100-125 miles in cold climates, which makes literally no sense, and simply cannot be accomplished with the limited number of chargers available. This is certainly not what I waited a year for, much as I simply love the experience of driving the Lightning.

The enthusiastic and technical side of my brain says there's a way to optimize all the variables and have the F150 Lightning as a daily driver where we do actually make trips like normal people, and have owned 4 door pickups as a family entity for decades. But the practical side of me says it might not be possible given the Lightning's propensity to shed range in anything but optimal weather conditions.

I'm bummed

 

[boggle]

@Ford Motor Company Fix the damn preconditioning already. What good is a scheduled feature that intermittently works?

 

[nanohead]

I think everyone is in pretty large agreement. IGNORE THE GUESS-O-METER! That is why it's been derisively named such a thing on this forum! hopefully it gets better, but for now just ignore it.

You're new to the truck, obviously by your mileage. Hell, Im still new to mine, but understand it a lot more then the 1st week (my first EV). I've had it for 7 weeks and have 2000 miles on mine.

The bottom line is I just pay attention to my Miles per KWH. You got 1.6 miles/KWH on an interstate drive in cold weather is pretty phenomenal! So everything you did helped your efficiency for sure. 1.6 X 131 (battery size) = 209.6. You used ~65% of your battery on a 141 mile trip. You were good the whole time with room to spare, no need for anxiety. All your efforts (lower speed, lower cab temp, etc) helped but were probably also unnecessary for this trip. For a 180 mile trip yes then you would have been tight and those things would be smart.

That said, This must have been your first drive in cold weather for the GOM to be that far off. My GOM has actually been fairly accurate it just took some miles to get the data to do its guessing. My first 2 days I had the truck the weather was 60 degrees or so and the GOM was ~280 and then the 3rd day (Mid November) it got cold and has been cold since. Since my 3rd day with the truck GOM has been ~200 at 90% consistently at around 30 degrees F. If it's even colder than that and it was all interstate speed 70+ mph then I can easily and confidently predict that range would be around 150 to 175 miles.

The one caveat, I would say to be mindful of is WIND! If you are down wind on a trip and then are coming back the other way dead into a headwind, you mi/KWH are going to vary drastically.

One other thing, using 1 pedal Regen going down a hill at highway speed is not giving you any benefit if you end up losing speed. Yes, you get energy going down the hill but if you lose speed you will lose all that energy when you accelerate back up to speed. If you are going down a mountain for an extended period of time, then yes you will gain energy, but just the up and down of normal driving at highway speed wont do anything more beneficial then maintaining speed.

Last thing... you've owned 100+ vehicles!?!?!? If you do not own a business that needs a lot of vehicles then I am flabbergasted by that number.

Thanks for this perspective.....

Been a car collector since I was very young! Have 7 right now, but had up to 13 at a time over the years. Been buying and selling since I was 17 (over 60 now), and have had many fetishes for specific cars over the years. Have owned every major brand (and many minor ones) except Toyota and Hyundai (no real reason, just never seemed to find one I liked when I was on the hunt). I've collected everything from Aston Martins and Austin Healeys, to Post WW2 Mercedes sedans and my favorite pickup of all time, the venerable Dodge Dakota (owned 4). Thankfully my wonderful wife enjoys most of the random zany cars I bring home most of the time.

The F150 Lightning is absolutely amazing, but the more time I spend with it, I have a clearer picture of what they designers and engineers were going for. It was not range, it was to introduce an electric version of the F Series that didn't offend anyone, and was as F150 like as possible. In that, they succeeded, but its limited in its mission envelope, much like many aircraft are, or specific machine tools. As a general purpose vehicle, it is inherently VERY compromised because of its range limitations as well as the complete disarray of public charging to support that limited envelope.

It is true that many people will love the Lightning depending on their expectations and actual use cases. But I'm not sure at this early stage of Battery Electric trucks, with expectations of GVWRs associated with full size pickup trucks and the static weight of just the battery alone, combined with expectation of towing capacity, it might be too early given the technology off the shelf that we have now.

 

[Texas Dan]

My F150L has not yet been delivered but I have never trusted the GOMs on the four EVs I have owned. I have grown to trust the A Better Route Planner, ABRP app. ABRP still requires a little calibrating but it allows me to more accurately calculate my range than the rules of thumb I was using.

Some people might think the ABRP is only good for planning long trips. ABRP does have a nasty habit of routing you away from your preferred route. I also use ABRP for point to point range calculations to avoid rerouting calculations.

 

[luebri]

The F150 Lightning is absolutely amazing, but the more time I spend with it, I have a clearer picture of what they designers and engineers were going for. It was not range, it was to introduce an electric version of the F Series that didn't offend anyone, and was as F150 like as possible. In that, they succeeded, but its limited in its mission envelope, much like many aircraft are, or specific machine tools. As a general purpose vehicle, it is inherently VERY compromised because of its range limitations as well as the complete disarray of public charging to support that limited envelope.

It is true that many people will love the Lightning depending on their expectations and actual use cases. But I'm not sure at this early stage of Battery Electric trucks, with expectations of GVWRs associated with full size pickup trucks and the static weight of just the battery alone, combined with expectation of towing capacity, it might be too early given the technology off the shelf that we have now.

I did a lot of research and was well aware of the compromises before taking delivery. Luckily none of those things are deal breakers for me. The compromises are real, but have little effect on me so I am absolutely loving it.

I think the engineers made the right choices regarding how they approached the F150 lightning and demand seems to be supporting that.

I agree, I have some skepticism on the battery tech itself primarily regarding longevity and how quickly or not quickly for that matter it will be cannibalized by better battery tech. It is undeniablee that Charging infrastructure is weak, especially in lower population and less "progressive" areas.

I've said before, the biggest workaround is to have another vehicle (often times the spouses) that is an ICE vehicle that fills the gaps of the compromises of the Lightning or any EV for that matter.

ICE vehicles and BEV will live in harmony for a very very long time.

 

[lightspeed]

Thanks for the perspective... On our 21 Mach E, we only lose a small amount in the winter, so didn't expect to lose 35-50% on the Lightning. Its actually startling, especially given the premium the Extended Range battery cost.

This is the reality of EV tech now, winter range loss, but I'm not sure why the GoM has to be so bad. Is it that hard to have it be based on the last 15 minutes of average power use?

I don't understand how your Mach E "only loses a small amount" though since Mach E users in general report similar range loss (30%+) in the same conditions.

It does seem to be true though that Ford knows about Mach E winter range loss and chose to do nothing to improve it in the Lightning. I'm not impressed. But it's a good warm weather truck.

 

[nanohead]

I did a lot of research and was well aware of the compromises before taking delivery. Luckily none of those things are deal breakers for me. The compromises are real, but have little effect on me so I am absolutely loving it.

I think the engineers made the right choices regarding how they approached the F150 lightning and demand seems to be supporting that.

I agree, I have some skepticism on the battery tech itself primarily regarding longevity and how quickly or not quickly for that matter it will be cannibalize by better battery tech. It is undeniablee that Charging infrastructure is weak, especially in lower population and less "progressive" areas.

I've said before, the biggest workaround is to have another vehicle (often times the spouses) that is an ICE vehicle that fills the gaps of the compromises of the Lightning.

ICE vehicles and BEV will live in harmony for a very very long time.

Wise words indeed. Our Mach E (18 months so far) experience has been very very good, and I was hoping, that some of the empirical experience the Ford EV team took from that first "pure" BEV, would make it into the Lightning. I see some lessons learned, but the range tradeoffs are too severe for most practical purposes.

I do agree that the choices they made, at least from a publicly stated demand standpoint, seem to have resonated with those of us that are hungry for a practical EV Pickup truck that can also be a solid family hauler. We'll see if that demand translates into aftermarket price support, or if enthusiasm fades once real pickup users grapple with the severe design compromises that are unfortunately inherent in the Lightning. From what I understand, many people are indeed walking away from their Lightning orders, but this is probably due to many reasons like delays, features being removed, price increases, and maybe other things too we're not aware of.

I worry that the Ford designers and engineers fell into the trap of feeling they needed to out Tesla Tesla for things like acceleration, etc. This was a trap they could not win with a neo-commercial pickup truck and its general weight and heft. I do not need quarter mile times. I need to get where I'm going without fear.

I sold a 21 Ranger back to the dealer a few months ago, which I guess was our backup plan should the Lightning not work out. I hated the Ranger, not Fords best work by a long shot. I replaced it with a 2015 F150 XLT as well thats pretty bare bones, and as lame an experience as that is, I don't think twice about getting in it and driving a couple hundred miles at a clip.

If charging was prolific (it doesn't even need to be super fast, just fast enough), I might care less. But OMFG, here in the northeast, as we say in NJ, fuhgeddaboudit. There's almost nothing that reliably works, and that's among the handful of public charging stations that even exist. Heck, the fast charger at the Capital Region Welcome Center on the NYS Thruway has been broken for MONTHS! Yep, welcome to the capital region you EV drivers!

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