In short, relying wholly on the estimated range is unrealistic, but it makes for great YouTube videos. It’s the result of an algorithm resulting in an educated guess of how far the remaining energy will take the truck.įor instance: In the span of 30 minutes while sitting in the driveway with the truck turned off, the Ford iOS app told me with a full charge the Lightning’s range would be just 153 miles and two minutes later claimed 189 miles of range. The engineer wouldn’t comment on the Lightning’s roadmap for such a feature but noted the team is continuing to improve the truck.Īnother observation that carries over from gasoline vehicles is that the more extreme the conditions get, the more wildly the estimated range swings-and the less you should fixate on what it might be at any moment. The way the plumbing is done offers the Lightning opportunities to heat-share where it can, according to McRoy. Gitanjli McRoy, chief engineer of Ford’s EV energy management systems for the F-150 Lightning, told Green Car Reports the truck doesn’t have a heat pump because Ford balanced what was technically ready, could be optimized, and deliver the best value while getting the truck developed. That can be the difference between getting to a charger or not on a road trip. It can increase cold-weather range by up to 20%. A heat pump acts like an air conditioning system in reverse to move heat energy to the cabin rather than create it. The F-150 Lightning doesn’t have a heat pump, which might have helped it in the cold. Does the F-150 Lightning have a heat pump? While some EVs are experiencing issues retaining energy in the cold, the F-150 Lightning didn’t indicate it lost any energy during a 12-hour cold soak despite the estimated range dropping 38 miles. Friends with turbo-6 F-150s report about the same gain in thirst. My wife’s Jeep Grand Cherokee with a V-8 engine sees a one-third drop in fuel efficiency (from about 16 mpg to 12 mpg) in the same conditions. This kind of efficiency and range loss isn’t unheard of for gasoline vehicles either, in such cold weather. So overall, the Lightning lost about a third of its efficiency-and range-in the cold. And over the course of the whole 358 miles of mixed driving, the Lightning averaged 1.5 mile/kwh-amounting to about 200 miles of range from the 131-kwh Extended Range Pack, rated for 320 miles. The best I saw in this week of cold-weather testing with the Lightning, in a 44-mile highway run at 16 degrees, was a 1.8 mile/kwh average. That’s a big range with lots of variables, just as with the fuel economy of a gas-powered vehicle.

In fair to warm temperatures our team has seen the Lightning average anywhere from 2.1 to 2.6 mile per kwh. This scenario trickle-charged the truck and replicated what might happen should someone find themselves parking at a friend’s house on a road trip (or at work).ģ) With a nearly empty battery I fast-charged the truck at an Electrify America station in the cold, which itself proved to be an experience.Ĥ) With a warmer battery I charged the truck on public L2 chargers and a slower, less powerful, 元 charger.Ģ023 Ford F-150 Lightning F-150 Lightning cold-weather range This was to cold-soak the battery and every other component in the vehicle and see how it affects the Lightning.Ģ) Another night with the exact same conditions I plugged the Lightning into a regular 120-volt outlet with the standard charging cord that comes with every F-150 Lightning for 12.5 hours. But 35% of America doesn't own a single family home, many Americans don’t have a garage, and those who do might not even be able to fit the 231.7-inch long F-150 Lightning inside it.ġ) I let the truck sit outside in ambient temperatures ranging from -5 to -22 degrees Fahrenheit for 12.5 hours straight unplugged. Parking an EV inside a garage would help too. I did neither of those things-even though the FordPass app makes those things easy to figure out. Most EV owners will have a Level 2 charger at their home and, when it’s this cold outside, precondition the vehicle (the cabin, and perhaps the battery) while it’s still plugged in. 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning How do you warm up a F-150 Lighting?

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