Driving an EV pickup

Probably too early to tell really. I don't drive a lot in general, so only have 5k on the odometer so far. And it had 2800 on it when I bought (dealer demo). That has mostly just been around town, dump runs etc. It has done one trip to Victoria from Nanaimo, and another from Nanaimo to Port McNeill - so technically pretty much the full length of the island. I have been keeping a log of fill ups and kms driven in between, but haven't sat down yet to do the math. Maybe I will this weekend. I don't expect it to be amazing, and didn't really buy it for economy. Of course that will be a bonus anything I can save there. Best I think I have hit on a single trip according to the dashboard summary is I think 7 or 8l per 100 km. But like I said, I need to sit down to calcuate the real world average. I mostly went Powerboost for on-board 7.2kw power, and the added torque and hp. Also, it was just the best overall deal when I was ready to buy. I looked at standard F15O as well, and the Chevy baby max diesel too.
I'm getting 11.5 L/100k with my V6 EcoBoost.
 
I did one run to Victoria and back to Nanaimo a few months ago. 2024 GMC Denali, 3 litre diesel. 8.5 litres per 100 km. Since then I have only done short runs. Will have to test it out again to be sure it was accurate.
 
Annoying stuff: the Ford climate control system. Into my 10th month of ownership and I still don't really understand it. Warmer days beginning again is highlighting this. Winter wasn't too bad, I mostly used the heated seats and wheel and defroster.

The AC seems to have a mind of its own though. In auto mode, set temp for 23°C, just to take the edge off a sun-warmed cabin. It blows cold air, too much. Reduce the auto fan to lowest setting, no difference. Up the T stat to 24, no change. Up to 25, still colder than I need/want. FFS the outside temp is only 20!

I daresay the AC system is regular Ford stuff same as all the F series trucks. Anyone with late model Ford care to give me some tips on controlling the beast?
 
Still driving a gas vehicle, however cabin temperature issues seem to be a constant regardless of propulsion.

My advise on managing the AC is to give the responsibility to your wife. 😁

Nothing will really change in the hot/cold variation swings, but you will have succesfully removed yourself from the discussion.
 
Sage advice, Bill. I can assure you that she indeed takes charge of heating and cooling controls whenever she's in the truck, but that isn't very often. What's a bloke to do when he's driving solo?
 
Does the F150 have a heat pump for battery maintenance? If so do you find it useful ?
 
Does the F150 have a heat pump for battery maintenance? If so do you find it useful ?
Mine doesn't, the 2024s do. We'll need to wait for a winter to pass before there's data to assess those, but Teslas have had them since 2019 and they appear to perform well, an improvement over resistance coil for sure.

Ford had a large task on its hands fitting an EV driveline into the F150, but it was only a fairly small group working on it, a skunkworks type project. One of the things that helped get it into production sooner was to use normal Ford hardware wherever possible. They knew a heat pump was important but they had to set its development aside in favour of putting something on the market by 2022.

Not sure what really happened, but the way CEO Jim Farley tells it, Lightning originated with a handful of Ford engineers who were passionate about reducing emissions and managed to get him to champion it despite general opposition to it at board and senior exec level. I can understand it, any tinkering with the single most valuable badge in the automotive world has to be looked at very carefully. Anyway, they've done it, and I don't think Lightning has damaged the reputation of the F150 brand.
 
16,000 km maintenance day. Cabin air filter, $20. No tools required change. Take winters off factory rims, 1 bottle Crown Royal to my buddy with the tire machine and balancer.

Following some posts from the Lightning forum, I checked the fuse block. About three quarters of them were not seated all the way down. Remedied now. I doubt any issues stemmed from this so far, but you could see things arising over time especially if I drive lots of gravel road.
 
Annoying stuff: the Ford climate control system. Into my 10th month of ownership and I still don't really understand it. Warmer days beginning again is highlighting this. Winter wasn't too bad, I mostly used the heated seats and wheel and defroster.

The AC seems to have a mind of its own though. In auto mode, set temp for 23°C, just to take the edge off a sun-warmed cabin. It blows cold air, too much. Reduce the auto fan to lowest setting, no difference. Up the T stat to 24, no change. Up to 25, still colder than I need/want. FFS the outside temp is only 20!

I daresay the AC system is regular Ford stuff same as all the F series trucks. Anyone with late model Ford care to give me some tips on controlling the beast?
I dont like to use the auto setting, find it blows too much. I just set the temperature and set the fan where i want it. still, I agree its not great at regulating temperature. often just turn it off. Also i find it really irritating that it scoops up the exhaust from the vehicle in front of you and blasts it in your face. On my 2014 i could just keep the recirc on all the time, but on the 22 it wont let me keep recirc on in the winter.
 
I'm getting 11.5 L/100k with my V6 EcoBoost.
Is that the highway figure, or the overall lifetime economy for your truck? I had a 2020 EcoBoost 3.5 as a loaner that same year while my truck was in the body shop, was quite impressed with that drivetrain. Power and torque readily available in most driving situations, and fuel econ seemed better than my Silverado 5.3L (hard to get a true comparison in only 2 weeks). Thought to myself then that it would likely be my next truck, but then a year later they announced the Lightning, I dropped my $100 and reserved that day. I have new standards now regarding available power and torque.
 
I dont like to use the auto setting, find it blows too much. I just set the temperature and set the fan where i want it. still, I agree its not great at regulating temperature. often just turn it off. Also i find it really irritating that it scoops up the exhaust from the vehicle in front of you and blasts it in your face. On my 2014 i could just keep the recirc on all the time, but on the 22 it wont let me keep recirc on in the winter.
This is my experience too, you have to select recirc after every start, and none of the three auto fan settings seem to make much difference. Running in manual gives a bit more control as there are 7 fan speeds. I tried to get it dialed on longer winter drives where it would blow just enough air to keep glass clear, but set low temp and use heated seat and wheel to keep me warm. I never really succeeded in finding something set and forget, was easier to just leave it off until glass started to fog.

First world problems.
 
Is that the highway figure, or the overall lifetime economy for your truck? I had a 2020 EcoBoost 3.5 as a loaner that same year while my truck was in the body shop, was quite impressed with that drivetrain. Power and torque readily available in most driving situations, and fuel econ seemed better than my Silverado 5.3L (hard to get a true comparison in only 2 weeks). Thought to myself then that it would likely be my next truck, but then a year later they announced the Lightning, I dropped my $100 and reserved that day. I have new standards now regarding available power and torque.
Its the overall economy for my truck. Abbotsford to Langley every day. mostly flat farm roads but some serious hills in the mix.
 
Vernon and back yesterday. Not quite yet at the true godawfulness of mid summer Okanagan hwy 97 traffic hell, but getting there.

Anyway, I was tinkering recently with cruise control settings and found one where you can set it to automatically adjust the cruise setpoint as speed limits change. I like using cruise to prevent myself from inadvertently speeding and getting a ticket. The hwy 97 corridor has several sections of wide smooth 4 lane road with 70 km/h limit, prime territory for the Revenue Collecting Motor Patrol to stake out, and therefore ideal place to use cruise.

The feature works generally quite well, moving cruise setting up or down as the speed limit signs dictate. You can even set it to always be 10 km/h above the limit so you can keep with the traffic flow. But... it also appears to have some old data in the mapping, because in a couple of locations it 'sees' the speed limit to be 120 and thus sets cruise to 130 km/h. One spot between Penticton and Summerland where it does this consistently. There's certainly no signage, that stretch is 100 km limit and has been for many years. I've lived here since the late 80s and it's never had a 120 km/h limit. It's doing the same thing on a short stretch of four lane between Summerland and Peachland. Has BC ever had 120 km/h limit anywhere other than the Coquihalla/Connector?

So the adaptive cruise is nice overall, most trucks have this now I guess but it's new to me since the 2014 Silverado didn't have it. But there's some ghost data out there. Anyone else seeing this on their Ford, gas or electric?
 
Knox Mountain Hillclimb in Kelowna this weekend. The only 2 EVs in the paddock end up side by side.

The Tesla ran 8th overall last year, first time here for car and driver. Expected to improve.

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