Driving an EV pickup

Some places I've charged would be ok with trailer attached. Ford has its charge port forward of the drivers door, so you nose in. Provided there's some room behind, you can usually get in there, sometimes would need to slew the trailer around some to leave access behind for others. Teslas have their charge port at drivers side rear corner, meaning you reverse in to charge; obviously not good if towing. You'd think they'll do it differently for Cybertruck, but who knows until it's released to customers. Most Tesla sites I've seen do have a couple of pull-through setups. More and more EV chargers going in at gas stations, so you'd think those folks already understand the concept of the pull-through, or at least leaving space behind so a longer rig isn't blocking everything.

50 kW is pretty slow when you have the big battery pack needed for a tow vehicle. Mine is 98 kWh, the extended range is 131 kWh. Silverado and Hummer have 200 kWh. So for a big unit like that, a typical highway charge from 20% up to 80% is 120 kWh, on a 50 kW that would take 2.5 hours! It was good that BC Hydro took the initiative and put DCFC in small places like Woss and Lillooet and Hixon, places where even the vaunted Tesla network hasn't bothered with yet. Now that EV is really starting to grow, and offering trucks, it sure would be nice to see them upgrade some of those 50 kW units to 150 kW or faster.

Oh, and by the way, since you asked about the cost of a charge in Woss....

Screenshot (35).png

It wouldn't be busy either. Lightly traveled highway to begin with, and faster units in McNeil and CR for those in a hurry.

Just looking... chargers in Port Hardy and at Sayward Junction too. North Island is reasonably well served considering the small population. I could do the trip to WH in mine easily enough, provided my buddies didn't mind adding an extra hour to a trip that is already 14 hours. I guess if I showed them the math on costs compared to $250 for gas each way, they'd probably sign up for the extra hour. Can plug in at the lodge in WH, even on a 110 plug it would be full after 3 days.
 
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Last week we started a foundation in a tricky but beautiful waterfront site on Okanagan Lake. Very steep slopes, long distance from paved road and utility inertia have delayed getting power connected to site. Homeowner didn't want us to wait as obviously winter is very close. He provided a 9 kW generator and jerry cans of gas in lieu of temp power supply, but we haven't bothered using it. We've been using the Lightning's onboard 9.6 kW power supply to run air compressor, hammer drills, table saw and battery chargers for cordless tools. Ford sensibly provides multiple 20 amp GFCI circuits so we've had no problems with air compressor kicking in while ripping with the table saw. A week of no noisy generator all day is totally worth it.
 
sly_karma said:
Last week we started a foundation in a tricky but beautiful waterfront site on Okanagan Lake. Very steep slopes, long distance from paved road and utility inertia have delayed getting power connected to site. Homeowner didn't want us to wait as obviously winter is very close. He provided a 9 kW generator and jerry cans of gas in lieu of temp power supply, but we haven't bothered using it. We've been using the Lightning's onboard 9.6 kW power supply to run air compressor, hammer drills, table saw and battery chargers for cordless tools. Ford sensibly provides multiple 20 amp GFCI circuits so we've had no problems with air compressor kicking in while ripping with the table saw. A week of no noisy generator all day is totally worth it.
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What does an 8 hour work day do to the range?
 
Took 80 km off the first day we did it! I made a rookie mistake, forgot to turn off climate control so it was running heat all day. After that it's been 20-25 km a day. Heavier use would pull more, mostly we just need to charge cordless tools. But you can just leave those in the truck and let charging continue on the drive home and back.
 
This continues to be the best EV reporting I have ever read.

If Ford knew about this thread they would be using your stories in their advertisements, or do an indepth interview using your experiences for their website.

What you are writing is clear, factual, and most importantly you make it interesting. We are on this adventure with you.
 
Thanks! It's been fun sharing. In most social media, EVs are a divisive topic. Thanks to all in here for reading, commenting, and asking questions.

More to come as winter is so close now. Starting to get a read on the effects of cooler temps on range. I'm also interested to see what happens with torque/traction in snow, and more.
 
Range... a moving target. Not to mention a concern for everyone thinking about an EV. It's the first question I'm asked by almost everyone. EVs all have some kind of range display on the dash, whether it be in km remaining or % state of charge (SOC).

Ford owners refer to the range remaining display as the Guess-O-Meter, or GOM for short. It really is a moving target, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes not. When I first got Mick, the GOM read 390 km at 100% SOC. But it was midsummer, so the AC was on fairly often, and the battery had to cool itself to the optimum operating temp, so that usually showed as a drop to about 370 km. If parked in the shade, though, you could see that number increase again.

Ford promises that the GOM will become more accurate as the software tracks individual driving style and roads used (slow city traffic vs highway speeds, etc). That has happened for me. I live 500 ft above town, and that steep climb going home every trip has been absorbed by the algorithm. It now perceives my 100% range as 345 km. The battery pack hasn't shrunk, still same 98 kWh of available energy, it seems to think that big gulp of power used every time I come home is part of my normal driving. Of course every morning I add 2 km of range going down the hill, and see 0 km deducted from range until I'm 6-7 km from home.

The good news is, on longer drives when I actually care about range, the GOM becomes more accurate as the trip progresses. Set a destination in the nav system and it tells you distance to destination and distance to 0%, by mid trip the gap between the two will have stabilized and remains accurate right to the end.

Around town and work, it doesn't really matter. Plug in when it's getting low same as you would fill a fuel tank.
 
October figures.

Home energy: 634 kWh @ $0.112 = $71

Public charging: $43.44
Electrify Canada $7.16
Flo $11.28
* Sun Peaks Grand $25

Total electricity cost: $114.44
Km driven in October: 2499
Cost per km: $0.046

* Fancy hotel ripoff! Actually used about $4 worth of electricity.

I still shake my head wondering if this is real. How can it be this cheap to run a full size truck? $114 at current prices in the Okanagan would buy 68 litres of gas, ie, two thirds of a tank for most half tons. The Silverado averages 15L/100 km, so I would have gone 453 km for the same money. Not even a week of driving.

I looked ahead to see what maintenance costs are looming: nothing until 1 year mark. That one consists of a cabin air filter change and "80 point safety inspection."
 
I asked about the Lightning at the Ford dealer on the Island Highway last year. I remember the salesman said the last one they sold, was .....$154,000.00 out the door.
 
2xeagle16 said:
I asked about the Lightning at the Ford dealer on the Island Highway last year. I remember the salesman said the last one they sold, was .....$154,000.00 out the door.
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Must have been a Platinum. Sticker on those is ~125K plus dealer charges and taxes. Those were the first trucks built in the 2023 production run, and they sat on lots while us working types waited for Pro and XLT models. Not surprised they're still sitting at that price.

XLT with standard range battery has MSRP of 69K, extended range is an extra 16K.
 
sly_karma said:
Must have been a Platinum. Sticker on those is ~125K plus dealer charges and taxes. Those were the first trucks built in the 2023 production run, and they sat on lots while us working types waited for Pro and XLT models. Not surprised they're still sitting at that price.

XLT with standard range battery has MSRP of 69K, extended range is an extra 16K.
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What are the current rebates on those? Still a federal and provincial rebate?
 
I enjoy the unbiased reporting here. Nice to hear from someone who actually owns a truck, drives that truck and is willing to post pros and cons. So much BS info out there from people who have never even tried out EV. Lots of negative urban myths, very little factual data. Refreshing to see some!
 
Bifmalibu said:
What are the current rebates on those? Still a federal and provincial rebate?
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Both govt rebates cap out at 70K, based on MSRP. They are approved model by model. My truck had a couple of options, (red colour and mobile charging cable) that took the price to 71K, but I got the rebates because XLT SR was on the list. But the extended range XLT is not, due to MSRP over 70K.

The govt quite reasonably assumes that people contemplating a pickup that costs >125K don't need a rebate to incentivise them.
 
For what it's worth, the top of the line F150 Limited, with all the same goodies found on the Lightning Platinum, has an MSRP of $109K. The trim levels don't properly align between gas F150 (6 trim levels) and Lightning (4 trims).
 
ziggy said:
I enjoy the unbiased reporting here. Nice to hear from someone who actually owns a truck, drives that truck and is willing to post pros and cons. So much BS info out there from people who have never even tried out EV. Lots of negative urban myths, very little factual data. Refreshing to see some!
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I’m sure horse and buggy aficionados had similar thoughts about the motor car
 
slabcity said:
For all who are wondering about towing…. This is a great article.

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Despite them being excellent tow vehicles, towing range is their weak point. EV pickups of 2023 aren't the right vehicles for regular long distance towing work, or for heavy rigs. If your boat/trailer combo requires you to have a three quarter or a one ton, keep it. All there is at the moment in EV trucks is half ton category, and some serious steps up in battery density and charge rates need to happen before heavy duty trucks will appear in the market.

Just don't make the mistake of dismissing EV trucks because of towing range alone. Lots of people will be fine with one, as their tows are only occasional, or short distance, or their trailer isn't very heavy or bulky (frontal area makes a huge difference). If we all used the one key weakness as the basis for our vehicle buying decisions, almost no one would be driving an ICE pickup in the city, because that is absolutely their worst use case.

If you need a truck for everyday stuff, but there's that one trip a year where you tow your boat to Alberni or Renfrew or Hardy or whatever, where does your balance point lie? Suck up the cost of running a gas pickup in the city 50 weeks a year because that one trip a year is critical and has to be smooth and fast? Or save several thousand dollars a year and take a couple extra hours on the drive to the fishing spot? There's no right or wrong answer here, we've all got different situations and priorities.
 
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