Posted on 10/07/2022 10:50:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
Two journalists with TFLEV decided to drive the Ford 150 Lightning EV truck from the lower 48 states to Alaska and learned some of the recharging challenges they would face.
Having made that drive from Pennsylvania to Fairbanks in 2013, I can tell you it certainly required some planning driving a gas-powered SUV, much less an electric truck.
The towns and gas stations once you get north of Whistler, British Columbia, become more and more sparse and when you hit the Yukon Territory, there’s Whitehorse — a nice little city — and not much else to the Alaska border.
Things may have changed in the last nine years, but you really had to be careful about filling up your gas tank when you had the chance.
Making the trip in an EV truck takes a lot more planning.
Tom and Andre with TFLEV realized finding charging stations along the way would be spotty, so they wanted to see how long it would take to charge their F-150 at a campground.
They stopped at Carter Lake, outside of Loveland, Colorado, and rented a campsite. The site included a standard 120-volt outlet — Level 1 in EV parlance — as well as a larger 240-volt option used by recreational vehicles and fifth-wheel trailers to run air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.
What Tom and Andre found when they hooked into a standard 120 outlet, it would take them from Wednesday night until Monday morning — about 5 days — to get the truck fully charged, with their battery starting at 22 percent.
The pair then plugged into the 240 volt — Level 2. The result was much better, but it was still going to take about 14 hours to get to a full charge.
The standard range on an F-150 Lightning is 240 miles and depending on the terrain, the truck load and other factors, can be significantly less.
So finding a fast charging station or a Level 2 option is really the only realistic way to make a trip of any distance beyond the initial charge much less to Alaska.
Tom and Andre noted there is potentially an ethical dilemma to charging one’s EV truck at a campground.
“You have a big battery, a big vehicle and if every spot had an electric vehicle all drawing energy that the price of energy would go up,” Andre pointed out.
Related: Waukesha Christmas Parade Suspect Gets Brutal Dose of Reality from His Own Mom The price of the camping space was only $35.
In other words, the EV charging person is benefitting from most people using far less electricity while they camp.
The gas-powered folks are in effect subsidizing the EV campers.
Depending on the charging station, “filling up” an EV Hummer, for example, can cost up to $100, Car and Driver reported in August.
By comparison, charging the vehicle at home would be about $35.
The F-150 Lightning also has an issue when it comes to towing: the range gets cut significantly. Likely all EVs have this problem.
Automobile commentator Tyler “Hoovie” Hoover drove his F-150 Lightning 32 miles with an empty trailer. He then loaded up a 1930 Ford Model A and drove it back.
Upon simply hitching up the empty aluminum trailer and driving roughly one-quarter mile out of his neighborhood, the EV had already used up 3 miles of range.
By the time Hoover traversed the first 32 miles, the Ford had lost 68 miles of range. As you might imagine, once he loaded up the Model A truck, the battery’s juice really dived.
Despite having the EV charged for 200 miles of range at the start of the 64-mile trip, by the time he returned with his Model A truck in tow, only 50 miles of range remained.
“Are you kidding me? That’s almost 90 miles of range in 30 miles. Are you serious,” Hoover reacted.
“That’s nuts. What a joke,” Hoover added as he laughed.
Well, EVs are clearly a newish technology and no doubt things will continue to improve.
Perhaps solar panels will be integrated into them one day to allow at least partial charging while the driver is out and about.
But for now, EVs definitely have their limitations.
I would not want to drive one to Alaska!
And 5 days to put it out if it catches on fire. kekw /s
Yeah, they'll improve 0.1% per year for a few years and hit the inevitable battery plateau. The billions of R&D yielding 0.1% annual improvement used to be called the "law of diminishing returns." But Biden is going to sign an EO outlawing that primitive concept.
Let’s add to that. They won’t have any power to their RV for 5 days either.
“Having made that drive from Pennsylvania to Fairbanks in 2013”
That’s the point. You wandered off the manor without your lord’s permission (lord in small letters, not as in God).
The mobility of the peasantry must be ensured to achieve our neo-feudalistic society, the only way possible to ensure the planet doesn’t reach auto-ignition temperature (sarcasm).
Hoovies vid has gone vital.
Good for him.
Bet them folks in FLA are wishing they had a Ford lightening to power up their house like the ads show. For how long? When will the AAA battery charging truck be stopping by? Oh, right before the fire trucks?
Maybe we can add some more power loss steps to make it look more magic.
this is all moot
once they go all “green energy” electricity will be so expensive
only the rich and powerful will be able to afford personal transportation
the masses will be on the bus worried about whether they can afford to heat their home
IMO EVs are generally a bad idea. In some uses, an EV is not as bad an idea (urban commuting) than in others but EV trucks don’t make sense to me at all. An fully-changed EV truck can handle a huge load because of the massive torque the electric engine produces but the massive energy draw will so quickly deplete the battery that the truck is not feasible for moderate or long hauls. Kind of kills the utility of a work truck when one its primary purposes is so compromised.
And the brain-dead libs in my family would say “That’s why the feds need to build more charging stations.”
A simple solution for maroons.
Facepalm....
Look at the bright side, you get 5 days to show off your truck to everyone at the campground.
Sounds like a ‘plan’....................🤔
Won’t be long, as the Biden admin is considering banning oil drilling on all federal lands and offshore.
Expect oil drilling of any sort to be completely banned in the US by the time Biden ends his first term. Expect use of any oil derived product to be illegal by the end of his second term. And in his third ...
🤦♂️🤦♀️🤷♂️🤷♀️🤔..............................
I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.
Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again.
I would be worried about an EV in a campground catching fire and burning down a forest.
Using lib logic the answer is simple, we need a bigger sun.
Yep! That’s about it.
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