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Wednesday, February 12, 2025

AAA: Electrical Ford F-150 Lightning loses 24% vary in tow check


Whereas electrical pickup producers have gained over patrons with zero emissions, spectacular pace and low complete value of possession, it’s these towing and hauling capabilities that proceed to pull these new workhorses down.  

Oops! That could be the primary mistake. Can all-electric pickups be counted on as severe workhorses on par with inner combustion? In any case, electrical or not, vehicles will be known as upon to do truck issues like towing and hauling.

Laborious Working Vans printed towing check outcomes of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning which had been disappointing when it comes to vary depletion. The truck dealt with remarkably nicely being a heavier Class 2 truck (because of the porky battery), and acceleration was nice. However having 122 miles of vary to tow a 7,000-pound load following a full in a single day AC charging was removed from passable.

Now AAA has printed its findings on the payload functionality of the 2022 Lightning, and it’s not precisely one thing to cheer about.

After loading the truck mattress with 1,400 kilos of sandbags, 110 kilos shy of its most capability, AAA Automotive Engineering researchers found that Lightning’s vary dropped 24.5% from 278 to 210 miles.

“Our testing revealed a big vary discount, but it surely’s necessary to notice that the Lightning was loaded to close its most capability,” mentioned Greg Brannon, director of AAA Automotive Engineering. “Most patrons will probably use their Lightning with a lighter load, leading to a a lot smaller vary discount.”

AAA factors out that inner combustion vehicles additionally lose vary whereas hauling. Nevertheless, not like IC automobiles, which get higher gas economic system on the freeway, EVs really lose extra vary there versus metropolis driving the place slower speeds and regenerative braking result in improved power efficiency.

AAA additionally cautions fleets and work truck homeowners to take into account that gear racks, toolboxes and different work-related equipment will improve power use and proceed to chop into vary as a result of in any case you’re including to the car’s general weight.

Regardless of the vary challenges, AAA applauds EVs for requiring much less power to carry out a job than their IC counterparts and that battery expertise will proceed to enhance in order that vary turns into much less of a problem.

Within the meantime, they advise realizing full nicely your responsibility cycle calls for and to buy accordingly. As HWT identified in its Lightning evaluation, if the truck’s boundaries are revered, you’ll be able to have a way more highly effective pickup that shall be a lot cheaper to take care of.

The issue, after all, is discovering the additional time for charging. If I needed to journey 500 miles with that 7,000 load, I might have stopped 4 occasions for DC fast-charging. At 45 minutes per charging session to 90% state-of-charge, that may imply spending 180 minutes for charging. Even with a gas-hungry V8 half-ton stopping twice for fill-ups, that may quantity to roughly quarter-hour or so in gassing up for that very same journey. So…since time continues to be cash, electrical pickups nonetheless want quite a lot of assist in the battery division until you do not really want to tow or haul that a lot or that far. 

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