What's it like to take a road trip in a truck like the Terra (F-150 Lightning)?

[SpaceEVDriver]

Charging time can slow with extreme cold or heat. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but extreme cold affects the battery and extreme heat affects the charger/cable as it relates to charge speed.

Extreme cold can also impact the coolant in some chargers causing them to have to spend a fair amount of their energy warming the coolant before it can produce a reasonable amount of power. But thats North Dakota in the dead of winter in the dead of night extreme cold, not Sierra Nevadas in the summer cool. The extreme heat can also cause the EV battery to need cooling so the heat pump runs, which lowers the power to the battery.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Took another road trip for the weekend. Total round trip distance was 588 miles, 294 each way.

Started in the Flagstaff, AZ at 99%. I had to run a quick errand before we left and didn’t bother to recharge.

We started at ~7000 ft as usual. We climbed a total of 15,207 feet and lost 16,006 feet, for an elevation loss of 799 feet. But some of those climbs were pretty steep.

According to Google, the drive is about 5 hours. We did it in 5.5 hours.

We stopped for lunch in Kanab for 30 minutes and plugged into a 50 kW (relatively slow) DCFC in the center of town. That gave us 24 kWh, bringing us from 48% to 67%. We didn’t need the charge, but the phrase, “always be charging” is a good one to toss into your lexicon. If you have the opportunity, it’s not blocking someone else from an emergency charge, and it’s worth the cost, always plug in to charge.

To get to Kanab, we used 99%-48% = 51%, or ~66 kWh. For the ~202 miles, that’s ~3 miles/kWh. The highway, 89/89A, is a 65 mph speed limit highway, with some slower sections; the total drive time was 3 hours (traffic sometimes demands a bit higher speeds than the limit). It’s also a lot of elevation loss and gain. Lower drag due to lower speeds beats out elevation gain.

Going to a bit north of Cedar City involved a climb over the mountains, hitting about 9900 feet elevation. That 92 mile drive required about 24% of the battery (31 kWh), for an efficiency of ~3 miles/kWh. It’s amazing how going slow saves a ton of energy. The speed limit on most of that road was, again, 65 mph, with several sections much slower. The total time it took to drive this section was 2 hours.

Total efficiency was (294 miles / 97 kWh) ~= 3 miles/kWh.

The drive back was the same drive run the opposite direction. We had more wind going back, my partner drove because I was ill, and she likes to drive a bit faster, and our total elevation change was positive rather than negative. On the way back, we used almost exactly 100% of the battery, 130 kWh. That gave us an overall efficiency of 2.2 miles/kWh.

For the total drive of 588 miles, we used 223 kWh for 2.6 miles/kWh average. That’s a fair amount over the EPA estimated range of 320 miles on a full battery. At 2.6 miles/kWh, we get about 346 miles range.

 

[dreamweaver]

Took another road trip for the weekend. Total round trip distance was 588 miles, 294 each way.

Started in the Flagstaff, AZ at 99%. I had to run a quick errand before we left and didn’t bother to recharge.

We started at ~7000 ft as usual. We climbed a total of 15,207 feet and lost 16,006 feet, for an elevation loss of 799 feet. But some of those climbs were pretty steep.

According to Google, the drive is about 5 hours. We did it in 5.5 hours.

We stopped for lunch in Kanab for 30 minutes and plugged into a 50 kW (relatively slow) DCFC in the center of town. That gave us 24 kWh, bringing us from 48% to 67%. We didn’t need the charge, but the phrase, “always be charging” is a good one to toss into your lexicon. If you have the opportunity, it’s not blocking someone else from an emergency charge, and it’s worth the cost, always plug in to charge.

To get to Kanab, we used 99%-48% = 51%, or ~66 kWh. For the ~202 miles, that’s ~3 miles/kWh. The highway, 89/89A, is a 65 mph speed limit highway, with some slower sections; the total drive time was 3 hours (traffic sometimes demands a bit higher speeds than the limit). It’s also a lot of elevation loss and gain. Lower drag due to lower speeds beats out elevation gain.

Going to a bit north of Cedar City involved a climb over the mountains, hitting about 9900 feet elevation. That 92 mile drive required about 24% of the battery (31 kWh), for an efficiency of ~3 miles/kWh. It’s amazing how going slow saves a ton of energy. The speed limit on most of that road was, again, 65 mph, with several sections much slower. The total time it took to drive this section was 2 hours.

Total efficiency was (294 miles / 97 kWh) ~= 3 miles/kWh.

The drive back was the same drive run the opposite direction. We had more wind going back, my partner drove because I was ill, and she likes to drive a bit faster, and our total elevation change was positive rather than negative. On the way back, we used almost exactly 100% of the battery, 130 kWh. That gave us an overall efficiency of 2.2 miles/kWh.

For the total drive of 588 miles, we used 223 kWh for 2.6 miles/kWh average. That’s a fair amount over the EPA estimated range of 320 miles on a full battery. At 2.6 miles/kWh, we get about 346 miles range.

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These real world driving experiences are great. Thanks posting.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I forgot to mention that while in Cedar City, we plugged into the airbnb wall and did a level 1 charge from 42% to 100%. Yes, it took 65 hours, but we were visiting family and most of the time was spent hanging out by the pool. If necessary, we could have gone to a DCFC to recharge.

 

[J Alynn]

I forgot to mention that while in Cedar City, we plugged into the airbnb wall and did a level 1 charge from 42% to 100%. Yes, it took 65 hours, but we were visiting family and most of the time was spent hanging out by the pool. If necessary, we could have gone to a DCFC to recharge.

Great to know people actually can do it and telling your story helps us EV newbies to better understand