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

[cyure]

I had my first real roadtrip with DCFC experience on Sunday and thought I'd share the experience here.

I had to drive my sister and her daughter from their house in Western MA to the airport in Boston. The total trip to Boston then back to my house in Western MA is 263 miles and ABRP estimated that I could do it without any charging stops, and that I would have 34% battery left when I got home. In the interest of transparency, I'm not sure if I'm using ABRP correctly, so this could be a case of operator error.

I charged to 100% the night before and got to my sister's house with 98%. It's basically all downhill from my house to her house, so didn't use much range due to regen braking. Got on the highway and set the cruise control at 65. Made one pit stop along the way for a bathroom break. Temps were in the mid 30s.

When I got to the airport, they had one floor of the parking garage that had level 2 chargers you can plug into for free while at the airport. I was below 50% battery SOC when I got there. I think it was 47%. I was a little surprised it was that low. I helped my sister and her daughter bring their luggage into the airport and get situated to wait for their flight. I might have been there for 20-30 minutes, so didn't gain much from the level 2 charger, maybe 1%.

Got back on the highway and started heading home and realized that I was going to need to charge at some point. Not a big deal because there are options for charging along the Mass Pike. Some of the highway travel plazas have chargers, while others don't. I stopped at the first one and it had an Autel charger so I plugged in. It was only charging at 58 kW which is slow by DCFC standards but I was hungry and needed a bathroom break so I went inside and left it charging while I got some food and used the restroom. The truck was at 41% SOC when I plugged in. When I came back out about 15-20 minutes later, it was at 52%. I was trying to decide whether to sit there and continue charging at the slower rate or try to find a faster charger further along the route. I ended up staying long enough to charge to 60% then headed out to see if I could find something faster. Just after I left that charger, I drove into an ice storm with freezing rain, so temps were right around 32°. At another travel plaza a little further down the pike, there was another Autel charger that was 120 kW so I figured I would charge there. After trying numerous times to get the card reader to work, I had to give up and move on. I had enough of standing in the freezing rain fiddling with a broken, glitching card reader.

I ended up getting off the highway and plugging into some new Rivian chargers that were recently installed and that I had used once before. I had around 33% SOC when I plugged in, and I might have been able to get home without charging, but the last ~30 miles of the drive home are all uphill gaining about 1,000 feet of elevation. That combined with the weather conditions made me not want to chance it. I charged for about 17 minutes and got a maximum charge rate of 170 kW before it started dropping down. I had 76% SOC when I left, way more than I needed to get home. I was just being conservative because I'm still relatively new to EV ownership.

Thanks for that. What was your charge when you got home?

 

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I had my first real roadtrip with DCFC experience on Sunday and thought I'd share the experience here.

I had to drive my sister and her daughter from their house in Western MA to the airport in Boston. The total trip to Boston then back to my house in Western MA is 263 miles and ABRP estimated that I could do it without any charging stops, and that I would have 34% battery left when I got home. In the interest of transparency, I'm not sure if I'm using ABRP correctly, so this could be a case of operator error.

I charged to 100% the night before and got to my sister's house with 98%. It's basically all downhill from my house to her house, so didn't use much range due to regen braking. Got on the highway and set the cruise control at 65. Made one pit stop along the way for a bathroom break. Temps were in the mid 30s.

When I got to the airport, they had one floor of the parking garage that had level 2 chargers you can plug into for free while at the airport. I was below 50% battery SOC when I got there. I think it was 47%. I was a little surprised it was that low. I helped my sister and her daughter bring their luggage into the airport and get situated to wait for their flight. I might have been there for 20-30 minutes, so didn't gain much from the level 2 charger, maybe 1%.

Got back on the highway and started heading home and realized that I was going to need to charge at some point. Not a big deal because there are options for charging along the Mass Pike. Some of the highway travel plazas have chargers, while others don't. I stopped at the first one and it had an Autel charger so I plugged in. It was only charging at 58 kW which is slow by DCFC standards but I was hungry and needed a bathroom break so I went inside and left it charging while I got some food and used the restroom. The truck was at 41% SOC when I plugged in. When I came back out about 15-20 minutes later, it was at 52%. I was trying to decide whether to sit there and continue charging at the slower rate or try to find a faster charger further along the route. I ended up staying long enough to charge to 60% then headed out to see if I could find something faster. Just after I left that charger, I drove into an ice storm with freezing rain, so temps were right around 32°. At another travel plaza a little further down the pike, there was another Autel charger that was 120 kW so I figured I would charge there. After trying numerous times to get the card reader to work, I had to give up and move on. I had enough of standing in the freezing rain fiddling with a broken, glitching card reader.

I ended up getting off the highway and plugging into some new Rivian chargers that were recently installed and that I had used once before. I had around 33% SOC when I plugged in, and I might have been able to get home without charging, but the last ~30 miles of the drive home are all uphill gaining about 1,000 feet of elevation. That combined with the weather conditions made me not want to chance it. I charged for about 17 minutes and got a maximum charge rate of 170 kW before it started dropping down. I had 76% SOC when I left, way more than I needed to get home. I was just being conservative because I'm still relatively new to EV ownership.

I appreciate the info/story here. It’s a story like this that makes me never want to go full EV. The trouble with a charger and crappy winter conditions is just a deal breaker for me. At your first stop in a traditional vehicle you could have topped off the gas tank, get a snack, pee, and get home. The second stop wouldn’t have been necessary unless you just wanted to stretch your legs.

I know I’m in the minority on this forum, and I try to respond without sounding like I’m against a full on EV vehicle. I just simply don’t trust the infrastructure at this time to invest in an EV of any sort. The Harvester puts me at ease because I know if I can’t charge, I can still get gas and keep moving along.

 

[cyure]

I appreciate the info/story here. It’s a story like this that makes me never want to go full EV. The trouble with a charger and crappy winter conditions is just a deal breaker for me. At your first stop in a traditional vehicle you could have topped off the gas tank, get a snack, pee, and get home. The second stop wouldn’t have been necessary unless you just wanted to stretch your legs.

I know I’m in the minority on this forum, and I try to respond without sounding like I’m against a full on EV vehicle. I just simply don’t trust the infrastructure at this time to invest in an EV of any sort. The Harvester puts me at ease because I know if I can’t charge, I can still get gas and keep moving along.

This is why I’m glad they have both.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I had my first real roadtrip with DCFC experience on Sunday and thought I'd share the experience here.

I had to drive my sister and her daughter from their house in Western MA to the airport in Boston. The total trip to Boston then back to my house in Western MA is 263 miles and ABRP estimated that I could do it without any charging stops, and that I would have 34% battery left when I got home. In the interest of transparency, I'm not sure if I'm using ABRP correctly, so this could be a case of operator error.

I charged to 100% the night before and got to my sister's house with 98%. It's basically all downhill from my house to her house, so didn't use much range due to regen braking. Got on the highway and set the cruise control at 65. Made one pit stop along the way for a bathroom break. Temps were in the mid 30s.

When I got to the airport, they had one floor of the parking garage that had level 2 chargers you can plug into for free while at the airport. I was below 50% battery SOC when I got there. I think it was 47%. I was a little surprised it was that low. I helped my sister and her daughter bring their luggage into the airport and get situated to wait for their flight. I might have been there for 20-30 minutes, so didn't gain much from the level 2 charger, maybe 1%.

Got back on the highway and started heading home and realized that I was going to need to charge at some point. Not a big deal because there are options for charging along the Mass Pike. Some of the highway travel plazas have chargers, while others don't. I stopped at the first one and it had an Autel charger so I plugged in. It was only charging at 58 kW which is slow by DCFC standards but I was hungry and needed a bathroom break so I went inside and left it charging while I got some food and used the restroom. The truck was at 41% SOC when I plugged in. When I came back out about 15-20 minutes later, it was at 52%. I was trying to decide whether to sit there and continue charging at the slower rate or try to find a faster charger further along the route. I ended up staying long enough to charge to 60% then headed out to see if I could find something faster. Just after I left that charger, I drove into an ice storm with freezing rain, so temps were right around 32°. At another travel plaza a little further down the pike, there was another Autel charger that was 120 kW so I figured I would charge there. After trying numerous times to get the card reader to work, I had to give up and move on. I had enough of standing in the freezing rain fiddling with a broken, glitching card reader.

I ended up getting off the highway and plugging into some new Rivian chargers that were recently installed and that I had used once before. I had around 33% SOC when I plugged in, and I might have been able to get home without charging, but the last ~30 miles of the drive home are all uphill gaining about 1,000 feet of elevation. That combined with the weather conditions made me not want to chance it. I charged for about 17 minutes and got a maximum charge rate of 170 kW before it started dropping down. I had 76% SOC when I left, way more than I needed to get home. I was just being conservative because I'm still relatively new to EV ownership.

I generally don’t trust ABRP. It’s especially unreliable when weather is involved.

Our very first long road trip in the Mustang Mach-E was similarly stressful.

We drove from northern AZ to Los Angeles, about 500 miles one way.
The trip began in a snow storm.
We came down off the mountain into warmer conditions.
We made it to our first stop with a fine state of charge, our predicted range was good, and it was warm, but a bit breezy.
We charged to 80%.
When we headed out, we climbed up out of the valley and back into the mountains, still no rain or snow, but the winds picked up.
Then we hit the Santa Ana winds, regular wind speeds of 45 mph and gusts much higher. We were getting 1.7 miles/kWh and decided to slow down. We made it to the next charger with 17% and 41 miles of estimated range.

That mostly cured us of our range anxiety.