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Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

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Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#21

The reason we ended up with a Tesla, instead of a Kona electric, or any other EV, is the charging network. Where do you charge this thing and how long does it take? “You can only charge at home” doesn’t work for everyone. Maybe it does for this market though?

I have an EV and charging at home (even at level 1) is totally fine for me 99% of the time… when it’s not, I’m not far from a charger… the network was already larger than I expected when I researched my purchase and it’s getting bigger all the time (https://www.plugshare.com/)

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#22
I have to give Ford credit. I thought it was a mistake to make EV for its well-loved and respected product line (Mustang & F150) instead of striking out on a new product line. So far, the Mach-E has rave reviews, it seems F150 will as well. It actually looks like Ford has a strategy for once.

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#23
post #22

I have to give Ford credit. I thought it was a mistake to make EV for its well-loved and respected product line (Mustang & F150) instead of striking out on a new product line. So far, the Mach-E has rave reviews, it seems F150 will as well. It actually looks like Ford has a strategy for once.

>the Mach-E has rave reviews,

Lots of things get rave reviews but don't sell very well (or vise versa).

>It actually looks like Ford has a strategy for once.

Last time they had a strategy it was their "global Ford" shtick from the 90s an '00s. That didn't turn out well. They spent the 90s killing or not developing product lines that turned out to be what '00s consumers wanted and spent the '00s playing catch up.

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#24

This is needed ASAP to help the ice>ev transition speed up. Automakers should work together and just support Tesla charging stations. This would benefit everyone.

Everyone else is working together. They're using CCS. Even Nissan has switched to CCS. The only laggard at this point is Tesla.

Tesla switched to CCS in Europe. When will they switch to CCS in North America?

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#25

The reason we ended up with a Tesla, instead of a Kona electric, or any other EV, is the charging network. Where do you charge this thing and how long does it take? “You can only charge at home” doesn’t work for everyone. Maybe it does for this market though?

You can charge it at 4,375 CCS charging locations in North America:

https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_locations.html

New CCS charging sites are being added every week. Electrify America and Petro-Canada both have transcontinental CCS charging networks.

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#26

Anything less than a 500 mile range makes this a nonstarter compared to ICE models. Although from what I've read elsewhere they are putting nearly a ton (1800 pounds) of batteries in the thing. There are people who use trucks as commuters, but there are also people that are on the road or out in the puckerbrush actually working out of them. Charging infrastructure is not good, and not likely to get better overnight.…

Statistically nobody is buying a Lightening (or Raptor, or anything similiar) as a work truck.

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#27

The reason we ended up with a Tesla, instead of a Kona electric, or any other EV, is the charging network. Where do you charge this thing and how long does it take? “You can only charge at home” doesn’t work for everyone. Maybe it does for this market though?

Ford has an agreement with Electrify America (built by VW using diesel-gate penalty funds [0]). By most accounts I've read, using it is relatively frictionless with the FordPass app [1]. The annoying part seems to be finding a station that has the right plug.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/10/vws-2-billion-penalty-for-di...

[1] https://owner.ford.com/fordpass/fordpass-electric-vehicle-fe...

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully manufacturers can start selling direct to consumers, versus having to go through a dealer (varies state to state). That would take out the middleman. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/competition-matters/20...

I don’t think the legacy automakers can. They are in too deep with dealers. Up to a new wave of automakers to take over.

In most states it's illegal

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#29

Looks like roughly 130kwh battery for 230 miles and 180kwh for 300 miles. Large battery is 1800lbs, about twice the size and weight of a Model 3 battery. Towing range is always a problem with BEV's, to get good range they they usually focus on aerodynamics and rolling resistance which towing completely destroys. Estimates are it will be under 100 miles range towing its maximum of 10,000lbs with the big battery. Start…

I think that 1800lbs is actually the weight capacity of the truck if I'm reading the article correctly.

I'm trying to find the mass of the battery to compare the energy density to the Tesla battery packs

Re: Ford unveils the F-150 Lightning, its all-electric pickup truck

#30

Looks like roughly 130kwh battery for 230 miles and 180kwh for 300 miles. Large battery is 1800lbs, about twice the size and weight of a Model 3 battery. Towing range is always a problem with BEV's, to get good range they they usually focus on aerodynamics and rolling resistance which towing completely destroys. Estimates are it will be under 100 miles range towing its maximum of 10,000lbs with the big battery. Start…

I think that 1800lbs is actually the weight capacity of the truck if I'm reading the article correctly. I'm trying to find the mass of the battery to compare the energy density to the Tesla battery packs

"The batteries alone weigh about 1,800 pounds, Ford officials told President Joe Biden during a tour of the Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan, where the truck will be assembled."

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-ford-f-150-lightning-el...

The cargo capacity also happens to be 1800 lbs with the large battery and 2000 lbs with the smaller battery.

They mentioned using less cobalt so it may not be as energy dense as top of the line NMC cells. The lithium iron Tesla packs are 20% less dense than the cobalt ones.

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