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56 Posts
Hello everybody!
Here's some of my observations of my initial 1700+ miles in my 2023 Lightning Pro with the SR battery.
I took delivery of the vehicle at the Dealership in Texas and drove it back to California. Average 90% charge yielded according to the BOM 140 miles of range.
The main challenge along the way was finding Electrify America stations. I had to change my mindset from "how many hours can I drive" to "how many miles do I have available for the next charging station"! But overall I was able to find EA charging station to make it across the long journey.
The sheer size of the Lightning presented an interesting dynamic when approaching a charger. Sometimes it was not possible to drive right up to a charging station. I have to park the vehicle at angle or on the side of the charger. I believe many of parking spaces at EA charging stations were designed for a little cars!
The only scary moment where somehow I went the wrong direction (probably had something to do with Day 2 exhaustion) to another EA charging Station (so I thought) and ended up at a Chargepoint level two charger at a state park! This through my schedule completely off because I ended up staying there for about five hours just to get enough range to make it back the other direction to the EA DC fast charger!
Despite the long drive, driving the pro was very comfortable! I did not feel fatigued as I would've expected driving a truck for several days.
The most challenging part was driving through New Mexico. There are very few charging stations in NM!
Once I reached Arizona, and then into California there was really a lot of EA stations.
EA stations throughout the trip were somewhat reliable - obviously I was able to make the whole trip... But they need a lot of love! EA customer service was not very good. If you had a question, you're gonna sit on hold for quite a while. EA stations some of them worked fine, others worked for a while and then one time out. Some of them worked fine with my Apple wallet others did not many of them I had to manually insert a card even though I have an EA account. I can say out of every EA station I went, there was a least one charger that worked! Which is all that matters when you're on the road with a EV!
In closing, I would say anyway who plans to make a long trip like this should plan out the route based on charger location and availability. Utilizing the Ford pass, Plug Share Electrify America, and Chargeway Apps are helpful, none of these will be guarantee chargers are available, or accessible. Prepare for diverting your route as needed exercise patience and a lot of common sense!! Overall it was a good trip - no problems from the vehicle whatsoever!
Here's some of my observations of my initial 1700+ miles in my 2023 Lightning Pro with the SR battery.
I took delivery of the vehicle at the Dealership in Texas and drove it back to California. Average 90% charge yielded according to the BOM 140 miles of range.
The main challenge along the way was finding Electrify America stations. I had to change my mindset from "how many hours can I drive" to "how many miles do I have available for the next charging station"! But overall I was able to find EA charging station to make it across the long journey.
The sheer size of the Lightning presented an interesting dynamic when approaching a charger. Sometimes it was not possible to drive right up to a charging station. I have to park the vehicle at angle or on the side of the charger. I believe many of parking spaces at EA charging stations were designed for a little cars!
The only scary moment where somehow I went the wrong direction (probably had something to do with Day 2 exhaustion) to another EA charging Station (so I thought) and ended up at a Chargepoint level two charger at a state park! This through my schedule completely off because I ended up staying there for about five hours just to get enough range to make it back the other direction to the EA DC fast charger!
Despite the long drive, driving the pro was very comfortable! I did not feel fatigued as I would've expected driving a truck for several days.
The most challenging part was driving through New Mexico. There are very few charging stations in NM!
Once I reached Arizona, and then into California there was really a lot of EA stations.
EA stations throughout the trip were somewhat reliable - obviously I was able to make the whole trip... But they need a lot of love! EA customer service was not very good. If you had a question, you're gonna sit on hold for quite a while. EA stations some of them worked fine, others worked for a while and then one time out. Some of them worked fine with my Apple wallet others did not many of them I had to manually insert a card even though I have an EA account. I can say out of every EA station I went, there was a least one charger that worked! Which is all that matters when you're on the road with a EV!
In closing, I would say anyway who plans to make a long trip like this should plan out the route based on charger location and availability. Utilizing the Ford pass, Plug Share Electrify America, and Chargeway Apps are helpful, none of these will be guarantee chargers are available, or accessible. Prepare for diverting your route as needed exercise patience and a lot of common sense!! Overall it was a good trip - no problems from the vehicle whatsoever!
