EVs are like snowflakes; no two are identical. That’s why we’ve been subjecting our electric yearlong test vehicles to a run-out-of-battery test. Ouris our sixth such test, so we reckoned that by heeding lessons learned and starting from a lower state of charge, we could easily knock this one out in a morning with proper planning. Not quite.
Most EVs give drivers ample warning when the juice starts to run low, but these don’t make for compelling photos, so we made note of them as they happened. The Ford's first “Driving Range Low” warning appears with 50 miles remaining, and it recommended reducing our HVAC use to extend range at 22. We arrived at the office on the morning of the test with 9 miles of remaining range showing and the cabin warmed up.
In anticipation of needing an imminent tow, we drove the Lightning in an open, unused area of the parking lot, and were able to shift to neutral and let the truck roll backward, steering out of the lane of travel, then we put it in park and switched everything off, after retrieving items in the power-operated frunk. We opened our FordPass app and quickly requested an EV Charging tow at 10:33 am.
We chose the DC fast charger nearest our office, a brand-new bank of EVgo units ranging from 100 to 350 kW. Our driver did an amazing job of dropping the truck right next to the charger, 90 degrees from the direction his truck was pointed. We plugged in, saw the communication initiate, inserted our credit card, waved goodbye to our driver, and then … nothing. We disconnected, reconnected, and reinserted the card multiple times before calling EVgo support.
Australia Australia Latest News, Australia Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Bonkers Ford F-150 Lightning Race Truck to Strike Pikes Peak HillclimbThe F-150 Lightning 'demonstrator vehicle' follows the Ford electric SuperVan effort from last year.
Source: MotorTrend - 🏆 230. / 63 Read more »