Besides towing the F-150 Lightning, I also wanted to see how good the electric pickup would be for road trips. So I planned a trip from New York to Detroit. And by planned, I mean I put the trip in Google Maps and made sure there were Electrify America (EA) stops along the way. Could it be that simple?
In short? Yes, mostly. But let’s check the details because that’s where the devil is.
Thus, traveling from New York to Detroit is done primarily on Interstate 80 through Pennsylvania and Ohio. Luckily, I’m from outside Cleveland and there was a Yankees/Guardians playoff game and a visit to my family to break up the trip for a bit. But if I went straight, this is what it would look like:
A better route planner (ABRP) shows the following route for the 625 mile trip:
Stops are 100-150 miles apart and each takes less than 30 minutes to load. Normally this would be the start and end of my route planning, but I know a lot of people are a little wary of long-distance EV travel and might want to think about backups.
Plus, Ford vehicles have Plug and Charge on Electrify America so you don’t have to worry about apps or a credit card. You just plug it in and it starts charging about 20 seconds later, more or less.
In the unlikely event that one of the chargers fails, Plugshare shows a ton of options during the first third of the trip and the last third, but only a few fast chargers in the eastern two-thirds of Pennsylvania.
I should have paid more attention to this board, not because none of the chargers were in working order but because it presented me with an option (Clarion Walmart 150kW EA station at the radius line) which would have allowed me to miss a stop and get to my destination faster. ABRP was good, not great for planning this route.
Ford has a built-in charger map which was good for finding nearby charging stations, but not as good for tracing chargers along a route.
Ford F-150 Lightning aerodynamics
As I was going on a road trip, I thought I could go a little faster if I made the vehicle a little more aerodynamic. A pickup without a tonneau cover is about as bad as it gets with vehicle aerodynamics, and I figured I could save some valuable time (shorter loader stops, much faster driving) if I added one. Ford obliged me, and Pleasantville Ford had a vinyl one installed during a lunch break. They also had the exact vehicle I was driving in the center of the showroom and apparently they were selling quite a few. (See photo above.)
The F-150 Lightning is also a huge vehicle. Here it is compared to my Model 3 and my garage. For the record, I would never buy one for road trips or commuting or anything other than as a work truck. But they’re the best-selling vehicles in the United States, and I don’t think a lot of people use them just for work.
Road trip with the Ford F-150 Lightning
I left home fully charged with about 284 miles showing on the F-150 Lightning and about 150 miles to the first charge point in Bloomsburg PA. I drove around 65-75 mph the whole way and was getting pretty similar, albeit slightly worse, than expected. I was lucky enough to use Blue Cruise and it worked great.
Blue Cruise in the F-150 lets you take your hands off the wheel in interstate driving situations, and it felt like Chevy’s Supercruise – like you’re a passenger in the car – as long as you keep your eyes on the road. There is a slight side-to-side bouncing in the lanes that sometimes occurs, especially on poorly painted roads. Overall, it was right up there with GM’s Supercruise in terms of a hands-off autopilot experience. Switching podcasts on CarPlay or finding a snack in my bag is super easy during Blue Cruise.
I have been to Bloomsburg PA before because there is a Tesla charger at Ruby Tuesday just off the highway. Unfortunately, the EA station was over two miles from the freeway on a surface street parallel to the freeway.
Fortunately, however, it’s located in a Sheetz next to an Arby’s, so dinner was in progress. I arrived with over a third of a full charge and probably could have safely walked another 80 miles. I initially got a 167kW load which increased to nearly 180kW.
I only stayed at the station for about 22 minutes, which was enough time to get a sandwich in myself and enough charging in the Lightning until the next charging station in Dubois, PA.
It was a mistake.
If I had stayed 10-15 minutes longer I could have easily gotten to another 150kW Walmart in Clarion, PA and could have gotten to Akron, Ohio easily from of the. I think ABRP made me go to the previous station because it was a 350kW. But in reality, a 150kW station would have given me 90% of the speed I was seeing at the two 350kW stations. Lesson learned.
I saw a slightly faster speed at the DuBois Walmart (which was also a few miles off the freeway), exceeding the 180-190kW range. I stayed there for almost half an hour.
I then had to stop at the Sheetz EA in Youngstown to top it off. From there, I only needed about 10 minutes of charging to arrive at my destination in Akron where a Level 2 overnight charge was waiting for me.
Here I had the only EA flaw of the trip. (See below.) I actually didn’t have to move the F-150, just grab a plug from a nearby charging port and bring it. Back to business.
Generally speaking the EA stations were pretty consistent, and I would see around 170-180kW to start, around 133kW at 50% state of charge and up to around 115kW at 70% state of charge . I never really needed to stay longer than 30 minutes.
Interestingly, the hotel I stayed at had another load of F-150 Lightning where mine was. It was a rare Pro trim and the first I’ve seen in the wild.
For the record, we took my mom’s Chevy Bolt to downtown Cleveland to watch the game (Cleveland won with a walk-off – woo) because I didn’t want to have to park the F-150, even though I probably could have.
The next day I left Akron with a full charge and drove 140 miles towards Detroit. I could have easily done the whole trip, but I wanted to have towing costs the next morning, so I filled up outside of Toledo.
Electrek’s point of view
Yes, you can absolutely take an F-150 Lightning on a trip.
Is the Lightning the best vehicle for cross-country travel? No. If I was driving a Kia EV6 or a Model 3, the charging stops would have been half as long. It would have taken half the energy.
But it was a good experience and will improve as EA and other charging companies close these gaps and make selecting a charging stop the same as selecting a station -service.
When it comes to chargers, EA with Plug and Charge is as easy as a Tesla, and in many cases just as fast. I would have liked Chargers closer to the freeway, but we’ll get there.
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