I tried charging a Ford F150 Lightning at a Tesla supercharger station — and it didn't go as planned

[admin]

I got the chance to charge a Ford F150 Lightning at a Tesla Supercharger station with the help of an adapter that Ford's providing to eligible owners. It opens up more access to charging locations nationwide when you're in a pinch.

I tried charging a Ford F150 Lightning at a Tesla supercharger station — and it didn't go as planned : Read more

 

[timhood]

Thanks for a realistic depiction of the process. Too often have I read EV fanboys pretend like there are absolutely no issues with which to contend when owning and operating an EV. One one side, you have the EV evangelists painting a rose-colored picture and on the other you have ICE nuts making EVs out to be a scourge to society. In the middle are everyday people wanting to understand the true ownership experience to make an informed decision.

At $20 for less than 20% charge, it's clear that public charging should be reserved for absolute necessity, such as on a road trip. That $100 per "tank" is more than the cost of gasoline that would have netted a greater range. I would hope that most people would understand that charging at home during the lowest rate periods would yield the lowest cost of electricity unless one is lucky to find a rare charging station that offers free charging. (Where those exist, they usually charge at a much lower rate, and are most often provided as a means of gaining business while giving up little in hard-dollar cost.)

 

[JewelMcChanger]

Forgive me but who goes to a supercharger to go from 70% to whatever… I don’t think that’s a reasonable test.

Tesla cars are optimized to go from 20% to 80% as fast as possible without hurting the batteries.

Are there enough chargers? Of course not. But Tesla saved its competitors by opening up its superchargers that have a REPUTATION of being highly reliable.

Everything you need to know about Tesla can be seen at its chargers. They even look beautiful, their competitors do not.

 

[DarrenTX]

Ridiculous hit piece. Nobody starts a supercharge above 70%. Everyone knows it charges faster and cheaper from 0-50% than 50-100%. I've never spent more than $20 for a full charge at a supercharger in Texas. Been as low as 4% to 99%. Even that tops out at 45 mins. It's most efficient to charge from about 10% to 70% in less than 20 mins and then just hit another charger in 150 miles or something, which is what I usually do on road trips. If there's anything to blame, it's on Ford for not pre-heating the battery or not capable of inputting the full power.

Starting to see cyber trucks and haven't seen them have any issues parking between the lines. Sure, the cables are short, but they were designed for Teslas. Now I see a lot of side, pull forward chargers for cyber trucks.

 

[justogabriel]

This article was such nonsense clickbait that I created an account to reply... "did not go as planned" Yeah, anyone with more than 5 minutes to spare know the Issues non Tesla drivers have, specially large vehicles due to space requirements... it did not go as planned because you DID NOT Plan... That is like renting a F250 Diesel, not planning and stooping at a gas station that do not have diesel and saying is the truck's fault you could not fill up there!
Then there is the Charging...at 71% the battery is near the top of the charging curve, your charging "math" makes ZERO sense. I can charge my EV9 (99KW Battery) from 10 to 82% in 27 minutes... again, with spare 5 minutes you can see many influencers charging F150's at Superchargers in around 35-45 minutes till 80-85%
I would rather read some AI article after reading this nonsense.

 

[mlhutche]

I got the chance to charge a Ford F150 Lightning at a Tesla Supercharger station with the help of an adapter that Ford's providing to eligible owners. It opens up more access to charging locations nationwide when you're in a pinch.

I tried charging a Ford F150 Lightning at a Tesla supercharger station — and it didn't go as planned : Read more

At 48 cents per kwh 100 miles for a lightning costs about $24 and a gas F-150 Supercrew 4wd costs about $18 for 100 miles. Tesla cost would be about 39 cents per kwh, so about $19, slightly more than gas. Charging at home averages about 13 cents, so about 1/3 the cost of the gas F-150.
Easily available facts. Why do you people talk about percent of charge - silly.
Agree that charging is best done from low charge (10-20%) for 15-30 minutes to get the most miles of range per minute. Only charge to a higher percent if you have a specific need or have a good book to read because it slows down for all BEV.

 

[john_velasco]

Thanks for a realistic depiction of the process. Too often have I read EV fanboys pretend like there are absolutely no issues with which to contend when owning and operating an EV. One one side, you have the EV evangelists painting a rose-colored picture and on the other you have ICE nuts making EVs out to be a scourge to society. In the middle are everyday people wanting to understand the true ownership experience to make an informed decision.

At $20 for less than 20% charge, it's clear that public charging should be reserved for absolute necessity, such as on a road trip. That $100 per "tank" is more than the cost of gasoline that would have netted a greater range. I would hope that most people would understand that charging at home during the lowest rate periods would yield the lowest cost of electricity unless one is lucky to find a rare charging station that offers free charging. (Where those exist, they usually charge at a much lower rate, and are most often provided as a means of gaining business while giving up little in hard-dollar cost.)

Thanks! I'm all for sustainable solutions, but I need something practical that won't hit my wallet too much. I don't think EVs are worth it if you're main use for them are long distance driving. However, I were ever to buy one, you can bet it'd be a second car to an existing gas one -- and I'd only probably ever charge it at home.

 

[john_velasco]

Forgive me but who goes to a supercharger to go from 70% to whatever… I don’t think that’s a reasonable test.

Tesla cars are optimized to go from 20% to 80% as fast as possible without hurting the batteries.

Are there enough chargers? Of course not. But Tesla saved its competitors by opening up its superchargers that have a REPUTATION of being highly reliable.

Everything you need to know about Tesla can be seen at its chargers. They even look beautiful, their competitors do not.

I think this is the thing that first time EV drivers need to know more about, like how there's better charging efficiency when you're charging at a low level versus high. I will write another story about it.

 

[waterrockets]

Ridiculous hit piece. Nobody starts a supercharge above 70%. Everyone knows it charges faster and cheaper from 0-50% than 50-100%. I've never spent more than $20 for a full charge at a supercharger in Texas. Been as low as 4% to 99%. Even that tops out at 45 mins. It's most efficient to charge from about 10% to 70% in less than 20 mins and then just hit another charger in 150 miles or something, which is what I usually do on road trips. If there's anything to blame, it's on Ford for not pre-heating the battery or not capable of inputting the full power.

Starting to see cyber trucks and haven't seen them have any issues parking between the lines. Sure, the cables are short, but they were designed for Teslas. Now I see a lot of side, pull forward chargers for cyber trucks.

FWIW, we visited our daughter in College Station, super-charged when we got there, and at the end of the weekend, we were at 70%, and decided to top off before heading back to Austin, and did so at the HEB supercharger.

Of note though -> with preconditioning, we were charging at 450 mph that day (I've seen 610mph), and the Lightning was only 112mph in the article. The Lightning must be limited in some way.