CT range be better than F150 Lightning owners' reports

[Crissa]

Yep. Says it'll snow amongst the rain at my mom's place when I'm up there this week.

I mean, it's not unusual to get a little sleet in November, but sheesh. Election day is going to be weird.

-Crissa

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[BillyGee]

Range always decreases in towing or cold, even with Internal Combustion engines. The only benefit ICE has is it creates waste heat we use to keep us warm.

As far as Cybertruck goes, expect a towing/cold weather loss. How much it will be is unknown for now. Just don’t give up your dreams or your reservation.

My model y definitely has a loss in cold weather and when it's loaded down, but it's not massively substantial. Over long distances it'll add up, but I have no metrics on laden weight and efficiency.

Note, this is 45,522 miles of data compiled by Tessie.

 

[Cybertruckee]

Give me a number, lol. I'm open to an attractive offer.

Got two texts and emails from Ford corporate to make my order (although I told my dealer to put me at the end of the queue to year-end 2023). Ford corporate and my dealer does not seem coordinated.

 

[Cybertruckee]

Yep. Says it'll snow amongst the rain at my mom's place when I'm up there this week.

I mean, it's not unusual to get a little sleet in November, but sheesh. Election day is going to be weird.

-Crissa

Which is mom's place up to you?

We got snow today and long termer say it's a bit early.

We were in Mammoth Lakes last week and they say snow is late.

Talk crazy, lol.

And I'll be humping the nasty Donner Pass/Truckee in 10-feet of snow piled along the sides of the freeways with trailer. Yosemite and Lake Tahoe are my favorite place on earth and so beautiful and less crowded in winter, so you'll understand my obsession with the topic, lol.

 

[Crissa]

Which is mom's place up to you?

We got snow today and long termer say it's a bit early.

We were in Mammoth Lakes last week and they say snow is late.

Talk crazy, lol.

And I'll be humping the nasty Donner Pass/Truckee in 10-feet of snow piled along the sides of the freeways with trailer. Yosemite and Lake Tahoe are my favorite place on earth and so beautiful and less crowded in winter, so you'll understand my obsession with the topic, lol.

Ogre lives near Eugene, my mom near Portland. Both are 'up there' from Santa Cruz ^-^

When I get back I'll swap the winter tires on for the holidays. I'll be going through the passes instead of flying, and the weather has decided to be decidedly wintery so...

-Crissa

 

[Cybertruckee]

Ogre lives near Eugene, my mom near Portland. Both are 'up there' from Santa Cruz ^-^

When I get back I'll swap the winter tires on for the holidays. I'll be going through the passes instead of flying, and the weather has decided to be decidedly wintery so...

-Crissa

Love the Left Coast.

Done the Mexico border from San Diego to Port Angeles, WA (and into Victoria BC) via PCH and 101.

Want to do it again once I've completed my "all" National Parks bucket list.

Hopefully in my Cybertruck.

 

[Crissa]

Love the Left Coast.

Done the Mexico border from San Diego to Port Angeles, WA (and into Victoria BC) via PCH and 101.

Want to do it again once I've completed my "all" National Parks bucket list.

Hopefully in my Cybertruck.

Same!

Spouse wants to take us along the Gulf Coast and stay at Fort Wilderness like she did as a kid. I've never been past Austin in that direction, so...

-Crissa

 

[HaulingAss]

F150 Lightning forum on owners' experience are saying drop by 60% on chilly weather.

And 1/3 real range when towing.

Some said they are selling their unit pronto.

Just came from my Ford dealer yesterday, the Lariat trim is priced at $111,544. From $69,000 when I signed up. Definitely a deal breaker.

Now am in dreadful apprehension on Cybertruck as I'll be using these on double-jeopardy situations of pulling an RV (or having a truck camper) and traveling in snowy climes (thinking even of Alaska all National Park road trip and camping).

Ford is a rank beginner at making EV's and they need to learn how to make them more efficient in all conditions. Currently, the thermal management system is horribly inefficient with the length and complexity of all the pumps and hoses. In cold weather that saps the heat they are trying to send to the battery. Also, Tesla's are very efficient at recycling waste heat, the Ford's thermal management system is just cobbled together and not well thought out. They did know it had to be reliable, they kicked efficiency to the gutter. A real shame.

People who think the Lightning must be good because it's a Ford are probably forgetting that EV's are very different from ICE cars and Ford has minimal experience with EV's. They are literally 10 years behind Tesla and that's an eternity in the fast paced EV industry. There is no catching up in any forseeable timeframe.

 

[SparkChaser]

My Ford Focus EV was terrible. Not built as an ev but an ICE with a transplant. Nothing was efficient. The promised 80 mile range was about 50 usable.

 

[Mini2nut]

Ford’s cold weather performance with the Mach-E is not great either so this isn’t too surprising.

Gotta keep in mind this is Ford’s 1.5st generation EV. Tesla is on their 4th Or 5th generation depending on how you count. Arguably more like 10th generation since they cycle technology so fast.

Ford‘s next generation truck will be a lot more interesting. In 2-3 generations they will start getting close to Tesla on a lot of these metrics.

Ford will most likely still offer the current Lightning as a “classic” version at a slightly lower price point even after the all new 2025 Lightning makes it debut.

 

[HaulingAss]

Just got off the phone with my wife. We’re still working on the piece of driveway where my Model Y (and eventually Cybertruck) are parked and that patch of ground is currently bare dirt. So for the moment we’re on the slow/ no charger at home. She got to work and was surprised she’d burned nearly 20 miles of range driving 7 miles to work. It wasn’t even freezing here, it was in the low 40s.

That is the effect of the short trip in which the heating up of the climate control system uses a disproportionate amount of electricity. Our Tesla are always plugged into 240V at the start of each trip. We pre-heat the cabin for a few minutes right before we depart and don't see that kind of hit. On longer, faster trips (freeway) the hit is much smaller because the waste heat from the FSD computer, drive motors and inverters have time to keep the batteries up to temperature. On a short trip that waste heat isn't even enough to heat up the cold components themselves let alone have any make it to the battery so the car takes a different strategy on short cold trips: It purposefully runs components in "inefficient" mode to create heat.

You will find ICE cars cannot hit the EPA numbers (not even close) during multiple short trips in cold weather and if you let the car idle to pre-heat, it gets ugly really fast.

The good news is the efficiency hardly matters when using such a small amount of the total range and on long trips your efficiency trends MUCH higher during cold weather. (vs. short trips). You will also have a much better experience once you are plugged into 240V electricity. It's dead simple and very cheap to do it but electricity has a way of making most people feel stupid and helpless. The phrase that Nike stole is appropriate here: Just do it!

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Range always decreases in towing or cold, even with Internal Combustion engines. The only benefit ICE has is it creates waste heat we use to keep us warm.

As far as Cybertruck goes, expect a towing/cold weather loss. How much it will be is unknown for now. Just don’t give up your dreams or your reservation.

Not to mention that, unlike Ford and GM, Tesla is in it to change the world. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up making their range predictions with at least some of the cargo/towing capacity, on level ground. Isn't it true that once the batteries are warmed up there is no longer the kind of loss to the cold?

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

My model y definitely has a loss in cold weather and when it's loaded down, but it's not massively substantial. Over long distances it'll add up, but I have no metrics on laden weight and efficiency.

Note, this is 45,522 miles of data compiled by Tessie.

Who wrote that last sentence (below the graph) and wtf does it mean?

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