The Real Mileage of an Electric Truck

clarkman

average member
Forum Supporter
If ford would do their AWD Maverick in a hybrid. I'd be all over it.

I've been keeping an eye on those. That would be the perfect size for me. Maybe in a couple of years when I'm ready to buy, they'll have it in AWD + Hybrid. Then again, I probably don't need the AWD, but it sure would be nice.
 

wanderingrichard

Life of the Party
When my fuel gauge says it’s time, I pull into the gas station. They’re all over and it takes 5-10 minutes. Recharging, if one is around takes how long…?
Look at chargers as gas pumps. How long did it take just the U.S. to get to the easy availability we have? Building out the charging network will take the same effort. That includes updating and expanding the national electrity generation ability, which is something many people, states, politicians and businesses don't seem to want to do.
 

Sam Roffe

If a man ain't fishing...
Forum Supporter
For a different perspective on driving the F150 Lightning with a load follow these guys on youtube



They bought a new Lightning in Michigan, then drove it cross country and then through Alaska to the Arctic Circle. They dont pull any punches. It's a series of about 5-6 episodes.

The website mentioned in the original post has had a 20+ year habit of embracing automotive imports from all over the world as superior, and slamming U.S. built vehicles as out of touch massive guzzlers. Their own industry peers have continually taken them to rask over their biased "reporting".

I'm a sucker for a roadtrip to Alaska series. Interesting video. I'm going to have to start at the beginning and binge watch it while tying flies for a BC trip.
 

MT_Flyfisher

Life of the Party
I would love to buy a new all electric truck, but I don’t see one in my future any time soon for some of the same reasons already mentioned - not only the mileage between recharges, but equally important for me, the time required for recharging.

Every year for the past 20+ years I‘ve driven my truck from my home in SE PA to SW MT - a one way distance of over 2000 miles. I’ve made that trip towing a variety of trailers (travel trailers, a 5th wheel, a car trailer, and one year with a large truck camper). I have also often driven there with my truck without towing.

I’ve had different Ford trucks - 2 F150’s, 2 F250’s, an F350 and F450 dually. Most, if not all, had 36 gallon tanks (I can’t remember for sure) and I’ve gotten anywhere from about 8mpg towing (one time when towing a 20,000# 5th wheel) to around 18mpg avg. when not towing.

However, one thing that’s a requirement for me - I don’t want to want to waste time sitting somewhere waiting to get recharge batteries. (I’ve seen Ford’s published times to recharge from 10% to 80%, using the fastest rechargers, which take 40 minutes, + or -.) And those times are under the best conditions.

I drive reasonably fast, and I don’t spend any more time on the road than I have to. When I need to refuel, I pull into a gas station or truck stop, fill-up quickly, maybe used the bathroom, get a cup of coffee, etc., and I’m back on the road in minutes. I don’t stay in a hotels overnight, (except when my wife is with me) and I sleep in my truck or RV whenever I get tired, wherever I might be - often in rest stops along the interstate, or even a Walmart parking lot. I’m not going to wait an hour or longer waiting to recharge an electric truck when there are trout waiting to be caught!

I‘ve had a new 2022 Ford F150 hybrid on order since the end of last December, and would love to have one. It is finally scheduled for production this month. It will have number of options that are very attractive to me, in addition to getting slightly better MPG than my present 2018 F150 (probably 2-3 MPG better).

However, I’m probably going to back out of buying that truck, and keep my present truck for the time being since Ford has canceled, and is no longer offering several of the options that I thought I would get when I ordered it back in December— all the result of supply shortages.

So maybe a hybrid truck will still be in my future. However, I don’t believe I’ll be around long enough to where an all electric truck will meet my needs.
 
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swimmy

An honest tune with a lingering lead
The new Tundras are ugly as fuck.
AHrY34WL_o.gif


Not sure what I'm going to do but I kind of want a new truck.
 

Rob Allen

Life of the Party
I've been keeping an eye on those. That would be the perfect size for me. Maybe in a couple of years when I'm ready to buy, they'll have it in AWD + Hybrid. Then again, I probably don't need the AWD, but it sure would be nice.
Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it
 

Capt Insano Emeritis

Legend
Forum Supporter
Did you even read the Motor Trend article? It states that poor aerodynamics of the boxy trailers sapped range regardless of trailer weight, and that towing a boat would be better. Also no mention of ambient temps during towing, cold being notoriously bad for batteries.

Our electric car has been a fantastic complement to our gasoline truck. Each has its place. I choose the electric over the truck every-single-time, unless I need the truck to do truck things.
“Each has its place”
That right there is what i get out of this discussion. But then I will never have 90,000$ waiting to buy a bright and shiny that strokes my ego and environmental concern synapses. I will say though that i have help the trigger on to drain an old Makita drill and it didn’t take long to run it out at full torque. That was a long time ago. Electric vehicle tech for load bearing vehicles seems to me to be in the early stages. The owner reviews will spell it all out in a year or so and goose the big automakers in the technological ass to make them more reliable. “ If I was rich man”” yAda diddada da i would wait for generations to come.
 

Sam Roffe

If a man ain't fishing...
Forum Supporter
Have fun. Charging gets brutal once they leave the lower 48
Never said I would take a EV. I just said I found that video interesting. I prefer to let other people take the leap into bleeding edge technology.
 
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mtskibum16

Life of the Party
I was reading through a thread like this on the Tacoma forum (gasp, people who buy trucks with towing not being their #1 priority) and someone mentioned this website that outlines trip details for charging based on the model you have. abetterrouteplanner.com You can choose from least stops to least total time charging, etc based on preferences. One thing that's tough to grasp as a non-electric owner is that you top off differently than with gas. You don't necessarily drive it to empty then run it back up to 100. It's pretty interesting to play around with.

All this will improve as more and more charging stations are up and running and the range continues to improve. It still looked like most of my normal "long trips" of about 750 miles (Seattle area to Bozeman for instance) would be totally doable. Using a Rivian with mid-grade battery it would require 5 stops with an average charge time of 25 minutes. An average of about 2 stops more than we normally make, so about 1 hr longer for the trip. Really not bad. DETAILS

Obviously this picture changes with towing, but as has been discussed this gen of e-trucks is not going to be right for everyone. Will be fine to haul my bikes around on the tailgate though.
 

Salmo_g

Legend
Forum Supporter
The new Tundras are ugly as fuck.
AHrY34WL_o.gif


Not sure what I'm going to do but I kind of want a new truck.
Yeah, Toyota has really been on an ugly spree with its cars for a few years now. I guess business has been so good that they have taken to scaring the customers away. (I may be starting to lust for that GMC Sierra myself. 3.0 L Duramax; is that diesel?)
 

Otter

Steelhead
So Motor Trend has done a test for an electric Ford F-150. Not some EPA nonsense but a real world test on how it tows a RV. The bottom line - useless. To me the most interesting data was towing the smallest RV which is about the weight of a decent boat.

Couple of things. A gas F-150 is not for towing huge trailers; F-250 or F-350 is the ticket. I wonder if the electric F-150 is so-named because Ford will be bringing on stronger electric pickups? Anybody know?
Secondly, as others have mentioned, the Western Journal is not exactly interested in factual or politically-neutral reporting. There are some good media fact/bias check sites out there, like this one:
 

creekx

not crate trained
Well you have my attention.

Pretty good truck for towing a camper? I think we have pretty much the same size travel trailer.
Does very well towing our TT. You do take a hit on the MPG, but the diesel really shines going up mountain passes, passing other vehicles, or cruising in a headwind - it really doesn't GAF that you are towing. Expect 15 to 17 mpg if you are towing and driving interstate speeds with mountain passes.

However, on a rural, two lane highway (<60 mph) I get about 30mpg +/- not towing. It is really the wind resistance that gets you, because none of these trucks are aerodynamic. Wind resistance is proportional to the square of the speed, so there's twice as much wind resistance at 80 than there is at 57mph.

On a recent trip through WY, no drift boat, but a full load and a rooftop tent (more wind resistance) I got 22.1 mpg. That's about 700 miles of interstate at 75+mph, 700 miles of rural two-lane highway and 120 miles of really shitty forest "roads."
 
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