What's it like to take a road trip in a truck like the Terra (F-150 Lightning)?

[04Ram2500Hemi]

For me the whole EV thing is still all very new (I have a Scout on order, but have never owned an EV). All the data is great, but I like a more basic approach:
Miles Driven/Time Spent at Charger/Total Cost per Charge

When I’m traveling 500 miles in a day, I’m more concerned about getting there as fast as possible. I can pee, get gas and a snack, and be on the road in ten minutes. If 500 miles adds 60-90 minutes to the trip, it makes me think about which fuel source I want to travel when heading long distances.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

@SpaceEVDriver appreciate all the graphs and math. Our goal is to pickup our Scout at the factory. Valuable information for our first road trip! The EA vs T-Charger max flow on the Lightning is interesting. I have read some challenges at EA stations. What is your experience?

Another experience. We let Google choose our charger on one leg of today's trip. It chose an 8-post supercharger. The app said there were 4/8 posts available when we were taking the exit. This meant we were unlikely to be able to charge.

T drivers generally leave a space between cars until they have to fill in the spaces. This meant there were no spaces for us because we tend to have to use two spaces.

Fortunately, one of the four nearby EA chargers was available, so we charged at the EA post. This saved us $45 because EA was offering a free charge on that charger, for some reason.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

For me the whole EV thing is still all very new (I have a Scout on order, but have never owned an EV). All the data is great, but I like a more basic approach:
Miles Driven/Time Spent at Charger/Total Cost per Charge

When I’m traveling 500 miles in a day, I’m more concerned about getting there as fast as possible. I can pee, get gas and a snack, and be on the road in ten minutes. If 500 miles adds 60-90 minutes to the trip, it makes me think about which fuel source I want to travel when heading long distances.

I used to drive like that too. But I don't have any interest in that kinda of road tripping any more. If I'm in a hurry, I'll fly and rent a car on the other end. We stopped traveling like that about two decades ago, well before we got EVs. But whatever floats someone's boat...

Today's leg of the trip was from a house in Portland, OR, to the PDX airport to drop off family, and then to Lathrop, CA. Total distance of about 675 miles. Google's non-EV-aware estimated time was 11.5 hours, assuming no stops, but accounting for traffic in the city. It took us 13.25 hours, with stops. We hit fog in the mountain passes and again for the last 75 minutes of the drive from north of Sacramento to Lathrop. There were several accidents along the freeway that caused traffic slow downs. We stopped for lunch while charging and had an early supper while charging at another stop. We don't eat in the vehicle while driving except in very rare circumstances.

I'll do a write-up of the leg later.

 

[J Alynn]

Another experience. We let Google choose our charger on one leg of today's trip. It chose an 8-post supercharger. The app said there were 4/8 posts available when we were taking the exit. This meant we were unlikely to be able to charge.

T drivers generally leave a space between cars until they have to fill in the spaces. This meant there were no spaces for us because we tend to have to use two spaces.

Fortunately, one of the four nearby EA chargers was available, so we charged at the EA post. This saved us $45 because EA was offering a free charge on that charger, for some reason.

Gotta love freebies

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Gotta love freebies

It was a nice surprise. EA had been doing free holidays for a couple of years, but of course that wasn't sustainable, so they stopped. We didn't get a free charge on the second EA charger we visited that night.

 

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I used to drive like that too. But I don't have any interest in that kinda of road tripping any more. If I'm in a hurry, I'll fly and rent a car on the other end. We stopped traveling like that about two decades ago, well before we got EVs. But whatever floats someone's boat...

Today's leg of the trip was from a house in Portland, OR, to the PDX airport to drop off family, and then to Lathrop, CA. Total distance of about 675 miles. Google's non-EV-aware estimated time was 11.5 hours, assuming no stops, but accounting for traffic in the city. It took us 13.25 hours, with stops. We hit fog in the mountain passes and again for the last 75 minutes of the drive from north of Sacramento to Lathrop. There were several accidents along the freeway that caused traffic slow downs. We stopped for lunch while charging and had an early supper while charging at another stop. We don't eat in the vehicle while driving except in very rare circumstances.

I'll do a write-up of the leg later.

I don’t do a lot of long distance trips like that. We have one trip each year to San Juan Island which is 550 miles one way, and then we catch a ferry. Having to add time in to charge on a trip like this would make me nervous. This is why I went with the Scout Traveler with the Harvester Range Extender. It’s my hope that the Harvester would allow us to make a quick stop for gas and keep going, and eliminate the time it takes to charge on longer trips (lots of thoughts on this right now on the forum).

For the day to day activities and shorter road trips (say 200 miles), the EV thing has a lot of appeal to me. Again I’m very new to all of this, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

 

[J Alynn]

I don’t do a lot of long distance trips like that. We have one trip each year to San Juan Island which is 550 miles one way, and then we catch a ferry. Having to add time in to charge on a trip like this would make me nervous. This is why I went with the Scout Traveler with the Harvester Range Extender. It’s my hope that the Harvester would allow us to make a quick stop for gas and keep going, and eliminate the time it takes to charge on longer trips (lots of thoughts on this right now on the forum).

For the day to day activities and shorter road trips (say 200 miles), the EV thing has a lot of appeal to me. Again I’m very new to all of this, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

Keep in mind as you learn (as I have as well) that for that one trip a year you’re now adding all the complications that come with an engine. For one trip a year you could add a 1/2 hour each way (which I know extends road time) but for that little bit of inconvenience you could eliminate the cost of fuel, all that maintenance and service. Think of the time spent doing all those things each year.
We all have our circumstances so I get that but as I and many others have said, we are new to EV and a bit hesitant but the idea of never having to go to a gas station again when traveling would be worth the couple trips a year being a bit longer. We are in our 50’s now and daughter is in college so our travel will be less each year and bigger vacation trips usually involve flying so I still think I want to go strictly EV. That said I have one of each reserved more out of fear that the next 4 years will likely see little growth and support for EV’s and charging infrastructure

 

[IdahoJOAT]

I’m in for this one, thanks for sharing! I love road trips. I also very much enjoy the adaptive cruise on my current vehicle, so I have to ask: Does your Lightning have adaptive cruise? If so, do you use it and do you like it (does it function/behave well)?

I'm with you. Lotti my 12 A4 Avant was totaled while I was deployed, so with the new Audi ACC was a must. It's amazing because when we got it on the 4xe I was impartial. I mostly wanted a fully loaded 4xe. Now I can't live without it. Love it.

 

[IdahoJOAT]

Overall, I'll go back and read every little bit but we're headed out soon: This harkens back to what I've been saying for a while now. Well, since Musk revealed the Tesla Semi.

The move to EVs will take a bit of a cultural shift in this country. As I have kids still, it's extremely uncommon for us to spend only 10 minutes off the road on a road trip. Hence why EVs have made logical sense to me.

If one were to time it from the moment the tires stop rolling at a gas pump, then when they hit the roadway pavement again, it usually is at least 20 minutes. MORE often than not it's way more than that. So just imagine instead of pump and park, it's just park and plug in, one gets the recharge you've annotated.

Great read. Thank you!

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Okay. We're home after an epic 24 hour drive over two days. Not my favorite way of road tripping, but we wanted to visit family for as long as possible.

Day 14: Portland / Vancouver​

When we left off, we had made it to Vancouver, WA and were staying in a hotel with a slow (5.7 kW) Level 2 charger that was as expensive as the DCFC chargers down the road. Still, we figured charging slowly wasn't a problem because we were working during the first couple days of the week. Once the truck hit 100% SoC, we disconnected and moved so others could use the charger.

My partner took a trip out to visit family about 100 miles round trip while I was working on Wednesday morning. There wasn't a great place for her to recharge, so we charged some more on the slow charger but only got up to about 75%. That afternoon we headed to the grocery store to pick up supplies and decided to charge while shopping. We got a quick charge to 90%--I had to leave the grocery store early to unplug and move the truck. We then headed to airport to pick up family and moved to a rental house in the heart of Portland. The on-street parking did not provide any charging opportunities.

We spent the rest of the week hanging out, driving downtown, driving to St. Helens, and several other places. By the time we left Saturday morning, we were down to 57%.

Leg 1: PDX to Sutherlin:​

We dropped people off at the airport. It was busy so we ended up in traffic a bit to get out of the airport and to the charger (about 20 minutes to go just a couple of miles). We charged at the supercharger near the airport after dropping off the family. While charging, I decided the cold air was reducing our efficiency so I aired up the tires from 41 PSI to 50 PSI (I had tossed the air compressor into the truck on a whim and was glad I did). We went to the nearby Starbucks to grab a coffee. We charged to 85% and headed south. Cost was $11.88 for 54 kWh, and took 26 minutes.

Originally we had planned to go through Idaho and Utah on our way back to northern Arizona, but at the last minute we switched our plans and headed home through California.

We drove through Portland traffic, then made it to slightly less traffic on the I-5. There was traffic for almost the entire drive. In our decision-making to go along the route we were familiar with, we'd forgotten that we were going to be driving in the most populous state in the country and driving on the most busy travel weekend of the year.

Our first stop was in Sutherlin, OR, 175 miles and 3 hours away. We plugged in, my partner went for a quick walk while I helped a Cadillac Lyriq figure out their charging issue. I then headed to the nearby Subway to grab a bit to eat and a pit stop. By the time that was done, the truck was up at 87% and we were ready to get going.

State of charge at beginning of Leg: 85%
Estimated range at beginning of Leg: 250 miles

Distance Driven: 175 miles
Driving Time: 2.9 hours.
Efficiency: 2.2 miles/kWh
Average Speed (this includes non-highway driving and regular traffic control): 58 mph
Cruise Control setting: 70 mph
State of Charge at end of Leg: 23%
Estimated Range on guess-o-meter: 102 miles

Charge added: 89 kWh, 64%
Time spent at charger: 45 minutes
Cost: $38.94
State of charge at the end of the charge: 87%

Leg 2: Sutherlin to Yreka​

Back on the road, we looked up and debated several potential charge spots and settled on a supercharger in Yreka. When we arrived, it had 4 of its 8 chargers occupied. But because of the way many people use these chargers, every other space was open, which meant that the Lightning could not charge there (because Ford put the charge port on the left front instead of the right front of the truck). We went to an Electrify America charger in the parking lot next door. That charger gave us about $45 worth of free charging. We grabbed a couple of salads from the Walmart and ate a quick second lunch.

Traffic was busy but fine. A few slowdowns and etc., but overall not a big deal. 161 miles, 2:40 minutes drive.
State of charge at beginning of Leg: 85%
Distance Driven: 161 miles
Driving Time: 2.65 hours.
Efficiency: 1.9 miles/kWh
Cruise Control setting: 70 mph
State of Charge at end of Leg: 21%

Charge added: 82 kWh, 60%
Time spent at charger: 41 minutes
Cost: $0.00
State of charge at the end of the charge: 81%

Leg 3: Yreka to Red Bluff​

We encountered slower traffic going over the mountains and there were some disabled vehicles along the highway. We made it to Red Bluff about 2.5 hours later (127 miles trip). The supercharger here wasn't busy, but we stilled pulled in sideways to use only one charger.

State of charge at beginning of Leg: 81%
Distance Driven: 127 miles
Driving Time: 2.1 hours.
Efficiency: 1.9 miles/kWh
Cruise Control setting: N/A (too many weird things going on to set a cruise control for most of the drive)
State of Charge at end of Leg: 44%

Charge added: 52 kWh, 37%
Time spent at charger: 23 minutes
Cost: $23.78
State of charge at the end of the charge: 81%

Leg 4: Red Bluff to Sacramento Airport​

We again encountered slower traffic and then fog coming into Sacramento. We stopped at a EA charger with 350 kW charging posts. Total drive time was about 2 hours, 121 miles. While here, we looked at hotels to stay in and found one about an hour south of Sacramento with a Level 2 charger. PlugShare is great because it not only shows you where chargers are but also what the power rating on the chargers is, so we knew we would be plugging into a 5.7 kW charger. This meant we knew what to charge to at the fast charger we were sitting at so we would start the next day with 100% charge. We charged to just above what we knew we'd need in case of any efficiency losses we weren't planning on.

State of charge at beginning of Leg: 81%
Distance Driven: 121 miles
Driving Time: 2 hours.
Efficiency: 2 miles/kWh
Cruise Control setting: 70 mph
State of Charge at end of Leg: 35%

Charge added: 65 kWh, 45%
Time spent at charger: 26 minutes
Cost: $27.21
State of charge at the end of the charge: 80%

Leg 5: Sacramento to Lathrop​

The hotel was 69 miles away and should have been an hour drive, but the drive ended up being 1 hour 20 minutes because of fog and accidents (due to way too fast driving in the fog) and the time it took to get the key to the charger from the hotel desk.

State of charge at beginning of Leg: 80%
Distance Driven: 69 miles
Driving Time: 1.33 hours.
Efficiency: 2.7 miles/kWh
Cruise Control setting: N/A
State of Charge at end of Leg: 61%

Charge added: 54 kWh, 39%
Time spent at charger: 9 hours 50 minutes
Cost: $0.00
State of charge at the end of the charge: 100%

Final statistics for the day:​

• Drop-off time at airport: 08:40
• Plug-in time on first charger of the day: 08:59
• Plug-in time on last charger of the day (at hotel): 22:40
• Total time from start to finish: 14 hours
  • (from PDX airport to hotel in Lathrop, including check-in and getting the passkey for the charger):
• Total time driving: 11.32 hours.
• Google claim of drive time (doesn't count any kind of stop and didn't include real traffic or weather): 10.4 hours
• Total time stopped (charging, eating, restrooms, etc): 2.68 hours
• Total miles: 660 miles
• Total cost for this day of driving: $101.81

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Challenge is a kind word. Nearly every EA charger I have encountered is either out of service or puts out way less than advertised.

I've heard this a lot, and we've experienced some of these issues, but it's been a lot less of an issue that what I've read online. I've only charged a couple hundred times at DCFC, though, and only in about 7 states, so it may be that I'm in a bubble of not-the-worst EA chargers.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Overall, I'll go back and read every little bit but we're headed out soon: This harkens back to what I've been saying for a while now. Well, since Musk revealed the Tesla Semi.

The move to EVs will take a bit of a cultural shift in this country. As I have kids still, it's extremely uncommon for us to spend only 10 minutes off the road on a road trip. Hence why EVs have made logical sense to me.

If one were to time it from the moment the tires stop rolling at a gas pump, then when they hit the roadway pavement again, it usually is at least 20 minutes. MORE often than not it's way more than that. So just imagine instead of pump and park, it's just park and plug in, one gets the recharge you've annotated.

Great read. Thank you!

We've rarely been sprinters on road trips and take more easy that some people, I suppose.

I grew up on junkyard vehicles that sometimes took two days to go 100 miles because they would break down in between, so maybe it's a matter of perspective.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I don’t do a lot of long distance trips like that. We have one trip each year to San Juan Island which is 550 miles one way, and then we catch a ferry. Having to add time in to charge on a trip like this would make me nervous. This is why I went with the Scout Traveler with the Harvester Range Extender. It’s my hope that the Harvester would allow us to make a quick stop for gas and keep going, and eliminate the time it takes to charge on longer trips (lots of thoughts on this right now on the forum).

For the day to day activities and shorter road trips (say 200 miles), the EV thing has a lot of appeal to me. Again I’m very new to all of this, and I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

Keep in mind as you learn (as I have as well) that for that one trip a year you’re now adding all the complications that come with an engine. For one trip a year you could add a 1/2 hour each way (which I know extends road time) but for that little bit of inconvenience you could eliminate the cost of fuel, all that maintenance and service. Think of the time spent doing all those things each year.
We all have our circumstances so I get that but as I and many others have said, we are new to EV and a bit hesitant but the idea of never having to go to a gas station again when traveling would be worth the couple trips a year being a bit longer. We are in our 50’s now and daughter is in college so our travel will be less each year and bigger vacation trips usually involve flying so I still think I want to go strictly EV. That said I have one of each reserved more out of fear that the next 4 years will likely see little growth and support for EV’s and charging infrastructure

Exactly this.

Imagine for a minute that someone can get a gas station stop done in 10 minutes, And let's imagine a 40 mile commute per day in an average 25 mpg vehicle with a 14 gallon tank and that people get gas at a quarter tank (so only 10.5 gallons used per tank). Let's say weekend driving is 80 miles total (so 7 days a week of 40 miles a day on average).

40 miles / 25 mpg = 1.6 gallons per commute.
10.5 gallons / 1.6 gallons = 6.6 commutes per tank. That's a little more than a tank per week, but let's be generous and set it to be 1 tank per week.

Let's assume no road trips for 50 weeks of the year.
10 minutes per stop * 50 weeks per year = 500 minutes = 8.33 hours of gas station stops per year, just for commuting.
If you're not going to a gas station for your commute, that's 8.33 hours saved. Might not seem like a lot, but I think it's a lot. That's an extra day off per year.

For the other 2 weeks of road tripping, say there are a total of 10 stops on those trips and you stop for an average of 30 minutes per stop (keep in mind that charging the Scout will likely be about 10-20% and possibly up to 50% faster than the Lightning). That's 300 minutes or 6 hours. So, yes, it's concentrated into a couple weekends, but the overall time spent on refueling is lower.

This doesn't include servicing the vehicle. We just rolled into 10,000 miles (well, 11,300 miles) and the truck needs its first normal scheduled maintenance. The tire tread is good. The underbody could use a wash. The boots look good. The coolant level is good. Everything looks good. Cost: $0.00, 20 minutes of my time.

For the kind of driving I do, I would need to do the 5,000 mile maintenance on an ICE truck. With a coupon, the cost for an oil change and multipoint inspection at my local dealer is about $100 and a couple of hours. So, that cost would be about $200 and four hours in the first 10,000 miles.

 

[Chaz26]

I've heard this a lot, and we've experienced some of these issues, but it's been a lot less of an issue that what I've read online. I've only charged a couple hundred times at DCFC, though, and only in about 7 states, so it may be that I'm in a bubble of not-the-worst EA chargers.

I've never had a failed charge at an EA station (granted I usually use Tesla chargers), but there is frequently either a charger out of use, or something goes wrong mid charge and I have to re-initiate the session, but there's always some working. I have had issues on small stations with just 4 chargers where there was a wait, or 1 was down and the other 3 were full.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The final leg was from Lathrop to northern Arizona. We had a total of 5 stops, 13 hours from start to finish, and 720 miles. I might write up the legs again, but you all get the point.

Total distance was 3,323 miles.
Total energy used: 1429 kWh.
Average efficiency: 2.33 miles/kWh.
Total cost: $459.45.
Cost per mile (just for this trip): 13.8 cents/mile.

Gasbuddy estimates a total cost of about $600 to $700 for about the same trip, though their interface isn't terribly usable.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I created an approximate map and elevation profile for the trip.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Data show that there was a 50% increase in DCFC public charger use during the TG week compared with the year before.

"While the total volume of charging sessions increased nearly 50% during the week, the average charging station utilization rate — measured as total charging session minutes per port as a percentage of open hours (typically a 24-hour period) — declined to 22% from 24% in 2023. This seemingly conflicting data point results from the number of these new “travel” fast charging ports increasing by nearly 50% since last Thanksgiving."

We had almost no issues with charging reliability or overcrowding during our road trip the week before and the week of Thanksgiving. There was a lot of traffic, but there were plenty of chargers and we didn't encounter any non-functional chargers (well, one plug was down at a T charger, but there were a pile of others). We had three instances where the T superchargers were super busy. They were all 8-port stations. Two were overcrowded (4 of 8 posts were in use with every other port being used which meant we couldn't charge the Lightning) and one got really busy just after we arrived, so we only charged 10 minutes.


https://www.paren.app/blog/thanksgiving-week-fast-charging-sessions-increase-nearly-50-yoy