Our Detroit-based 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning XLT yearlong test car made a first impression akin to Borat arriving as a live-in exchange student. Its customs and ability to communicate things like its driving range were about that foreign and off-putting. But over the months our electric Borat has learned to communicate better (thanks to over-the-air updates), and we've learned to interpret its messages more effectively.
Obtaining the most accurate range prediction requires programming a destination into the native navigation system. This way the truck knows what types of roadways and speed limits will be involved. If you don't do this (or if you use a phone app for navigation), the computer seemingly assumes the you'll employ the same driving style the EPA used to arrive at its 70-mpg-e combined efficiency number: 55 percent stop-and-go city driving mixed with 45 percent lower-speed highway cruising. And our hunch is that even though we most often drive 5 or 10 mph over any posted speed limit, even while using navigation, the range-prediction algorithm forever forgives us our past sins, eternally optimistic our purer civic and environmentalist selves will emerge. Hence it still seems to base range on rates of speed at or slightly below the limit.
But because we always drive like Borat, on five separate traffic-free highway drives we documented, the range prediction ended up being 20 percent optimistic (meaning that 341 miles driven resulted in 411 miles of range being consumed). Conversely, over nine trips covering shorter runs and/or heavier traffic, the computer predictions proved to be 16 percent conservative (so 332 miles of driving only consumed 278 miles of predicted range). The net over 17 trips and 758 miles of navigated routing was a 5 percent overstatement of range.
We are Waze/Google Maps enthusiasts due to their superior traffic-avoidance routing, but any attempt to switch from the Ford's navigation system to a phone-mirroring app cancels the native navigation and returns the range prediction to that dreamy EPA number. (How hard would it be for the computer to eavesdrop on Waze and base predictions on its route?) We've been struck by how the native nav system seems to plot routes that favor range-extending stop-and-go traffic. The truck's ecoRoute calculation mode might be expected to deliver such routing, but these pokier, more urban routings were selected with the Faster Time setting selected (Shorter Distance is also offered) and with no pertinent "avoidances" selected. And because our arrival time never changed through this thick traffic, the nav system must have known about it and routed us that way anyway (a check of Waze confirmed there were no jams on the longer, historically quicker all-freeway routes). When time is of the essence, consider keeping a phone on board that's not connected to Sync to provide a second routing opinion from Waze.
As we noted in our Los Angeles-based 2022 F-150 Lighting Lariat, Ford's onboard route planner strikes us as appallingly primitive, suggesting owner/users just aren't taking many trips or complaining loudly enough to demand an update. A recent leaf-peeping trip to Michigan's northern lower peninsula revealed several shortcomings. When a programmed destination is out of range, it plans a stop and tells you how long to charge at the stop. But when stopped, nothing flashes up to remind the driver how long to charge (a screen can be summoned). Then when charging is complete, our navigation system frequently forgets the ultimate destination. Once we'd been told to stop for 10 minutes, plugged in at 31 percent, then noticed a finish-line flag at 41 percent on the progress bar, predicting we'd reach that point in 3 minutes on the 350-kW charger. Indicated range at that point was obviously insufficient, so we kept charging for the originally suggested 10 minutes, at which point the indicated range included a 30-mile cushion beyond our programmed destination. But when we unplugged and backed out, we got a screen reading "Recharge Required for Trip—How would you like to add chargers?" Just to be safe, we plugged back in for another 10 minutes. This unnecessary added grief and aggravation was strictly a failing of the computer. Cocktail-party chatter recounting episodes like this are bound to depress EV sales in the nearer term.
Ditto the continuing problem of inoperative chargers, which plagued our every stop on the above-mentioned trip. While in Traverse City, Michigan, we hatched a spontaneous plan to head north to Boyne Mountain. This would require a bit more charge, so we rolled a mile east to a Burger King with three Blink charging stations. Two were inoperative when we rolled up, and after 30 minutes spent downloading and setting up the unfamiliar app, plugging and unplugging a bunch of times, the sole remaining charger faulted out with some problem the customer service rep was unable to reset after 15 minutes on hold. The other DC fast-charger location in town showed 0/1 charger available every time we checked it, forcing us to cancel our Boyne excursion. Then on the return trip, the three functional Electrify America chargers in Cadillac, Michigan, were all in use with other cars waiting, but our fully cloud-connected Lightning never warned us of this nor suggested an alternate charging stop. This is why Michigan ranks among 10 states with the lowest EV adoption rates, and it's why this Lightning is likely to end its stay with us having accumulated fewer miles than any recent yearlong test vehicle.
Every day we hope and pray for an over-the-air update to exorcize the worst of our Lightning's Borat behavioral anomalies. And the announced opening of Tesla's network to electric Fords like ours cannot. Happen. Soon. Enough.
