Owners of the Ford F-150 Lightning double Ford’s pride. They are happy with the familiar body and cabin of the F-150, but are intrigued by replacing the V-6 and V-8 petrol options with a pair of electric motors and one of two different batteries. The pickup wins hearts and minds not with messages about reduced emissions and the suppression of climate change, but with a whole range of possibilities that internal combustion vehicles simply do not offer.
Owners clean up when they show off their fully electric vehicles, thrilled that the model has surpassed Tesla’s Cybertruck in production.
And the topic that has been in every interested media message lately is how Ford Lightning comes with an adapter that allows them to charge Tesla. “The F-150 Lightning can charge another EV using its two-way charging capability, and we are supplying our first Lightnings with adapters so F-150 Lightning customers can help if needed,” a company spokesman said.
Ford-Tesla rivalry is fun, and many still question Tesla’s slow pace of Cybertruck off the assembly line. And again, Tesla owns the second largest American public charging network with 19% of all connectors. It also dominates the fast and ultra-fast segments, with more than half of those connectors in the country, according to BloombergNEF estimates. Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of propulsion and energy engineering, said in October that the company plans to triple the size of its supercharger network in the next two years.
Ford’s charging network pales in comparison.
Charge Station Pro sets the F-150 Lightning apart from the competition
What other topics do they need to know lately for Lightning fans?
The feature that everyone has Twitter and that sets the F-150 apart from other all-electric vehicles is its two-way charging capability, which Bloomberg calls it a “key pickup outlet”. It allows customers to use their truck as a backup generator anywhere from the construction site to their home after a power outage or even while camping. It allows owners to use a huge electric truck battery to charge other EVs.
For the two-way function to work, the other electric vehicle must be equipped with a SAE J1772 charging port. Teslas, which has its own charging system, can get charging from the Ford F-150 Lightning with an adapter produced by the Lenz Charging Solution.
“Lightning to help,” he posted on the Lightning Owners forum. “We can help all those poor dead Teslas.”
Charge Station Pro comes with a 25-foot charging cable and connector, wall mount bracket, stencil and hardware. Ford recommends Sunrun as its preferred installer for the unit, while the same company can also install Ford’s home integration system, which costs an additional $ 3,895, minus the installation.
However, the 80-amp charger is currently listed as a sale on Ford’s official website. Currently, Ford expects its Charge Station Pro to be available no later than June 30, which means that some customers will inevitably take over their F-150 Lightning without this feature. The Ford Charge Station Pro comes as standard on all F-150 Lightning models equipped with an extended-range battery, and is also available separately for an MSRP of $ 1,310 minus installation.
The Pro Power Onboard generator is included in all truck variants and can deliver up to 2.4 kilowatts from various sockets in the boot, cabin and bed. As an additional option for certain trims, the capacity is increased to 9.6 kilowatts. The higher-output version includes a 240-volt, 30-amp socket in the bed that can be used for a variety of higher-power needs, including charging a second EV at 7.2 kilowatts.
While this may not be a compelling point for consumers considering the Ford F-150 Lightning, Bloomberg they add that “enabling EVs to take and provide charge has the potential to help utilities manage peak demand and even allow their owners to sell electricity back into the grid.”
Range Extender spotted on Ford F-150 Lightning
Spy photographers recently spotted a Ford F-150 Lightning truck in Michigan with a 5.5-foot bed toolbox. It has been speculated that this could be an extremely convenient place to install EV range extenders. The red emergency stop button is located in the right quadrant of the toolbox, a relatively safe indicator of the precious lagniappe inside.
The range extender is a secondary built-in power generator that charges the battery of an electric car while driving. They amplify the battery of a fully electric vehicle while on the move, replenishing some of its electrons as they wear out and allowing the EV to travel further between visits to the electric plug.
Could this feature be the realization of a patent application recently filed by Ford for a very type of system? Then, the idea included a removable extension of the range, alleviating the need to wear an extended range when not needed, but having the option of weekends on the lake or having fun on the football field.
Ford in favor of California emissions standards
The provisions of the Clean Air Act allow California to set personalized standards, even if those standards are more rigorous than federal government standards. Former President Donald Trump’s administration has raised questions about California autonomy, and sometimes the auto industry has joined. Trump has cut off California’s ability to set its own show standards.
But that disagreement is old news. Ford, BMW, Honda, Volvo and Volkswagen recently filed a lawsuit to intervene in a federal lawsuit to defend the state’s right to set its own emission standards.
Ford issued a statement stating that it had intervened on the side of the EPA against the challenge of California’s ability to protect public health and fight climate change by setting standards for vehicle exhaust emissions. Ford says it has consistently supported tougher greenhouse gas standards even when the EPA has not, and the lawsuit continues Ford’s leadership as the only U.S. automaker to stand by California in support of tougher vehicle emission standards in 2019.
Ford CEO Steven Croley, policy director and chief adviser, issued the following statement regarding the importance of Ford’s action to protect the environment. “Ford is fighting climate change. We support the recent EPA exemption decision that allows California and other states to protect human health and combat climate change by establishing and enforcing air pollution standards and zero-emission vehicles.
Because California is the largest market for new vehicles in America, car manufacturers have had to comply with state regulations or risk losing a large number of sales. And now Ford has an unprecedented demand for its F-150 Lightning – with 200,000 reservations. The company is expanding the Rouge Center for Electric Vehicles to increase production to a planned annual rate of 150,000 vehicles in 2023.
With a total investment of $ 950 million and the creation of 750 jobs at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, Ford’s investment in Michigan for the F-150 Lightning alone now stands at more than $ 1 billion. 1,700 recently created jobs have been deployed at 5 Ford plants, including the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center, where Lightning electric motors and gearboxes are assembled, and the Rawsonville Components Plant, where Lightning batteries are assembled.
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