On a recent road trip from California to New Mexico I - F150 Lightning
On a recent road trip from California to New Mexico I noticed at the end of the second day of travel that my 2023 Ford F-150 Extended Range Lightning (with 38,000 miles) on a 100% charge I was no longer getting the ~325 I normally would see but ~200.
At first I chalked it up to the outside temperature, ~30-40 Fahrenheit. When the temp moved back up into the 50's (a temp I was often charging in) this abnormal behavior continued. The next day I was near Rich Ford and figured I'd have them take a look. I explained what was going on to the EV specialist who said that my mileage would vary depending on how I drove. I agreed, however, the battery not charging to the extended range level had nothing to do with how I drove the truck previous to charging but how much the battery would charge to. I’ve been driving this truck up and down, border to border in California for 35,000 miles and I’m pretty aware of how my driving, temperature, grade, and more impact mileage. The conversation always came back to “how I was driving” and how that was impacting my mileage. After being accused of being argumentative it was clear that this conversation was going nowhere so I apologized and stopped trying to explain the situation and asked to have them take a look.
At the end of the day I got a call telling me they had looked at it and found nothing, there was nothing they could do and I could pick it up. The report I got along with my $0 invoice which referred to my aggressive driving twice. I was also given the Ford Customer Care phone number, “if you want to call them”. I did call Ford Customer Care while sitting in the waiting room at Rich Ford.
After a 30 minute conversation with a Ford Customer Care person who was able to see diagnostics information told me that when doing a multiple day road trip with successive DC charging it was normal to see a drop in the batteries ability to provide the listed MPGe advertised, in my case an extended range typical charge is 325 miles.
It was clear to me that an educated EV specialist would have known this and been able to take care of me by explaining this within a few minutes and I'd have been on my way.
Instead I was accused of being an argumentative aggressive driver and had wasted a day to hear this. To the EV specialist defence I understand that New Mexico is ranked number 2 for the state with the worst road rage, so I imagine they experience a lot of intense drivers.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/states-with-the-worst-road-rage
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