In summer 2024 I replaced my older 2010 truck with a slightly used (2023, 14 months old, 11,000 miles) Ford F-150 Lightning BEV. It’s a base model XLT SR (standard range).
Overall I like the truck. This is purely a utility truck for hauling stuff and pulling trailers so not my daily driver nor used for trips and thus far it’s done what I need it to do.
I do wish it had a longer bed and shorter cab, hopefully that will become available in the coming years. A pass-thru (and ideally frunk through to bed) for longer stuff would be welcomed.
My biggest gripes so far are the lack of walkup unlock, no tailgate step and the Ford app that is antiquated and unreliable.
Following are a few things I’ve learned about the Lightning (and about BEV’s after over a decade of driving them).
Some Things To Always Carry With:
Normal Stuff:
- First aid / trauma kit
- Flashlights (and charger if applicable)
- Ratchet straps, bungees, rope, carabiners, shackles, rings, etc.
- Tools box under seat (various pliers, screwdrivers, hammer, tape, etc.)
- Hitch receiver + ball
- Shackle Receiver
- Trailer electrical extensions (7-wire & 4-wire)
- Leather gloves
- Coveralls
Pseudo Normal Stuff:
- Fire Extinguisher
- Blankets
- Heated blankets
- Non perishable snack bars
Especially For Lightning (or other BEV’s):
- L1 Charger – Allows you to plug in to a variety of standard outlets such as a regular 120v wall outlet.
- L2 NACS adapter – This allows you to charge from a Tesla destination charger.
- L3 NACS adapter – Allows you to charge from a Tesla Supercharger. This and the L2 adapter are not interchangeable.
- 10mm wrench (for when you need to disconnect the 12v battery to do a reboot).
- 12v charger (for when your 12v battery dies without warning and you can’t start your truck).
Many people experience problems with Ford’s computers/software that can be fixed only with a hard boot by disconnecting the 12v battery (behind the marked panel in the frunk) using a 10mm wrench for a minute and then reconnecting. PITA, but welcome to Ford Life.
Similarly, the 12v batteries in Ford EV’s die without warning far too frequently. The good news is that in most cases you can connect a charger (such as a Ctek) for a few minutes which will allow you to start the truck and then drive to a dealer for a warranty battery replacement.
Other Tips:
Tonneau Cover – A good bed cover is a wonderful thing for most people. Ideally it should be lockable.
Rain-X on Lenses – Helps keep camera lenses clear. This is especially important for the rear facing cameras that are not well protected.
A nickel for the center console – The spring for this is extremely weak. A nickel (or quarter for big spenders) is a cheap fix.
Short Antenna – To avoid a broken antenna in car washes. Almost any short antenna that fits an F-150 should work. Mine was $8 from EcoAuto.
Ford Dealers
Are hit or miss, mostly miss. Overall, even in 2024, their knowledge of EV’s is quite deplorable. This applies to sales, service and management. Some is ignorance and some is outright lying.
You need to do your own research and learn about the vehicle and EV’s yourself.
The only Ford dealer in or near the Twin Cities that I found to be somewhat knowledgable and honest was Morries in Minnetonka.
Dealer Games – The games that dealers play during both the purchase process and service is more than a little frustrating. Sales games are with juggling incentives, option packages and trim levels. They want to make it difficult to compare.
Tesla (and Rivian and increasingly others) is much more straightforward. The price is the price. Nearly all options are included. Lease makes up for loss of Federal Tax Credit. If only Tesla or Rivian had a good basic work truck.
Buying Tips
Study up on the various incentives and option packages. There are a bewildering number of each and a lot of rules about how they combine.
Be careful what you assume it includes. I was very surprised that mine did not include; walkup/walkaway unlock/lock, vanity mirror lights, heated steering wheel, rear step. These have been standard on every vehicle we’ve bought over the past 15-20 years but require purchase of factory option packages from Ford.
Charging:
Here is my understanding of best practices for charging to maintain good battery health and range. Hopefully this is helpful.
Degradation happens slowly over time. Typical loss is about 1-5% per year.
Note: Ford says that routine charging to 90% or 100% is fine. That is for marketing. In reality you want to charge to a lower SOC whenever possible.
I am not an expert on batteries, though I may sometimes know a bit about physics (but I really don’t like chemistry and batteries are chemistry so take that FWIW), a friend of mine has spent several decades doing leading research on Li-ion batteries, and my wife and I have been driving BEV’s for over a decade (currently S, Y, and Lightning).
There are two primary Li-ion battery chemistries:
- NMC – Used in most BEV’s, I think including all pre-2025 Lightnings.
- LFP – Less expensive than NMC but also lower density so results in heavier vehicle per kWh. Appears to be less prone to degradation than NMC but can still see significant degradation, particularly if kept at a high SOC. It’s more important with LFP to occasionally (once / month?) charge to 100% to re-calibrate. I believe used in some 2025 Lightnings.
Charging Tips
In likely order of importance for battery health;
Never Go To 0% – Period. Actually, never going below 5% according to the vehicle BMS is a good practice.
State Of Charge (SOC) – Li-ion batteries (NMC & LFP) are happiest when they are at ≈ 50% SOC*. The more time the battery spends above 50% the more degradation that you’ll see. So sitting 100 hrs @ 80% (according to vehicle BMS) causes more degradation than 100 hrs @ 70% that causes more than 100 hrs @ 60%. It doesn’t appear to be a linear curve so 100 hrs @ 100% appears to cause ≈3x as much degradation as sitting 100 hrs @ 80%.
NMC take a significant hit above about 60-70% SOC so staying below that whenever possible is good.
Routinely charging to 90% or 100% and using to 70% or 50% will degrade the batteries faster. It’s much better to charge to 70% and use it to 10%.
For NMC:
- 100% SOC (according to Tesla BMS) for 1 month appears to cause 3-6% permanent degradation in range. That’s a lot.
- 90% SOC for 1 month appears to cause 2-3% degradation. That’s still a lot.
Temperature – Li-ion batteries are happiest at 20-30°c ambient air temperature (if we’re happy, our batteries are happy). At these temps the BMS is able to properly manage the battery temperature. Sitting at higher temperatures causes faster permanent degradation. Lower temps does not appear to cause permanent degradation but does negatively impact performance.
Charging Speed – At lower SOC (< 60%?) this is likely negligible. At higher SOC this does appear to cause more degradation than lower speed (L1/L2) charging. Most auto BMS’ appear to do a good job (and improving over time) of managing this. So best to stick to L1/L2 when possible but there’s probably no need to avoid DCFC when needed, especially if SOC can be kept less than 90%.
Charge Cycles (NMC) – The number of cycles has no real effect on battery health. The amplitude (SOC) does. A million cycles of charging to 55% and using to 45% will likely have little to no measurable effect on battery health while 50 cycles of charging to 90% will cause noticeable degradation.
Charge Cycles (LFP) – LFP appears to maintain health best when charged to a higher SOC and then used to a low SOC and then charged again. For frequent charging a SOC of 80% might be best and then charging to 100% once per month to recalibrate the BMS.
This gives an idea of degradation based on SOC/time/temp
Anecdotal Example. I’ve had my current Model S since 2014. In that time, with 4,702 charge cycles, the majority to 68%, it’s lost less than ≈5% range. This includes a number of cross country trips and I think 105 supercharges. Supercharges were to a lower SOC, often 80-90%, when higher wasn’t needed.
How important is this? Somewhat and we kind of don’t know. We do know that keeping batteries at high SOC (90-100% according to the car’s BMS) will cause quick and significant degradation and should be avoided whenever possible.
We don’t really know how much difference there is as we go lower, between 60% and 80% for instance, in various scenarios. It’s likely marginal but I think it’s still best to stick to a lower SOC if possible. My driving habits allow me to keep my Model S at 62% and only charge above that a few times per year.
I’ll likely keep my Lightning at 60% and only charge higher when I know I’ll need it which for me will be infrequent as most of my use is shorter local errands.
My wife charges her Y to 85% every night because she somewhat frequently needs the range unexpectedly.
Charge Rates – Vary for a number of reasons. The higher the SOC the lower the rate. Colder batteries have to be charged slower until they warm up. Many chargers are not installed to deliver what’s on the label (label may say 60amps but breaker and wiring are only good for 40a), Many multi charger stations, like Tesla Superchargers, are shared so the more people charging at once, the less each person gets.
Two Good Resources:
* For the truly anal, using 0 to whatever may be best but that’s difficult to manage in real world use and likely provides only very marginal benefit. There’s also an argument for cheating towards lower SOC like 2:1 – for every 1% above 50%, use 2% below.
Note: EV batteries have high and low buffers. For example, the vehicle’s BMS shows you about the middle 90% of the battery. So when it says that it’s charged to 100%, the batteries are actually charged to about 95%. And likewise, 0% BMS is about 5% of the actual battery. This is to protect the batteries. Note that all %’s above are based on BMS, not the actual battery.
A SR Lightning with ’98kWh battery’ is actually a 112kWh battery but useable is 98kWh. The ER is a 143.4kWh battery with 131kWh useable.
Battery degradation follows a curve of very quickly decreasing and then increases over time, it’s exponential. For example, each hour at 80% SOC causes a bit more damage than the previous hour at 80% SOC. Most people see very little loss of range over the first year or three but then if they’ve not been careful will suddenly see much greater loss beyond that.
It’s not unusual to see significant decrease over the first month or two and then near zero for a while before it begins to increase.