Ford F-150 Lightning Handles Winter Like a Pro, but How Will the Cold Affect Its Range?
The Blue Oval tested the Ford F-150 Lightning in extreme cold but didn’t share any data on how winter affected range.
Electric vehicles are the hot new thing in the automotive world, as automakers are scrambling to expand their electrified offerings while more and more consumers are thinking about purchasing one. However, many are still hesitant to make the switch for a variety of reasons including range anxiety, lack of infrastructure, and just a general lack of knowledge in regards to where a battery’s raw materials are sourced and the environmental impact of production. Thus, automakers like Ford have a tough task proving to the public that EVs are worthy of replacing ICE vehicles, and that effort continued recently as The Blue Oval showed off the tough winter testing it put the new 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning through.
This testing involved a total of six pre-production Ford F-150 Lightning prototypes that were sent to a military base in Alaska, enduring temperatures of -30 degrees across two weeks of 12 hour testing days. The idea was to see how the truck would hold up in the extreme cold, as well as fine-tuning its electric motors to ensure they are adjusting the amount of power sent to each wheel when faced with slippage caused by ice and snow. The results, it seems, were rather impressive.
“F-150 Lightning in the snow is a very different ballgame compared to gas vehicles,” said Nick Harris, F-150 Lightning powertrain engineer. “The responses are extremely quick and the dual motors make it as if you have two engines pumping out power in one vehicle. A lot of our work is to coordinate the two motors to work together to best deliver torque to the ground so that customers who drive in the snow and ice ultimately feel very confident.”
This is obviously good news for those that live in areas subjected to winter weather each year, but one little piece of information Ford left out is how this cold weather ultimately affected the truck’s range. It’s a well-known fact that EVs lose a considerable amount of range in cold weather, even the Tesla Model Y – which comes equipped with a heat pump that improves cold-weather efficiency.
The Ford F-150 Lightning, on the other hand, is not equipped with a heat pump, so many are curious to see how much range they’ll lose when the days turn shorter and far colder. AAA did a study on this very topic a couple of years ago and found that on average, EVs lose around 40 percent of their stated range when the heater is in use, which it typically is.
AAA put a BMW i3s, Chevrolet Bolt, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S 75D, and Volkswagen e-Golf on a dynamometer in a climate-controlled cell and proceeded to test each in temperatures of 20 degrees, 75 degrees, and 95 degrees, and found some interesting results. In the cold weather, the average range loss came in at 12 percent without the heater running and 41 percent when it was. In the hot weather, range dropped a mere 4 percent without A/C and 17 percent with, proving that higher temperatures aren’t as big a concern to EV owners as low ones.
In all fairness, Ford doesn’t even have official EPA range numbers for the F-150 Lightning just yet, only estimating that trucks equipped with the standard range battery will go 230 miles on a charge, while the extended range battery offers upwards of 300 miles of range. But we’re talking about a brand new vehicle here, so we’ll have to reserve judgment for the effects of cold weather on the truck’s range when it launches later this spring.
Photos: Ford
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