You don't gain efficiency by braking a lot. Every time you convert energy from electrical potential to kinetic energy at the wheels, some is lost to heat in the process. The same goes for regenerative braking. It's all about wind resistance being the primary driver of efficiency meaning that lower speeds are the most efficient.

That's just not possible with today's infrastructure. In most of the country, DC rapid chargers are almost always located along interstate highways and other major thoroughfares. You may gain a few miles by driving slower on secondary roads, but you'd lose them as you backtrack to the interstate to charge back up. And with a ~100 mile range with a full-profile trailer, you have precious few miles to lose without being stranded on that secondary road that lacks a wide shoulder for you to safely park. I don't see this as a practical solution that anyone would be willing to entertain, particularly after forking over $80K for an extended-range truck.

I'm on my second EV and absolutely love the experience. I hope the recent price spike is reversed so I can justify a Lightning. But as a guy who's made a few EV road trips, towing full-profile trailers over long distance is a complete nonstarter.

 

Good ole Tom, you havent changed a bit but I am suprised you arent driving one of these yet. Whether its wind resistance or not, regen braking doesnt exist for ICE. Have you driven full profile trailers with the F150 Lightning yet?

Also maybe where you live all the DC Chargers are on interstates, but the one I went to today right off one of the good ole highways and byways. No backtracking needed. Infact there are a lot of EA at Walmarts now which is great. The mileage difference in the F150 Lightning is night and day on the interstate vs the highway that have those stops I mentioned. We went down to the coast today where I averaged 2.8 mi/ kwh there and 2.5 mi / kwh back. That is max speed of 65, 2 adults, 3 children and my dog with AC on the entire time.

 

Not yet! I hesitated too long to make my reservation and finally went through with it last October. So I’m pretty far down the list. No big rush for me, though.

I’m glad to hear it’s working well for you. The trips I take go through Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania. All of them have chargers along the interstates, but virtually nothing off the beaten path. You’re getting some pretty decent efficiency numbers, though. My car is rated at 3.3 mi/kWh, which is about what I averaged on my last trip.

 

How's that?

 

When I think about it, I agree the workable range is going to increase, the big reason will be the Solid State battery, they are only a couple of years away (at most). The SS bats weigh two thirds less than the current wet bats, but they also charge in 5-10 minutes. The charge time alone makes a big difference in "useable range", as a 10 min-use the restroom, buy a cup of coffee break, "aint a hardship", an hour or two or more IS. These current wet bats EVs are hauling around all the weight-all the time, fully charged or zero charge, cut that weight by two thirds, you range just increased! This is why ford and BMW are working so hard on this, they [ford and bmw] are playing catch-up with Toyota. Toyota already has full sized, working prototypes driving all over Japan, and has committed over 16 Billion dollars to their new solid state bat production (in partnership with panasonic). This market is going to change Big Time in the next couple of years. The "around town, kid hauler" with wet bat tech- value is going to take a nose dive. Every couple of weeks I drive by the new Blue Oval City being built here in Tennessee-it is going to be HUGE, dedicated to building the Lightning-and one other (ford hasn't let the cat out of the bag on that one). If ford can get good solid state bats for these new trucks, this plant will start running like a sewing machine! (should be operational in a few years-it's a lot of plant to build)

 

Current ev's flourish while NOT on an Interstate Hwy. It's that regenerative braking thing. So the byways of the nation (like Rt. 66) where braking is expected regularly will grow more popular, even if only in the short term.

 

It all depends where on route 66 you're driving, if your out New Mexico way, you'll find a lot of 66 is now I-40 (in a lot of areas) The Old Route 66-started in Chicago-at the front door of the AAA headquarters!!! Ending at the San Monica Pier-Everyone should drive the western part of the route at least once, it's great-not the Chicago area of course, we want you to come home alive! I read a book a couple of years ago, short paperback about the history of Route 66-it was interesting to say the least, the politicos in the old days were just as ruthless as they are today, what was done in places such as Albuquerque to have 66 run through town, was amazing. As car guys, if you're sitting around next winter, take some time and read up on 66-it'll brighten you day!

 

There is no such thing as free energy.

Regenerative braking simply recovers energy that you already bought and paid for getting up to speed and puts it back into the battery. But, just like every other time you convert energy between forms, it’s never 100% efficient. You lose energy to heat when you take it out of the battery as well as when you put it back in.

Regenerative braking doesn’t make your car gain efficiency. It means you lose a heckuva lot less efficiency than if you were to brake to a stop with friction brakes that bleed 100% of that kinetic energy into the atmosphere. You don’t want routes with more stops. It’s all about slower speed, which is actually more efficient, which is true regardless of whether you’re driving a gasoline or electric pickup truck.

 

Ironically enough, I believe California was the first state to decommission their portion of Route 66 and other states followed suit. As you mentioned, a lot of Route 66 is now interstate or is not maintained by the state DOT any longer. There are still many portions of the old Route 66 that are driveable as a historic highway where the speeds are 55+ MPH.

We have traveled much of Route 66 during our cross country adventures, out of CA that is...

If people want to utilize the state and county highways instead of the interstate, there are ways to do that. The route planning is a bit more tedious and travel times are often much longer, but if they are like us and drive like they have nowhere to be, then that may work in their favor. It certainly has for us in the past.

Teton pass out of Jackson WY is one of our favorite "reroutes" off the interstate.

Even then, the speeds are often 55, 65 and higher on the state and county highways. Anyone that has ever driven through TX, WY, UT or MT knows what I am saying. Even in GA the state highways can be 65 MPH.

So many beautiful drives, so little time.

When we travel cross country towing our 5th wheel, I don't exceed 65 MPH. Even in TX, OK and WY I still go 65 or lower. I garnered 12.3 MPG at ~19,000 lbs GCVW over a 5,500 mile trip towing from GA to ID to MN to GA last summer. Not too shabby for a 22 year old Ford diesel truck if you ask me.

My wife in the Subaru following behind gets a nice draft increase of ~10 MPG... Br8ngs the 2008 6 cylinder AWD Tribeca in the 30's for MPG. Again, not too shabby for a 14 year old big Subaru.

Imagine a Hyundai EV6 or similar traveling behind the 5th wheel... Even on the somewhat short range limitations of ~300 miles she may get well into the 400 mile club. Combine that with the 75 gallon capacity of the truck and we are good to go without stopping for fuel (of either type) for a long time.

Exciting times ahead of us as a long distance traveling and heavy towing family. ​​​​​​​

 

Can't help but wonder if the HWY speed limits will be reduced back to 55mph to help with EV efficiency and to increased distance on a charge?

 

I don't see the point. In general, EV drivers are well aware that going slower is more efficient, and that they can go further on a charge at lower speeds. During my trip home from NH in July, I stretched 285 miles to reach the Syracuse charging station I was shooting for. When I got on the NY Thruway, there was a significant headwind, so I had to drop my speed to 61 MPH to make it. Nothing stopped me from doing that, and nobody else had to slow down on my account. If an EV driver wants to go further by going slower, there's nothing to stop them. Of course, that exact same concept applies to an ICE-powered truck.

Why would anyone feel motivated to compel everyone to do likewise?

 

Having two different population of vehicles driving two different average hwy speeds will eventually cause safety issues and if the EV battery world doesn't make significant improvements soon, I'm predicting this change will be coming down the pipe.

 

I grew up in Ohio, where they had a split lower speed limit for trucks for most of my lifetime. Currently, trucks are restricted to 55 MPH while the speed limit is 70 MPH for cars. It makes for mildly unpleasant driving, but I’ve never seen any data supporting a safety argument. Just looking on Google, it looks like a bunch of states have split speed limits for trucks.

If this were an inevitable safety issue, these states wouldn’t have kept the split limit.

https://www.truckercountry.com/truck.../speed-limits/

 

So if the population of vehicles on the road increases the drive 55 MPH population to a point where "mildly unpleasant" goes to frequent road rage everyone will pay the price. I can see a Sammar Haggar come back.

 

Why on earth would half the people on the road go 55?

I’ve had to slow down to reach a charger maybe three or four times in almost 50,000 miles. I drive my EV6 faster than I drove my gas burners because of how cheap it is to operate. You lose efficiency as you get faster, but that’s pennies in an EV compared to dollars in a gas burner. Today, I drove 80 miles, and stayed with the fastest traffic between 77-82 MPH for most of it. A Tesla owner in my area recently posted about his efficiency on a work trip from Minneapolis to Omaha at 85 MPH.