AAA test shows how much loading up the F-150 Lightning reduces its range

Does anyone need convincing that loading up your EV with heavy stuff will limit its range? It seems so, in fact, AAA took it so seriously, it conducted its own research to prove to everyone that electric cars aren’t unicorns, and just as ICE-powered vehicles, need more energy to deal with heavy loads.

The AAA is the American equivalent of AA in the UK or ADAC in Germany. The organization offers anything from roadside assistance to helpful vehicle reviews based on customer interest. Since the emergence of electric cars, the public has always had more questions than there are answers available. EV manufacturers are not making it easy with often misleading claims about EVs driving range. This time AAA decided to look into the effects of heavy load on one of the first electric pickup trucks available in the US of A.

The organization chose the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning LR AWD model for the research, strapped it to the dyno, and proceeded with loading it up with bags of sand. The total load was recorded - 1,400 lb of the sand sitting on the back of the electric F-150. With the pickup strapped and sandbags in place, the AAA boffins flicked the switch and got their pencils out.

After testing the F-150 without the load, the vehicle recorded 278 miles, with the full load that range dropped to 210 miles, which is a whopping 24.5% reduction. Funny how physics works - a fully loaded ICE-powered F-150 has fuel economy about 25% worse than an empty truck.

The AAA took a serious approach to the entire test, before strapping the F-150 to the dyno, its road load coefficient was worked out by doing the standard coast-down test. The vehicle is driven to 77.7 mph, and then it’s allowed to coast until it achieves 9.3 mph speed. Time and distance are measured, and the result is the RL coefficient that takes into account air resistance and rolling resistance. It is then applied to dyno results as a correction, and the end results are as close to real life as possible.

The F-150 Lightning test shows what the whole world already knew - the range drops and by quite a lot at that. 278 miles initial range is already short of EPA certified 320 miles, if we were to go by the EPA numbers, then the loaded range of 210 miles represents only 65% of the claimed range.

All this test did is to show that we desperately need a more realistic testing regime, we need better battery technology now and not in 5 years, and we need reliable charging infrastructure, so 200 miles trip is not an issue. It will be a while before we get there.

Source