Ford surprises F-150 Lightning owners with adapter for charging stranded Teslas | Hacker News Reader

Ford surprises F-150 Lightning owners with adapter for charging stranded Teslas

theverge.com

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This reminded me of the fact that you can charge an electric vehicle by towing it.

Apparently Ford's got a patent: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1132920_ford-patents-cha...

On what pretty much amounts to reversing the polarity.

I wonder what slope is necessary for downhill to work unassisted? Should publish in owners manual.

I did that like in 2018 when we had no charger close by during EV development... there is no way there is no 'prior art' for this patent?

Food for thought: towing a 10,000lb load will shorten the range to well under 100 miles. Then you need to recharge it. This doesn’t sound useful in the slightest. Maybe very specific missions will benefit but far from the norm of a f150.

Personally I will not spend $75k (fully loaded at $90k) just for the possibility to charge my house if the power goes out or to use power tools at a work site, there are lower cost options for both. Def wouldn’t tow a boat 300mi to the beach so this model really seems like a toy but maybe I’m missing something? Anyone else seriously consider this truck?

Current Ford F-150 towing capacity is 5,000 to 11,300 lbs depending on the package.

Most people probably don't need long range peak towing capacity.

Seems like the feature set could be useful to a lot of people, probably most, maybe not for you though.

>most

Who’s the target demographic of the f150? Although it is under the lightening moniker so practicality is not a defining feature :D

A contractor or construction worker working a city wouldn't need to travel long distances between job sites.

My point was that a contractor or construction worker probably wouldn’t be driving an f150 lightning as it’s not really practical but it sure is fun (see the F150 SVT with its single digit city mileage as a previous example)

Sure it’s not practical for a lot of existing owners but Ford has to start somewhere and I think it’s a pretty good place to start

The tech simply isn’t there yet for your ask but if Ford waited for the day the tech arrived, they wouldn’t even be in the game

COrrect. The SVT raptor puts out 500+ ponies. No construction worker needed that, but it did pave the way for more efficient ecoboost engines (mustang has a lovely 2.5L EB engine) which power the entire ford lineup

City contractors also spend a lot of time stuck in traffic.

Doing errands between jobs sites to bring materials.

Would of loved to have this on the fleet of trucks.

If you can charge through towing one day, then all your gear continues to charge while on the road, that's another neat feature.

They shouldn’t be driving more than 5 hours a day.

Anyone with an RV (trailer) does.

My guess is the average use would be a load of materials or tools in the bed. I doubt people are buying this to tow large loads or longer hauls.

Yeah, most f150's just tow groceries ;)

Do you think that everyone who buys a pickup truck regularly uses the truck bed? Or do they more likely have it "just in case"? There's a lot to be said about certain "aspirational" purchases.

No, but I do. I also regularly tow 10,000 lbs hundreds or thousands of miles.

Then this is very obviously not the vehicle for you.

I hope they deliver this:

https://insideevs.com/news/590878/ford-f-150-lightning-remov...

I already have a 3500 watt propane powered generator we keep in the bed of our truck for our rv, so I've been wondering what barriers there were to charging while driving and then I came across the above article.

You are not the target customer

But I am.

I've owned a F-150 for 15 years, drove it until the wheels fell off, much of it towing our RV trailer around the Southwest US and California coast.

When it finally was time, we upgraded to an F-250 (but kept the same trailer, which is at thr top end of the towing capability of F-150's but much more fun to tow with an F-250).

We also live in SOMA in San Francisco, park our truck in an underground garage, and pay some of the highest fuel prices around.

I would argue I'm the exact target customer. If they can satisfy my needs (desires really) with an electric truck, they've won the battle.

They haven't cracked it quite yet, but with something like this I think they can:

https://insideevs.com/news/590878/ford-f-150-lightning-remov...

I hear you! Sounds like an awesome way to use your truck. But what I'm getting at is the question of if lots of/most F-150 owners tow anything at all? Or tow regularly enough to care like you care? Is this really for the folks who just want a truck rather than the folks who actually use it?

It seems that 75% fall into the bucket you mention:

https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-siz...

The question isn't really would you buy this truck only because it has the power features. It's would you pay a little extra for a truck that also has the power features. Personally, I doubt I'll buy an electric truck anytime soon, but if I were replacing my truck anyway, and it could also replace my portable generator, that'd be nice; my generator is only for my well, but I've got to run it for 30 minutes a month to keep it in order, it'd be a lot nicer if that was just included in my use.

OTOH, my current truck is a 2003 s-10 single cab; nobody makes small trucks like that anymore, and I don't want a big truck, so I'll just keep the truck and the generator that I already have. Maybe a future car that appeals to me will be able to power my well.

A common towing use case is a camper... with water tanks you can easily hit 5000-8000 lbs on a dual axle. It'd be super nice to be able to tow a camper 400miles then have energy left over to power it's lights / AC. We just don't have these power densities with battery-electric... and fuel cells still haven't landed.

Last time I looked, the price of an electric F-150 was actually a good chunk cheaper than a Tesla car + Tesla power wall setup of an equivalent size. A $70k truck* doesn't seem so expensive when you line it up against a $40k car and $60k of batteries.

*After tax rebates, which might not be available any more?

Ford should sell trailers specifically for the F-150 with batteries on-board. That would be pretty sweet.

It is great to see a 120 year old company have so much energy. At the same time, Tesla is still the best when it comes to range.

After going on a number of long road trips in different electric vehicles, the bigger thing to beat is Tesla supercharger network. Electrify America locations just aren't as well spaced out and about every other charging station seems to have a broken charger. While it wasn't a problem for me, they also don't have enough chargers at each station.

> After going on a number of long road trips in different electric vehicles, the bigger thing to beat is Tesla supercharger network. Electrify America locations just aren't as well spaced out and about every other charging station seems to have a broken charger. While it wasn't a problem for me, they also don't have enough chargers at each station.

I've only driven Teslas in CA where super chargers are rather common, my favorite being the one next the SpaceX factory in Hawthorne.

And I keep telling people the same thing you said, this is why I think Tesla is more an energy company that makes cars to use it's network rather than the other way around.

I'm glad they have competition, as EV was always going to be more than a one horse race if it were to succeed and while Nissan had 1st mover advantage they have fallen way behind with the Leaf project: luckily a post Ghosn era will see most of their lineup going EV and they're spending $18 Billion to offer more EV models in the next 5 years [0].

And Buick is re-branding as an EV only company [1], I'm actually interested in what they could deliver if they go for moonshots as classic Buicks were actually quite stunning in the 30-70s eras. They never got the same recognition as a Cadillac but they were on par style wise in my opinion. They could just emulate Lexus styles (that Wildcat screams of LC) with Electric motors and it would probably be a solid platform if they market themselves better and takes hints at why it works in China. Maybe if they stick with wagons as the Roadmaster still has a lot of cache and no one has offered a EV wagon yet?

The issue, of course, is where will they charge?

0: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/29/22807700/nissan-electric...

1: https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/1/23148699/buick-ev-electric...

The charging stations are likely not a durable advantage, they are cheap enough to build out that other companies will be able to catch up.

The hard part is probably being able to support something around 1 MW peaks when charging a few cars at once with fast charging on a small lot zoned for light commercial. I believe Tesla is storing energy on-site so they don't have to load the local grid with those kinds of peaks. That kind of grid energy storage is kinda expensive, if you don't build it yourself.

Doesn’t this shift the burden onto local utility grids and their customers instead of vehicle owners?

That’s the point, Tesla has experience in not making it a local problem, by using their own technology. Other car makers don’t have an energy company to lean on.

Ah yes, the fabled solar powered superchargers. One of the oh-so-many failed promises.

https://electrek.co/2017/06/09/tesla-superchargers-solar-bat...

I don't see how the costs would be any different for Tesla than for some other company that is also supported by an electric car maker.

The fenced off area at my local Meijer is pretty small.

Tesla makes grid batteries using the same or similar tech as for their cars.

Yeah, I understand. There's nothing stopping a large buyer from getting a good deal on other grid storage.

(or say, some other grid storage company deciding to build chargers)

Great! I look forward to it. Let’s fucking go. Show me the plans. Show me the permits. Show me the map with the pins that tell me when they’re planning to catch up.

Tesla has been firing on all cylinders on this front for years. There’s a new forum thread started for every single charging site that is planned. I want to see this for electrify America stations.

> Tesla is still the best when it comes to range.

I thought Lucid was offering much higher ranges? e.g.: Lucid Air Dream Range.

TBH, I rather have more efficiency on a day to day bases + faster charging than range :).

Had to edit the title to fit... original title: > Ford surprises F-150 Lightning owners with accessory that can recharge stranded Teslas

Is there any way to use some combination of adapters to charge the F-150 at Tesla superchargers?

Part of the reason for the Ford Model T's success was its versatility. It was popular among farmers and third parties sold numerous conversion kits to make it into a tractor, snowmobile, plow, generator, etc. In many ways the Lightning seems destined to fill this role today by acting as a mobile power station for jobsites and remote areas

Not sold on this vehicle. A cursory google search brings up a 9.6kW battery system for $4260.

Just seems overpriced for its capabilities

You can connect a 1000W inverter to a Prius and it'll happily run for days until the tank is empty. You probably aren't going to see those at a job site though.

https://invertersrus.com/prius-power-inverter/

The highest level trim has 130 kWh of energy storage. It can output 9.6kW of power.

It looks like the battery alone would be about $30-$40K, plus you’d need an inverter and.. it’s not a truck.

https://sunwatts.com/amp/100-kwh-solar-battery/

** Based on manufacturer calculation using computer engineering simulations. Your results may vary.

but i get what you are saying

This reads like a press release... I would be less skeptical if I had ever actually seen or heard about a "stranded Tesla". https://insideevs.com/news/590336/ford-f150-lightning-includ... https://www.thedrive.com/news/ford-threw-in-a-tesla-charging... https://au.pcmag.com/cars-auto/94457/fords-electric-f-150-li... https://www.powernationtv.com/post/ford-gifts-f-150-lightnin... https://www.carscoops.com/2022/06/ford-f-150-lightning-comes... https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/447890-the-ford-f-15... https://gearjunkie.com/news/ford-f-150-lightning-tesla-charg... https://electrek.co/2022/06/06/ford-adapter-charge-stranded-... https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/fords-electric-f... https://koolplaz.com/ford-surprises-f-150-lightning-owners-w... https://hitechglitz.com/ford-surprises-f-150-lightning-owner... https://www.techradar.com/au/news/is-ford-trolling-tesla-wit...

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