BOB KENYON
Special to Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — My wife and I treated ourselves to a retirement present of a 2024 Red (Go Chiefs!) Ford F150 Lightning. It’s all electric but looks like any other F150 except that there is no exhaust pipe. Our first takeaway was its speed. The Lightning goes 0-60 in 3.8 seconds. You literally get smashed against the seat backs if you punch the gas, or rather, the accelerator. Lightning fast.
Charging is doable, however, there is much to know. There are three levels of charging: level 1, 2 and 3. Level one is a 120v plug like what you plug your toaster into. Level one will take several days to charge your EV, not practical, but better than nothing in a pinch. Level 2 uses 240v like what you plug your dryer into. That will take around 6-8 hours which is great for overnight or while you’re at work, but not great if you’re on a road trip, unless you take 6 hour lunch breaks. You can install a level 2 charger in your garage. Midwest Ford allows us to use their level 2 charger. We plug it in in the evening and it’s full in the morning. It’s free with a code to anyone who purchases an EV there. Level 3 or fast chargers, get the job done in 20-60 minutes. They can be found every 100 miles or less on interstates. Level 2 chargers have a power rating of about 10kw. Level 3 are generally 100-350kw although they sometimes are as low as 50kw. The higher the number, the faster it goes.
A couple definitions: kw stands for kilowatt and indicates how powerful the station is. Just like your 120v outlet is half as powerful as your 240v outlet, the 100kw level 3 charging station is 10 times as powerful as your 10kw level 2 charger in your garage. If you have a 100 watt incandescent lightbulb, you will use 100 watts in one hour. If the light is on for 10 hours you will use 1,000 watts or 1 kwh (kilowatt hours). Kilo = 1,000. The power level is kw, the amount you use is kwh.
Then things get more complicated. You’d think any EV could charge at any EV station and you’d be wrong. There are three types of plugs: J1772/CCS for the Lightning and most non-Tesla EVs, CHAdeMo connector, which stands for “CHArge de Move” and is used by the Nissan Leaf, Tesla created the NACS plug which stands for “The North American Charging Standard” (NACS) -most modest of them to declare their plug was the North American Standard. The level 3 version of the level 2 J1772 is the CCS connector, which stands for “Combined Charging System”. Clear as mud? We’ll have a J1772 level 2 charger in our garage and look for CCS when on the road or the NACS with the converter.
Until recently, Tesla only allowed Teslas to use their charging stations. After purchasing a $200 adapter, the Lightning can now use a Tesla charging station if the Tesla charging station has been updated. The app on our phone tells us whether the Tesla charging station will work for our truck. They are ubiquitous and super fast. The cords tend to be very short, fine for the Tesla but a little problematic for the Lightning which needs a longer chord. Rivians can also use the Tesla station with more EV models being added to those allowed.
So you think that’s all you need to know, wrong. There are at least a dozen different companies that have EV stations. Each uses a different app. We drove from Hutchinson to Boulder CO to Durango CO and back and found stations to make the trip with a little preplanning. Going across Kansas not via I70 took some analysis. There are presently pretty much no fast chargers from Garden City to Hutch, so plan ahead.
Finding the chargers is another project. You can ask google maps or apple maps to show you charging stations. Be sure to specify fast chargers if you’re on a road trip. Plugshare.com is another option. The thing we really appreciated about the plug share app is the ability to enter your destination into the app and it shows you all the charging stations along several routes. Also, the stations are color coded so it is easy to identify fast chargers, they’re the orange ones. We also used the Electrify America app to find their chargers, which are easy to find if you are on a major interstate highway. The map on the truck also showed stations. Eventually, we’ll have an app that shows them all. It was handy to have a wife who ran 4 or 5 apps to locate our next charging station with the proper plug.
What you pay per kwh (kilowatt hour) will vary at different stations and you might not know the rate until you get there. The cost per kwh at your home is somewhere around 7 cents. Our biggest charge took something like 90kwh so it would cost about $6.30 to charge at home. Not bad compared to around $80 to fill a truck with gas. Unfortunately the cost per kwh at a fast charger is around 50 cents so we paid around $40 each time we charged on the road. There isn’t a big sign telling you the cost per kwh, but this information can generally be found on all the charger apps. We also found a fast charger which was free at a Village Inn. “Came for the charge, stayed for the pie”. Hint - restaurants looking to increase patronage should add a fast charger. Make it free and you’ll make it up for what customers buy while they are waiting for their vehicle to charge. We paid about $400 for electricity on the trip and calculated it probably would have been $200 for gasoline. Surely the fast chargers will get less expensive after the installation costs are covered and there is more competition. It’s cheap to charge at home, expensive on the road, free if you have solar or can find a free charger.
Another perk of the Lightning is the frunk (front trunk). With no engine, it’s spacious and has a compartment with a drain for cerveza and ice. There are 120v outlets all over so you can plug in your crockpot with chili for tailgating. The truck has built in wifi and hands free driving. With the right equipment, the truck can be configured to power your house if the grid goes down. Your sump pump and fridge can power on through the storm.
In sum, we have a ways to go before charging plugs and stations and apps are standardized, but it's doable. We’re buying a house with a huge solar array and a J1772 charging station in the garage so our in-town “fuel cost” will be zero. And, we’ll put zero carbon in the air. See Mike at Midwest Ford if this sparks your interest in a Lightning. Go for a test drive. Newly retired with no particular deadlines, this has been a fun adventure. If I was still in the “world of hurry”, this could be a little frustrating, yet, trying not to toast the planet is virtuous.
Comments? Questions? Drop me a line.
Bob recently retired as a professor of Computer Science at Loyola University Maryland. Carla retired from Sandy Springs Friends School in Maryland where she was a teacher of upper level Mathematics including AP Calculus. She previously taught AP Statistics at Wichita Collegiate School in Wichita. They have family in Kansas City, Dallas, Western Arkansas and Wichita. They now live in Hutchinson.