F-150 Lightning Electric Pickup Loses About Half Its Range When Towing

Electric pickup trucks are in high demand, especially Ford Motor Company's F F-150 Lightning. The all-electric pickup truck brings the best of Ford's popular F-150, but in a fully electric package, with the ability to driver over 300 miles without a single drop of gas.

But when towing a trailer, the range will not remain the same. While this is a true in a gas-powered truck as well, it's not as detrimental since filling with gasoline only takes a few minutes, where charging an electric vehicle can take 20-60 minutes or more.

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In a test covered by Electrek, a new F-150 Lightning owner's towing experience showed the vehicle lost about half its range when towing. The towed item was a 23-foot Airstream trailer, and the truck was able to intelligently estimate the new (half) range when the details of the trailer were entered into the car's computer.

Overall, the owner was happy with the towing experience, but wanted better efficiency. Especially because the vehicle was only traveling around 65-mph, and knowing that faster speeds would diminish the range even more. 

Photo courtesy of Ford