2022 F150 Lightning battery capacities revealed: 98 kWh / 131 kWh

[Electric Rivilution]

Some new specs revealed tonight.

See info:
https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/f150-lightning-livestream-12-16-–-q-a-specs-infographics.7503/

98 kWh standard range battery capacity
131 kWh extended range battery capacity

Top "Platinum" model gets 280 miles range

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[BradSomrak]

Looks like they are targeting 300 EPA hopes/projections for the extended range battery, non-Platinum trim.

 

[Canthoney]

Is anyone else surprised how small the battery pack is? I thought it would be at least 150 kW to 180 kW because of how heavy its bound to be

 

[dpc166]

For the price, it seems Rivian is more efficient for the range.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Is anyone else surprised how small the battery pack is? I thought it would be at least 150 kW to 180 kW because of how heavy its bound to be

I was. I am highly doubtful the top battery will get 300+ miles because I anticipate this vehicle being significantly less aerodynamic than the R1T. I think they will be extremely lucky to get an EPA rating above 300 with a 131kwh battery.

 

[SeaGeo]

Is anyone else surprised how small the battery pack is? I thought it would be at least 150 kW to 180 kW because of how heavy its bound to be

I was. I am highly doubtful the top battery will get 300+ miles because I anticipate this vehicle being significantly less aerodynamic than the R1T. I think they will be extremely lucky to get an EPA rating above 300 with a 131kwh battery.

Same. This falls into the category of something is not lining up for me. Unless the F150 is a hell of a lot more aerodynamic than I think it is.

 

[AdamsFan1983]

Maybe Ford is being much less conservative w the battery reserves re: battery longevity. I mean their pack warrantee is far less generous than Rivian.

 

[Zybane]

98 kWh in a Pickup. Yikes. Ford is going to get a lot of complaints once people find out their brand new pickup on the highway during a cold day will get less than 150 miles.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

98 kWh in a Pickup. Yikes. Ford is going to get a lot of complaints once people find out their brand new pickup on the highway during a cold day will get less than 150 miles.

Isn't the Mach E standard battery 98 kwh as well? I think it is rated for 211 hwy miles and the Mach E is much more aerodynamic than the Lightning will be. 150 on the highway in the cold might be optimistic

 

[Canthoney]

Isn't the Mach E standard battery 98 kwh as well? I think it is rated for 211 hwy miles and the Mach E is much more aerodynamic than the Lightning will be. 150 on the highway in the cold might be optimistic

No, the base battery is 70 kW and then extended range is 90 kW. Even so, just look at the Hummer EV; damn thing has a 200 kW battery and still only gets a 329 miles, and I was guessing the F-150 would be pretty close in weight to that.

Honestly, I don’t know how Ford is doing it. Unless of course this is just usable battery, and maybe the real battery size is larger?

 

[kylealden]

Honestly, I don’t know how Ford is doing it. Unless of course this is just usable battery, and maybe the real battery size is larger?

We'll have to see actual tests, but it's worth noting that the battery is a double-edged sword. Batteries are heavy - the Hummer is 9,000lbs because it is hauling around 200kWh, which it needs to haul around because it's 9000lbs...

Each kWh of cells you add needs to push itself before it can push the vehicle, so you get into a diminishing returns situation pretty quickly.

Besides that, the Hummer EV is bloated and rushed to production based on concepts with very little time to "trim the fat" and no apparent focus on efficiency. The Lightning is built into a body that carries forward decades of optimization for fuel efficiency - it may not be a slipstream champ, but it should be better than the Hummer.

At the end of the day it will be very interesting to compare the actual wh/mi for these three. Seems like Rivian is coming in around 450 real-world, and Ford is aiming a little below that based on projections, with Hummer somewhere hilarious like 800 wh/mi. This could be Ford blowing smoke, or it could be weight savings and efficiency bonuses from not hauling around four motors, among other things. We'll see!

 

[SeaGeo]

Maybe Ford is being much less conservative w the battery reserves re: battery longevity. I mean their pack warrantee is far less generous than Rivian.

No, the base battery is 70 kW and then extended range is 90 kW. Even so, just look at the Hummer EV; damn thing has a 200 kW battery and still only gets a 329 miles, and I was guessing the F-150 would be pretty close in weight to that.

Honestly, I don’t know how Ford is doing it. Unless of course this is just usable battery, and maybe the real battery size is larger?

It was communicated by Ford that the 98 and 131 kWh are usable, not total. So they're basically saying they're getting 14 fewer miles with 2 fewer kWh than the R1T, aka the R1T would only go about 3% farther with the same sized battery. Which just doesn't make sense to me given how much larger the F150 is, and how much effort Rivian obviously put into trying to make the R1T about as aerodynamic as they could. I suppose the Lightning could have a much more efficient drive train, but it's not like the Mach E's seems to be uniquely efficient, and it's not like there's a ton of room to improve on the energy efficiency of an electric drive train.

 

[Rob Stark]

No, the base battery is 70 kW and then extended range is 90 kW. Even so, just look at the Hummer EV; damn thing has a 200 kW battery and still only gets a 329 miles, and I was guessing the F-150 would be pretty close in weight to that.

Honestly, I don’t know how Ford is doing it. Unless of course this is just usable battery, and maybe the real battery size is larger?

No, a Lightning will not weight the same as a fully loaded triple motor Hummer EV. For styling reasons, the Hummer EV is as close to a brick aerodynamically as you can get.

Yes , the quoted battery sizes are usable. Ford has not released the gross battery sizes.

The Chevy Silverado EV is expected to do ~400 EPA miles with the 200 kWh back.

The R1T is not quite a full size truck and will get a 180 kWh pack.

kWh per pound in both R1T and Silverado EV max pack might be the same.

 

[SeaGeo]

We'll have to see actual tests, but it's worth noting that the battery is a double-edged sword. Batteries are heavy - the Hummer is 9,000lbs because it is hauling around 200kWh, which it needs to haul around because it's 9000lbs...

Each kWh of cells you add needs to push itself before it can push the vehicle, so you get into a diminishing returns situation pretty quickly.

Besides that, the Hummer EV is bloated and rushed to production based on concepts with very little time to "trim the fat" and no apparent focus on efficiency. The Lightning is built into a body that carries forward decades of optimization for fuel efficiency - it may not be a slipstream champ, but it should be better than the Hummer.

At the end of the day it will be very interesting to compare the actual wh/mi for these three. Seems like Rivian is coming in around 450 real-world, and Ford is aiming a little below that based on projections, with Hummer somewhere hilarious like 800 wh/mi. This could be Ford blowing smoke, or it could be weight savings and efficiency bonuses from not hauling around four motors, among other things. We'll see!

The interesting thing is the expected range of each of their battery packs suggests only a ~2.5% efficiency hit of ~426 wh/mi to 437 wh/mi. Assuming the battery pack is basically the same as what's in the mach e, that's about 465 lbs difference with that hit. I guess that the two motors and extra battery the R1T has could account for some of the difference, but I'd also guess that the F150 will be heavier than the R1T in general. We'll eventually find that out.

In any case, it's going to be interesting to see what the EPA docs say, and to get the actual weight of the F150. And then how both of them do in the real world.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

No, a Lightning will not weight the same as a fully loaded triple motor Hummer EV. For styling reasons, the Hummer EV is as close to a brick aerodynamically as you can get.

Yes , the quoted battery sizes are usable. Ford has not released the gross battery sizes.

The Chevy Silverado EV is expected to do ~400 EPA miles with the 200 kWh back.

The R1T is not quite a full size truck and will get a 180 kWh pack.

kWh per pound in both R1T and Silverado EV max pack might be the same.

GM also expected to get 350+ EPA rated range on the Hummer and then announced a range of significantly less and didn't even get it EPA tested so I'd take that 400 estimate with a grain of salt.

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