How does towing affect the new Ford F-150 Lightning? Here’s one owner’s experience.
Sean reached out to us via email, sharing his recent perspective using his F-150 Lightning XLT. One of the biggest questions about towing with electric trucks, of course, is how various loads will affect range. We took a crack at answering that question in this video, though there will always be an air of “it depends”. Much like towing heavier or lighter loads will influence fuel economy, so too will they impact electric range to some extent.
At the end of the day, whether or not to pull the trigger on something like a Ford F-150 Lightning is to have as much perspective as possible for your needs. From there, you can hopefully work out whether you’re comfortable with how well (or not) you’ll be able to work with an electric truck.
Case in point, here is Sean’s experience with his F-150 Lightning:
Hey TFL,
Just wanted to share a recent towing experience with my XLT F-150 Lightning. It was a small load (aerator is 1400lbs) with a relatively small profile, but representative of how people use their trucks.
I got 1.7mi/kWh driving 14 miles on a mix of highway at 72 mph and side roads. That efficiency would equate to about 160 miles of towing range with my standard range (98kWh) battery, or about 220 miles with the extended range (131kWh) battery. | The Lightning towing comparison video where you got 89 miles of towing range used a trailer at max weight with a very large profile, so just goes to show that load weight and aerodynamics is a huge factor in towing efficiency (just like it is for ICE trucks).
