The trip was finished with a rented gas-powered car, and Ford says that charging infrastructure is getting better
The owner of a 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat with an extended range battery now wishes he hadn’t bought it. He tried to take the electric truck on a road trip, but had to leave it behind and finish the trip in a gas-powered rental car.
Last month, Dalbir Bala of La Salle, Manitoba, left the truck in Minnesota because he said he couldn’t charge the battery at two different charging stations.
Bala said, “It was really a nightmare and a lot of trouble for us.”
Bala paid $115,000 for the truck in January. It is advertised as having a range of 515 kilometers. He spent an extra $16,000 to put chargers in his home and business, which is a trucking company, and to upgrade the electrical panel in his home.
Bala, his wife, and their three children left on a business trip to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, and Chicago on July 27. When they left their home just south of Winnipeg, the truck was fully charged, and Bala planned to stop at level 3 EV stations, which offer fast charges, along the route.
Bala’s first stop was in Fargo, N.D., about 350 km south of Winnipeg. He had to pay $56 to charge the battery of his car from 10% to 90%.
Charging troubl
The trouble started at his next stop in Albertville, Minnesota. When Bala plugged his truck into the only fast charger there, he got a message saying there was a problem with the connection. He tried to get help by calling the number on the charger, but no one answered.
He went to a different charging station in the nearby town of Elk River, Minnesota, but a charger there didn’t work either, he said.
With only 15 km left on his battery and no fast charger in that area, he decided to give up on his Lightning. Bala had it towed to a Ford dealer, and the rest of the family rented a Toyota 4Runner to get to Chicago.
“That’s when we decided we don’t want any more distractions or frustration,” Bala said.
It’s not clear why Bala’s truck in Albertville couldn’t get a charge. Robbin Nesbit, who is in charge of sales for the Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association, said that the fast charger was working on July 27, when Bala stopped by, and that other people had been able to charge their electric vehicles successfully.
ChargePoint’s AJ Gosselin said that the company has two level 2 chargers in Elk River. Level 2 chargers don’t charge as quickly as level 3 chargers.He said that one station was down for maintenance, but that there was another station that was still working within Bala’s range.
Clean energy and high gas prices led to the purchase
Bala wanted a car that ran on clean energy and hoped to save some of the $1,000 to $1,500 a month he was spending on gas for his truck. He uses pickup trucks for fun things like hunting, fishing, quad riding, and going to his cottage.
“New technology, electric car… “I thought it was good,” he said. “That’s what made me buy this thing.”
Megan Joakim from Ford of Canada said in an email that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the truck has a range of 515 km.
“The real driving range of a gas or electric car depends on things like the weather, how the car is used, and how well it is taken care of,” Joakim said.
Joakim said that public charging is getting better in the U.S. and Canada as the number of EVs sold grows.
“Ford is working to make it easier for our customers to charge by adding 12,000 Tesla Superchargers and around 4,000 fast chargers across the Ford dealer network by 2024,” Joakim said.
James Hart, the head of the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association, said that charging station maintenance and technical support need to be given more attention.
“I know I’ve heard of situations like that where they had to call the company that runs the charger and almost get them to reset the charger,” Hart said.
He would also like to see more fast chargers in the same place, in case one of them doesn’t work.
Cross-country EV succes
Even though he has a different make and model, another EV owner is more enthusiastic.
People from Winnipeg Ross Redman is a member of MEVA, and he has two electric vehicles, one of which is a 2014 Tesla Model S that he bought used. He said that his car has a range of about 434 km.
In December, he drove it from Vancouver to Winnipeg over the course of two days, stopping at Tesla supercharger stations for power during bathroom breaks, lunch, and dinner.
Redman also takes it to get to and from his cottage in Kenora.
“A lot has changed in the last 10 years,” Redman said. “You can drive the whole length of the Trans Canada Highway, and there are many places along the way where you can charge up.”
Bala picked up the truck on his way home, and now he uses his Lightning to drive between his home and work every day, which is about a 100-kilometer round trip.
“I didn’t expect to have a car worth more than $100,000 just to drive around the city,” Bala said.