Cory Gunther
That awful feeling when you run out of gas or realize you have a dead car battery is something many people experience at least once. Well, that same thing can easily happen with electric vehicles, especially if you run out of battery on a road trip in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, Ford’s new F-150 Lightning and PowerBoost Hybrid can actually charge other EVs.
Vehicle-to-vehicle charging is something we’ve heard of before, and according to The Drive, Ford hinted at it earlier this year during the F-150 announcement. Plus, when we saw the Lightning could power up a work site or your home during a storm or emergency, we had a feeling it would power cars as well.
This week, Ford confirmed two of its latest EVs are fully capable of charging any EV, as long as you have a cable and the necessary adapter.
So, if you see a stranded driver while passing by, and it happens to be an EV, you could pull over and give them enough battery power to make it to an actual charging station. This process isn’t very quick, but it could be hugely beneficial in an emergency. Unfortunately, it’s only a slower L2 charging speed and uses the AC outlet in the bed instead of the DC charging port near the vehicle’s front.
According to Hannah Ooms, Ford’s Electric Vehicle Communications Manager, here’s how fast this system is on the F-150 Lightning or PowerBoost Hybrid:
“It’s estimated to add an average range of 20 miles per charging hour to a Mustang Mach-E with extended range and rear-wheel drive, up to 13 miles of charge per hour on an F-150 Lightning, and an average range of 10 miles per charging hour to an E-Transit low-roof cargo van.”
The primary DC charging port on electric vehicles is faster, but that’s not the charging system used here. Instead, Ford is allowing owners to charge another EV with the AC wall plug in the truck’s bed. All you’ll need is an adapter and the charging cable, and you’re all set.
So while you can ditch the jumper cables, you’ll still need some sort of cable if you want to be a good samaritan and help someone in need. Nevertheless, this is a great idea, and hopefully, we’ll start to see it on more vehicles and at higher speeds.
via Roadshow
