How far will a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Lariat go at 70 mph on a single charge? We found this week when we conducted the InsideEVs 70 mph range test on a newly delivered vehicle.
The truck I used is actually my new personal vehicle that I took delivery of about a week before doing the range test. I paid MSRP - yes, there actually are dealerships out there that are honoring "sticker price", and it had nothing to do with me being a journalist as they didn't know me when I asked about pricing.
So with less than 500 miles on the odometer before the range test, I knew we had a nice fresh battery to see how many miles could be squeezed out of it.
The day was just about perfect for driving range, as the temperature was in the low 70s F (21° to 22° C) and rose up to about 80° F by the end of the test (26° C). There was a little wind, about 4-6 mph during the test, but that wouldn't be enough to make much of a difference.
The F-150 Lightning is offered with two battery pack options; the Standard Range pack has 98 kWh of usable energy and the Extended Range pack, which I have, has a usable capacity of 131 kWh.
Check out the full library of InsideEVs 70 MPH range tests
The F-150 Lightning in Lariat trim with the Extended Range battery has a combined EPA range rating of 320 miles (515 km), with its city rating being 350 miles (563 km), and the highway EPA rating came in at 283 miles (455 km). Since this is a highway range test, we like to look at the highway EPA range rating as the measuring stick. However, the EPA range calculation is not based on a specific speed as ours is, so we expect the results to be slightly different.
Just a few weeks ago I took a Rivian R1T out on the exact same course for its 70 mph range test and it finished up with 254 miles. However, the truck did have the 20" all-terrain tires and there were significant wind gusts that day. I believe had the R1T been fitted with the road tires and there wasn't such a windy day, I probably would have ended up around with about 280 to 290 miles.
| Segment Of The Test | Average Efficiency | Miles Driven | Total Miles |
| 100% to 75% | 2.0 | 73 | 73 |
| 75% to 50% | 2.0 | 69 | 142 |
| 50% to 25% | 2.0 | 61 | 203 |
| 25% to 0% | 2.1 | 67 | 270 |
We finished up driving the Ford F-150 Lightning 270 miles (435 km) and had an average consumption rating of 2.1 mi/kWh (29.5 kWh/100km). That's about 5% less than the vehicle's highway EPA range rating of 283 miles and 15% less than its combined rating of 320 miles.
Check out the video and let us know your thoughts. Do you think 270 miles is a good result? Is that enough range without adding payload or towing? I plan on doing future range tests that will examine the effect that trailers and payload have on the driving range, so stay tuned.
About Our Range Tests:
We want to make it clear our range tests aren't perfect. There are variables simply out of our control like wind, traffic, and weather. However, we do our best to control what we can.
We always set the tires to the manufacturer's recommended pressure, crosscheck the speedometer with a GPS for accuracy and place the vehicle in the most efficient driving mode (in the case of the F-150 Lightning, that's simply "Normal" driving mode.
We DC fast charge the vehicle up to 100 percent right before starting the test, reset the trip meter and enter the highway immediately or within a couple of miles. We then drive at a constant 70 mph and in long loops so we end up either where we started, or very close by.
Driving conditions, temperature, and topography will affect an EVs driving range and our 70-mph range tests serve only as a guideline of approximately what you should expect if you drive the same EV under similar conditions.
