Lariat ER Battery Life Question

I recently got back from a 1500 mile trip from central Ohio to downtown Boston and back. Some quick stats from the drive, I charged a total of 604.054 kWh, all at Tesla chargers (this will come up later), spent $232.96 for the total trip as well, averaging 2.377 mi/kWh. Fun trip through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and finally Massachusetts!

As previously stated, I chose to charge soley at Tesla Superchargers, with them being mostly right off the highway and several of them being 12 stalls, I felt comfortable being able to take up two spots most of the time. I also need to state that I have the A2Z Typhoon adapter, I currently am still waiting to receive my OEM adapter.

Since buying the truck in March of 2024, I have a little over 20,000 miles and have done a lot of charging at Tesla Superchargers. I assume becuase I haven’t gotten my OEM adapter, I still can’t see V3+ Superchargers in the built-in navigation, therefore I can’t precondition on my way to them, although I do my best, if there is, for example, and EVGo station very close to it, I will try to navigate to it to get some sort of preconditioning before I get to the Supercharger. For some other infomation, my truck is up-to-date as far as I’m aware besides the BC updates. My most recent updates include the 6.14.0 and the ECG-24.2.5.6.1 Communication update. Also, using the CarScanner app, when charged to 100% the day I left for Boston, my truck was showing 126.486 kWh for the battery capacity and the actual battery SoC was just shy of 96%.

I know DCFC is tough on the battery, especially as much as I do it, traveling for work, over 50 times since buying the truck in early March, but I feel like it’s not a good thing for the truck to show 100% when there’s actually 96% or like this morning driving to work, truck shows 71% and the actual is somewhere near 66%. I know the battery degredation is inevitable, but this seems like a bit more than I expected on 20K miles in. And I suppose since I know the actual SoC, I can remember that during trips easily enough.

This write up was just for some real life information of what I am seeing driving this great truck everyday. I do have a couple of questions for the community, am I correct in assuming that becuase I don’t have my OEM adapter yet that that is the reason I can’t get the Superchargers in the built-in navigation? Anyone else seeing battery degradation like this? I’d love to hear about others’ experiences, especially ones with higher miles in a short amount of time.

Feel free to ask follow up questions!

The adapter doesn’t affect showing Tesla on the map. That’s a feature expected in a software update. New 2024 models aren’t getting the adapter anymore.

Zhen said:
The adapter doesn’t affect showing Tesla on the map. That’s a feature expected in a software update. New 2024 models aren’t getting the adapter anymore.

That makes sense. I can make them show up by entering the address in the public charging app, but when I send it to navigation, it doesn’t show it as a charger.

I don’t have the Tesla adapter, but I got the update where I can search for and navigate to Tesla Superchargers.

Kiran said:
I don’t have the Tesla adapter, but I got the update where I can search for and navigate to Tesla Superchargers.

Lucky! Do you know which update added that feature?

Lane said:

Kiran said:
I don’t have the Tesla adapter, but I got the update where I can search for and navigate to Tesla Superchargers.

Lucky! Do you know which update added that feature?

You can find Tesla chargers using the Public Charging app, but the Nav app doesn’t recognize them as chargers, so if you navigate to one, it just treats it like any other address. Nav doesn’t plan routes including Tesla chargers.

@Haven
Yeah, kind of a letdown! I keep using non-Tesla chargers to try to get battery preconditioning. Would be easier if there was a manual preconditioning button, but I know that could be tricky too!

@Lane
Ford is planning to add Tesla chargers to Nav, and Apple Maps is working on it too, so hopefully it’ll be an option soon.

A 100k-mile Lightning owner shared his experience:

Your battery percentage sounds typical. Battery degradation is non-linear, so after the initial 20k miles, it tends to stabilize for a long time. The bottom line is to use the vehicle as intended!

@Corey
Thanks for the links! Glad to hear my battery trend looks normal. Even with a 10 kWh drop, I’d only lose about 20 miles on the highway, which I can live with!

Which OBDII connector do you use with the Car Scanner app? Is it this one? carscanner

Remy said:
Which OBDII connector do you use with the Car Scanner app? Is it this one? carscanner

I use this scanner: https://a.co/d/aq6bwH4

With this OBD switch: https://a.co/d/fdM5XsW

And yes, that’s the app I use! You can get so much useful info from it.

The adapter doesn’t affect which chargers show up. With the latest update, battery preconditioning works with Apple or Google Maps when navigating to Blue Oval Network chargers. Ford limits charging to 90%, which may help battery longevity.

@Darby
Got it. I know CarScanner shows preconditioning by comparing HVB coolant and battery temps. Do you have a source confirming Apple Maps can trigger preconditioning? I know the actual HVB capacity is usually a bit higher than the visible 90%, so I might be down about 15 kWh if that’s the case.

2.377 mi/kWh is solid. I rarely get over 2 mi/kWh, and my commute home was more like 1.3.

Sable said:
2.377 mi/kWh is solid. I rarely get over 2 mi/kWh, and my commute home was more like 1.3.

Most of my highway driving is around 2.0 mi/kWh, but sitting in traffic definitely helped boost my numbers!

Google Maps via Android Auto will precondition the battery if you set a DC charger as a waypoint. Works well if you have the latest update and Google Maps. Unfortunately, no iPhone CarPlay support yet.

On the forum, someone suggested improving capacity by letting the battery go low and then slow-charging it to 100%. Capacity might also be affected by battery temperature or other factors.

Leslie said:
On the forum, someone suggested improving capacity by letting the battery go low and then slow-charging it to 100%. Capacity might also be affected by battery temperature or other factors.

It’s getting cooler here in Ohio, but I assumed that would just reduce range, not capacity. I might try the slow charge if it warms up again soon. Thanks for the tip!

Did you lower the rear?