By Patrick Soukup, Manager of Member Services and Marketing
In June, I had the opportunity to travel to Pierre for a meeting, so I decided to take the Ford Lightning down the road. With a full tank of kilowatts, I took the scenic route on Highway 34 and arrived in Pierre with 40 percent of my battery charge left. I drove the speed limit, which is 65 miles per hour. I took this route to achieve better miles per kilowatt hour, which is the metric used to calculate the efficiency of an electric vehicle (EV).
While in Pierre, I stopped at Beck Motors to use the EV charging station. It was a learning experience connecting to a different charger than we typically use, but I figured it out and was able to charge up to 68 percent, thinking that would give me enough energy for the trip home.
The meeting ran a bit later than expected, so I decided to take the interstate home at 80 miles per hour. The wheels were turning in my head, and I was asking myself, can I make it back? As the battery charge showing on the dash was going down, I reached Chamberlain with an estimated 44 miles remaining. I decided it would be an excellent idea to have ice cream and add a few more kilowatts to the truck battery at the Electrify America charging station next to Dairy Queen. My driving behavior and choices dictated my need to charge a second time that day.
In summary, I traveled 320 miles at a cost of $30.16 for an average cost of 9.425 cents per mile. I charged at two separate locations for an average cost of 40.6 cents per kilowatt hour. Charging at home would cost closer to 12 cents per kilowatt hour, so this highlights the value of home charging. A gas pickup that gets 15 miles per gallon would have cost $68.27 with gas at $3.20, so the EV pickup was less than half the cost to operate on this trip.
Driving an EV involves learning from each experience. If you want to discuss EVs or electricity in general, visit the Touchstone Energy building at Dakotafest in August. We will have the Ford Lightning and the electric Polaris Kinetic side-by-side available for viewing.