Citizens Addressing our Changing Climate: A one-year check-in on our first EV

In November 2024, I wrote about our evolution toward EV ownership and promised to give you an update once we had enough experience to share.

I noted previously that EV ownership isn’t a significant change. Just plug in the fuel versus pump it in. One-pedal driving and much less active braking were new but an easy adjustment.

At the beginning, we plugged it into a 110 outlet and it would have taken days to charge — a humorously long time to charge a full-sized pickup. We then discovered a 240-volt outlet in an older outbuilding, voila, full charge capabilities at home.

We were also lucky that my husband’s workplace has EV chargers. His EV-driving boss was excited to welcome a new EV owner, showed him how to use the app, and treated him to his first charge.

We worked with a local electrician and Beltrami Electric to figure out what to install for EV charging. We decided to go with the option to charge using off-peak electricity at a reduced rate. Off-peak helps electric companies balance load, and users benefit from lower rates.

Once that was installed, charging became easy, and we only had to remember to plug and unplug the vehicle. It took almost no time to stop looking at the price of gasoline!

With our home EV charger, we added the feature to plug our truck into our home and use it as a generator. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the plug adapter in time for the June storm when the power was out. But we are ready now.

We were also hand-pumping our basement sump tank when suddenly we remembered we had an electric truck. Woot! We backed that up to the house and plugged in both the sump pump and alternated plugging in the refrigerator and freezers. We felt quite brilliant and lucky. The draw on the truck battery was minimal. Much less than driving the truck.

Range anxiety was a real thing for us. Learning what causes reductions to the advertised range per charge has been interesting. For our truck, we find that extreme heat or cold are the primary factors affecting range. In those extremes, we lose 30% of the regular range.

Our truck is built with a 7500# towing package. Towing a heavy trailer will also reduce range, but a light boat or a small camper won’t affect range much. This is similar to a gasoline vehicle. Learning how to manage your battery is an important part of EV ownership.

We only took the truck on one trip, and it was relatively easy to find public charging stations. We use this truck like, well, a truck. Hauling logs, trash, building supplies — you name it. We have put on 18,300 miles in 14 months and have been plugged in at home using off-peak service through Beltrami Electric since February.

Bob Gregg from Beltrami Electric prepared some good cost-comparison figures for our truck usage. We charge 98% at home during off-peak hours, which averages $.04 per mile. If we were using only public charging, it would be $ 0.18 per mile. Compared to an F-150 gasoline truck, the average fuel cost is $0.14 per mile.

We use our gas car for trips. The plan to install EV chargers along main transportation routes in the U.S. has been disrupted, as much of the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate investments were sadly eliminated. It makes a lot of sense when you have more than one vehicle in a rural area to have an EV and a gas-powered car to take advantage of the benefits of both technologies.

Our son lives in western Montana, where he has met ranchers who mount a gas generator in their Ford Lightnings for backup on long hauls — a real-world hybrid.

Regular maintenance is where the Ford Lightning EV is saving us a bunch of money. So far, we have paid $45 for tire rotations. No oil changes! Just rotate the tires regularly. We used to have a little efficient car for commuting, and a big pickup hanging out, waiting to do trucky stuff.

Now we only have two vehicles because we can use the EV pickup for commuting and trucky stuff. We wholeheartedly recommend an EV as a second vehicle for those living in rural areas.

Polly Merhar is a member of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby organization. For more information, visit CitizensClimateLobby.org.