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Ford Tests F-150 Lightning in Slippery Conditions in Alaska

Ford wants to make sure the F-150 Lightning will work in all conditions, as most legacy automakers do. This is why the company has taken six prototypes of the electric pickup truck to a restricted military base in Alaska. Curiously, the tests seem to have been focused on grip and stability in slippery conditions.
Ford tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditions 14 photos
Photo: Ford
Ford tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditionsFord tests how F-150 Lightning prototypes behave in low-friction conditions
According to Ford, its engineers tested the prototypes in “loose snow, packed-groomed snow, complete ice, half ice-half concrete surfaces and more in the freezing temperatures.” To be more specific, the American carmaker mentioned that temperatures were minus 30 degrees. It did not disclose the scale used to measure that, but we’d bet on Fahrenheit, which means temperatures were around -34.4ºC.

Ironically, Ford did not comment how the F-150 Lightning did when it comes to heating the cabin and defrosting the windshield. Tesla adopted a heat pump in its most recent vehicles, which is getting a lot of complaints from its owners. Some were left with no heating in the middle of the road, posing life-threatening situations to them and their families.

On February 7, Tesla blamed a firmware for the defect and issued a recall to solve that. However, we are still to confirm if it was enough: it consisted of an OTA (over-the-air) update. Many owners of Tesla vehicles with heat pumps had similar problems before the allegedly defective firmware was deployed, and some had to replace the Super Manifold and the Octovalve to fix the car.

Another constant complaint Tesla owners make in cold weather has to do with door handles. Some of them made videos of the frozen handles refusing to work. The Model 3 also had an issue with snow invading the trunk, a problem that the F-150 will never have for obvious reasons.

Ford’s report about its cold-weather testing focuses just on the handling of the electric pickup truck. According to the automaker, it will always be a 4x4 vehicle – with an electric motor for each axle. The challenge was to make the two motors work together in all conditions, especially those with low traction.

The video Ford shared shows the six prototypes in many of the difficult road conditions owners will have in freezing weather. The footage shows it doing pretty well. Although Ford carefully edited all the images and certainly chose the best ones, we have no reason to imagine the F-150 Lightning would not be a very safe car in such situations.

As Ford mentioned, it spent 12 hours per day testing these prototypes for two weeks to make sure the production car would be perfectly calibrated. It also performed these low mu (split friction) tests in “Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Borrego Springs, Johnson Valley, and at Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds near Milford.”

It would have been fantastic if Ford had revealed how much range the electric pickup truck loses in such low-temperature environments. Telling us how it heats the cabin and if the door handles work as expected would also have been great. It may be the case that Ford customers take that for granted. We would just like to be sure that this is the case, especially after Ford’s main competitor in EVs showed there are well-founded concerns.

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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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