- 2022 and 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning EVs will charge faster after a software update.
- The over-the-air software increases the peak charging current.
- This cuts the 10% to 80% charge time by about 11%.
Ford is doing a wide-scale release of an over-the-air (OTA) software update that enables 2022 and 2023 F-150 Lightning EVs to accept a higher maximum current when connected to a DC fast charger.
The software update began rolling out in October 2024 for early access owners but is now being beamed to the majority of electric pickups from the first model years. The new software bumps the maximum DC fast charging current from 450 amps to 500 amps and improves the charging curve. The result is a faster 10% to 80% recharge from a 350-kilowatt stall.
It’s worth noting that the 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning can accept 500 amps from the factory. The software update is meant for earlier models that had the maximum current capped at 450 amps, which resulted in a peak charging power of about 170 kW that was only held for about seven minutes before dropping to roughly 125 kW until 80%.
Before the update, it used to take approximately 45 minutes to go from 10% to 80% state of charge. Now, that time has been slashed by around five minutes, as our own Tom Moloughney found out on his 2022 F-150 Lightning.
There’s a complete charging analysis in the video embedded below, but I’ll give you the main stats here, too. After seven minutes of charging at 499 amps with a power input of about 180 kW, the stall had dispensed 20.1 kilowatt-hours of energy, which led the state of charge to increase from 10% to 26%.
After the initial charging boost, the electric pickup very slowly decreased the power input–a big improvement from the previous software’s performance which quickly dropped to 120 kW or so after the first seven or eight minutes. Now, the battery is taking in over 160 kW for almost 10 minutes after the initial charging boost before dropping to 125 kW.
It’s a big upgrade from the previous charging curve that leads to a 10-to-80% charging session time of just under 40 minutes. That’s roughly five minutes faster than before, so about 11% faster. It took two years to get this update, which is a bummer for early adopters. The 2024 F-150 Lightning already has the same charging capabilities, so maybe Ford could have moved faster to bring the same benefits to owners of older models.
Nevertheless, it’s good to see that the American automaker hasn’t forgotten about its first electric truck customers and is trying to improve their ownership experience.
