ATHABASCA — When the Town of Athabasca announced the purchase of a new Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck last June, the step towards a greener fleet was met with support on one hand and skepticism and anger on the other.
While commenters on social media called the truck’s suitability for northern Alberta into question, town Parks foreman Warren Zyla said the unit made it through the cold season without any problems and proved to be a good match for the role.
“It’s perfect — I never leave town so the range is fine, because I can plug it in every night. It has all-wheel drive, so we didn’t even bother buying winter tires,” said Zyla. “It was fine, never got stuck, never had trouble anywhere, it was great.
“I have nothing but good things to say.”
Zyla summarized his experience with the experimental EV in an April 1 report to councillors, where he described the truck as having no problems aside from trouble with the trunk opener, two manufacturer recalls, and one instance of ‘bricking,’ a phenomena many owners of tech can likely relate to.
“Just like a phone or any other electronic device, I just got in and nothing was happening when I hit the start button.” But the tried-and-true method of hitting the power button a few times did the trick, and Zyla said the error hasn’t repeated itself since.
“It took all of 30 seconds to get it going again.”
One common concern from locals opposed to the purchase was the performance of the battery in the cold winter weather. But Zyla said the truck didn’t have any trouble even on the coldest days.
“In the -30, -35, the battery was fine,” he said. “It does have a temperature sensor, so when it gets too cold it would say the battery’s too cold, but it never ever got to that even though it was parked outside all winter.”
Using the heater — which is hot immediately and requires no warm-up period — to keep the cab warm and the windows free of frost all day did shave off around 100 km of the truck’s 300-km range, but Zyla said he was always left with plenty power his day-to-day driving needs.
Zyla said after the first winter with the truck, he doesn’t have any concerns about the long-term viability of the vehicle, and said the additional feature of having a power source on site, as well as the traditional design of the truck make it an asset for the Parks department.
“They made it work as a truck — your cybertruck is not a truck, it’s not designed as all trucks have been for the last 50 years,” said Zyla.
“If you’re out on a job site, you have essentially a giant generator, so if you need to cut something or build something, you just plug your tools into the truck and away you go. If you have cordless tools, you just take your cordless charger with you and plug it in.”
While no direct cost comparison is available between the Lightning and a traditional gas truck, the Parks department is saving on fuel for Zyla’s day-to-day travels, as well as regular maintenance like oil changes.
“It’s just nice not to go to the gas station and not to worry about checking your oil every day,” said Zyla. “I know it sounds willy, but it’s so much different than a regular vehicle.”
