Every pickup truck owner is familiar with a particular phone call, the number that starts with, “Hey, I’m moving out this weekend, I was wondering if…”, or, “I need to pick up.” [insert bulky item] Bee [insert bulky item store], are you busy on Saturday?” Ford just introduced another way those pickup drivers can help that legion of begging friends. We’re kidding, but this one will be helpful: the Ford F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid and the 2022 Ford F- 150 Lightning electric pickup equipped with the optional Pro Power Onboard System have the ability to charge other EVs that use an SAE J1772 charging port.The Pro Power System comes with a 240-volt outlet, which is the same rating which would be used at home to charge level 2 electric vehicles. All it takes is to fit an adapter so that the Nema 14-50R plug on the Ford Mobile power cord fits the Nema 14-30p Pro outlet in the bed of the pickup, then plug the charging plug into the vehicle that needs help from its friend.voila.Here’s another reason why the system won Autoblog’s 2021 Technology of the Year.
The F-150 Powerboost Hybrid offers a 7.2 kilowatt Pro Power system, the Lightning will upgrade the option to 9.6 kW. Ford says hooking either one up to a Mustang Mach-E will add an average range of 20 miles per hour. Your mileage will certainly vary depending on where and under what conditions the charging occurs, but that’s the same speed of topping that Ford says the Mach-E gets on a 240-volt home system. Connecting one Lightning to another Lightning restores an average of 21 kilometers per hour of charging, while for a low-roof E-Transit truck this gets an average of 16 kilometers per hour in the battery.
By the way, those adapters can be picked up anywhere from hardware stores to Amazon for under $20, but we don’t recommend buying the cheapest version. And this charging isn’t possible with the 2.0 and 2.4 kW Pro Power Onboard systems, but we’re not sure why not. Ford sells an adapter for the mobile power cord, which can draw up to 32 amps, for a 120V/20A home outlet, which can accommodate the smaller Pro Power outlets. Maybe it’s because that lower output stops just three miles of range in a Mach-E per hour.
Because the system is designed to use the ubiquitous J1772 connector, a helpful Ford owner can easily charge an EV of any brand using that connector. With an adapter to convert the J1772 to Chademo or a Tesla plug, the world of public service opens up further.
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