For three weeks in July 2025, staff at VDOT’s Keene Area Headquarters in Scottsville, Virginia, borrowed a Ford F-150 Lightning. It felt familiar to operate. Finding work for it was more complicated: some shifts meant driving 200 miles or more in areas without fast charging. Staff said range limited some uses and recommended considering a longer-range version.
Virginia’s November 2025 field-test report documents that experience and a job the staff could not evaluate. Missing flashing amber lights kept the Lightning out of mowing operations, leaving that assignment untested. The report recommended starting the next EV pilot with SUVs and sedans in assignments suited to overnight charging.
Three Takeaways For Fleet Buyers
- Count vehicles that can be retired, not just electric miles completed. Record reassigned jobs so a strong daily success rate does not hide reliance on other trucks.
- Compare larger-battery cost with the real cost and availability of shared backup vehicles. Check whether difficult assignments occur together before assuming one spare can cover them.
- Make charging, safety-equipment installation, and driver preparation part of vehicle acceptance. Test the intended trailer and shift before treating a purchased truck as ready for service.
Researchers Noah Goodall and Erin Robartes had examined the broader replacement problem in a study of Virginia Department of Transportation pickup use. Their model estimated that a standard-range electric pickup could cover 97% of pickup day trips. Yet only 31% of individual trucks could be replaced without changing their assignments. The extended-range configuration raised those figures to 99% and 64%.
Those figures came from a model, rather than
Those figures came from a model, rather than a fleet of Lightnings doing the work. They help explain why a truck can have enough range for most days and still leave its department needing another vehicle.
More charging equipment is on order, including three purchases VDOT initiated in 2026. The records are less forthcoming about the vehicles: they do not establish which electric SUVs or sedans, if any, have entered service.
The Day That Decides Which Truck You Buy
Think of a maintenance pickup that spends most weeks making local supply runs, then occasionally takes a crew to a distant job. In that hypothetical example, the local trips account for most of the driving. The distant job is still on the schedule when replacement time comes.
The researchers’ public manuscript analyzed records from 403
The researchers’ public manuscript analyzed records from 403 pickups, collected between June 2021 and May 2022. Among vehicles that exceeded the modeled standard-range battery’s capability, most did so less than once a month. The study also examined assigning long trips to conventional trucks. Its authors identified towing, mountainous terrain, and external power use as subjects for further modeling.
Passing the model’s energy test identified candidates for investigation. It did not establish suitability for every trailer, emergency assignment, or work-zone accessory.
A larger battery therefore matters most to trucks with occasional demanding trips. Under the model’s assumptions, it could let more trucks keep those assignments, even when most ordinary days fit within the smaller battery’s range.
Owners know that a long electric-truck trip can
Owners know that a long electric-truck trip can take some planning. The account of a 497-mile winter trip in a Lightning follows one driver through that experience. A highway crew may have less freedom to rearrange a route or a charging stop, so its department has to work out how much flexibility the job allows.
The Amber Lights Explain A Different Kind Of Limit
The mowing trial ran into a more ordinary problem: getting the truck equipped. The preferred lighting installer had no experience fitting its equipment to an electric pickup.
More battery capacity would not get the amber lights installed. The purchasing schedule would also need room for installation, testing, and handing the finished truck over to the crew.
Sometimes the adjustment is smaller still
Sometimes the adjustment is smaller still. In an owner’s first public fast-charge attempt with a Lightning, the session initially failed because the connector had not fully seated. The remedy was straightforward. It is the kind of mistake a driver would rather work through before depending on an unfamiliar charger halfway through a shift.
What Virginia’s Towing Numbers Actually Measure
In two June 2025 tests with a roughly 3,500-pound trailer-and-mower load, the report recorded dashboard estimates of 97 miles at 85% charge and 105 miles at 88%. Its full-charge extrapolations were 114 and 119 miles. These were estimates after a calibration drive, not distances demonstrated by towing until the battery was depleted.
For dispatchers, those estimates still have to be weighed against the planned route, return reserve, and usable charging stops.
Owner reports need the same attention to conditions
Owner reports need the same attention to conditions. One Lightning owner reported towing a heavy boat home with 7% charge remaining. Another reported better-than-expected efficiency with a Pebble Flow trailer, whose powered towing assistance makes it a materially different combination. Those accounts illustrate different jobs, rather than provide interchangeable range tests.
A contractor choosing a truck needs a test with the trailer it will tow and the route it will travel, allowing for the return. Jobs handed back to a conventional truck belong in the results too.
A Michigan Fleet Found Reasons To Expand
Sterling Heights, Michigan, had enough success with its EVs to recommend adding more. At the April 28, 2026 council meeting, Public Works Director Michael Moore described the completed 18-month pilot and recommended expanding in phases, starting with vehicles that get plenty of use.
The minutes give a concrete Lightning example: electricity
The minutes give a concrete Lightning example: electricity at 16 cents per kilowatt-hour produced an average energy cost of about eight cents per mile. Staff estimated annual energy expense at $614, compared with $1,033 for a gasoline F-150 traveling the same mileage. Those are operating-energy estimates, not a complete ownership-cost comparison.
The city had installed six dual-port Level 2 stations and one dual-port Level 1 station. Staff reported positive user feedback alongside reduced winter range, limited charging capacity, training needs, and difficulties tracking mileage through charging equipment. Five additional EVs appeared in the budget request; the presentation itself does not prove their subsequent purchase.
That does not tell Virginia how a Lightning would fare on its mowing or towing assignments. It does show why two public-works departments can try electric vehicles, encounter limitations, and reach different purchasing recommendations.
The Charger Has A Schedule, Too
Virginia calculated that its 5.5-kW research-site charger would
Virginia calculated that its 5.5-kW research-site charger would take 10.7 hours to bring the battery from 20% to 80% in moderate conditions with climate control off. That is a substantial part of an overnight stop.
An overnight charge only lasts as long as the truck is parked. A late return and an early start can squeeze that window. The bigger battery may get a crew farther during the day, but the charger still has to put that energy back before the next shift.
Southern Company tested managed charging with more than 200 existing Lightnings and over 150 Level 2 chargers. In its account of the completed pilot, Ford reported shifting charging away from periods of high grid demand while maintaining readiness from December 2024 to May 2025.
This is Ford’s account of a managed-charging pilot,
This is Ford’s account of a managed-charging pilot, published by a company that sells both the trucks and charging services. It supports the value of predictable charging windows; it does not establish that every utility truck can cover every emergency.
What Virginia Actually Ordered
VDOT issued four separate orders dated November 2025 through September 2026, each specifying one single-port, 40-amp, 9.6-kW AssetWorks PowerCharge station. Three were issued in 2026, after the field report’s publication.
The November 24, 2025 order for Gretna Area Headquarters, PO05194516, totals $3,962.29. Orders issued May 27 and August 4, 2026, list Richmond Central Office as their shipping destination. A September 14 order, PO05468394, specifies Swoope Area Headquarters. Each of the three 2026 orders totals $4,088.99.
The later orders price the charger hardware
The later orders price the charger hardware at $2,566.27, then add shipping, extended warranty, access fobs, annual network service, and activation. Electrical construction could add more. The order totals do not establish what each station ultimately cost to install.
All four records display an “Ordered” status. They establish procurement activity, with delivery, commissioning, and vehicle use still unverified. The shipping destinations are not confirmed operating sites. The orders also do not explicitly connect the equipment to the SUV-and-sedan pilot or establish that the report prompted the purchases.
Virginia’s Statewide EV Totals Tell An Earlier Story
A separate January 2026 Department of General Services report supplies a baseline. Its purchase tables cover fiscal years 2023–2025, before the November 2025 recommendation. They record two EV purchases by other agencies: a full-size van in 2024 and a compact sedan in 2025. They do not identify the purchasing agencies or models.
That is not a count of every EV
That is not a count of every EV already in state service. The same report lists four Chevrolet Bolts and three Nissan Leafs in the centralized fleet, purchased before the legislation behind the report. It also reports 41 dedicated chargers across nine agencies and higher-education institutions at the time of reporting.
Those statewide totals cannot tell a fleet manager which truck is available for tomorrow’s job. For that, the inventory needs locations and assignments, with vehicles and chargers still on order listed separately.
A Bigger Battery Competes With A Better Assignment Plan
Virginia’s choices go beyond buying the biggest battery. It could keep the same pickup assignments and pay for more range, share conventional trucks for occasional long trips, or start with vehicles whose work is easier to electrify.
More battery capacity costs money up front
More battery capacity costs money up front. Sharing trucks requires an available vehicle with the right equipment and somebody to arrange the swap. Keeping a spare solely for difficult days adds insurance, maintenance, and parking. A plan that depends on that spare also has to survive the day two crews need it.
An existing conventional truck shared by several crews might absorb the occasional long trip without another purchase. That could make more sense than buying extra battery capacity for every pickup. The cost comparison has to include the vehicles and staff time needed to keep that arrangement working.
Today’s buyers must also account for a changed Ford product plan. Ford’s current Lightning information says the truck is no longer available to order in its existing form and describes a future generator-backed extended-range electric successor. That announced vehicle is different from the larger battery-electric configuration in Virginia’s model. The study remains useful for assignment planning, but its battery choices should not be mistaken for a current factory-order menu.
The Next Pilot Needs To Show What Changed On The Job
The November 2025 report called for the next
The November 2025 report called for the next pilot to begin within one year, placing the stated window in November 2026, still ahead as of October 23. The public records reviewed do not establish that the SUV-and-sedan deployment has begun.
Delivery receipts, charger commissioning dates, and assignment logs would show what happened after the orders were placed. Then comes the comparison with the old vehicle, doing similar work in comparable seasons. An electric SUV making routine inspection visits needs to be judged against the vehicle that previously made those visits.
The days when another vehicle takes over belong in that comparison too. A smaller energy bill is less impressive if the new EV has been given an easier schedule. Following the same jobs would make the savings much easier to judge.
Scottsville’s staff wanted more range because some
Scottsville’s staff wanted more range because some of their shifts demanded it. Virginia has ordered more charging equipment. The next chapter is finding out which vehicles can take over the work, and the public record does not yet tell that story.
Noah Washington is a young automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia, covering sports cars, luxury vehicles, electric vehicles, and the ownership realities behind them. His reporting for Torque News connects engineering and design with what drivers experience, from towing and charging to reliability and the character that makes a car worth caring about.
His work includes interviews withJaguar F-TYPE designer Matt Beaven andformer Lucid Gravity chief engineer Zach Walker, plus firsthand reviews of theNissan Z Nismo andMitsubishi Mirage G4.
A BMW E36 M3 owner and former Miata owner, Noah has written for TopSpeed, HotCars, and Cointelegraph. He is a member of the Southeast Region Automotive Media Association (SERAMA) and theInternational Motor Press Association (IMPA). His favorite car remains the Fiat 500 Abarth.
Follow Noah on X andLinkedIn for his latest reporting and to share story tips.
