There are those who dream of driving an electric car but are still held back by uncertainty regarding the autonomy offered by the batteries that power this type of vehicle, especially those people who travel many kilometers daily. This was the case of Canadian Max Rastelli, who currently runs an electric scooter company, and who a couple of years ago changed his old Ford F-150 for the electrified F-150 Lightning. It changed his life and his business.
Rastelli lived a lifestyle that he believed was incompatible with the use of an electric vehicle. Since 2019 he is the director of a local company that provides urban mobility solutions in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And as such, he had to continually move dozens of electric scooters from one point to another in the city to recharge them one by one at the headquarters.
To do this, he used his old pick-up with a combustion engine but came to the conclusion that it was not very efficient since the more users used electric scooters to move sustainably around the city, the more trips he had to make with them. his car and, therefore, generated more emissions.
He wanted to solve it by designing a type of rechargeable and interchangeable batteries, less bulky than the scooters themselves when transporting them, but he still had to take them to the headquarters and wait for them to be recharged in phases, since the power outlet did not There was enough power to recharge them all simultaneously.
One of the things that prevented Rastelli from making the leap to electromobility was precisely the long waiting times for recharging the vehicle, since he could not afford to stand still for the sake of the service offered by his electric scooter business. And yet, he had to wait.
So, when the 100% electric version of the Ford F-150 appeared in 2021, it was clear. This pick-up has all-wheel drive and has two electric motors, one on each axle, with a total power of 563 HP.
The vehicle has a length of 5.91 meters and 2 meters wide with a wheelbase of 3.69 meters and a large capacity for storing and transporting objects, in this case, used for electric scooters and batteries.
But what mattered most to Rastelli was the charging speed and range of its battery, which has a size of between 98 and 131 kWh, and can reach between 370 and 480 kilometers.
The businessman soon realized that the anxiety generated by the idea of ??using a model that had to be plugged in from time to time was unfounded. The presence of the F-150 Lightning in his daily life boosted his business, as he devised a way to use his car as a giant battery charger.
The vehicle has 9.6 kW of Pro Power Onboard exportable power, a figure more than enough to recharge several batteries at the same time, without having to take them to any specific place beyond your electric pick-up. In addition, the batteries can be charged while driving and does not require standing.
That immediately resolved the obligation I had to go back and forth to the headquarters charging point. So he decided to give his business another boost and purchased a second Ford F-150 Lightning in June 2023 that he also uses as a mobile battery charging station. This has allowed it to double the number of electric scooters in its fleet.
