F-150 Lightning Bricked at Electrify America Charging Station

Chris Teague
by Chris Teague

We’ve all had the experience of plugging our phone in and having it display an error message with some lame excuse about why it can’t charge. Many of us have likely had a similar experience with an electric vehicle. However, the stakes are quite a bit higher when we’re talking about the electricity needed to charge an EV. A Ford F-150 Lightning owner discovered how serious charging can be when a recent trip to an Electrify America charging station went wrong. 


Eric Roe owns the F-150 Lightning and was charging in Oregon on a road trip when the incident took place. While charging the truck, Roe heard a loud boom. His truck became completely unresponsive after the sound and displayed several error messages. The truck couldn’t be shifted into neutral, requiring the tow truck driver to drag it out of its charging spot. 


Roe initially heard that the repair would take more than a week, but a Ford rep contacted him and escalated the issue. He later posted that the dealer needed to replace the truck’s 12-volt battery before diagnosing any additional problems. The automaker is still investigating the case, and there have been no other updates since. 


This is certainly a dramatic situation, but less serious charging failures are common. One of the more frequent complaints among new EV owners is that it’s difficult to find working and reliable charging stations. The situation should improve with government investment and other funds, but for now, an open charger doesn’t always mean a full battery. 

[Image: Eric Roe via Twitter]

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Chris Teague
Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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11 of 48 comments
  • Tassos Tassos on Dec 01, 2022

    A friend in the Detroit area, Vim van Acker, bought two BEV Ford so-called Mustang Mach-Es, a plain one for the wife and a higher performance variation for his son. You can read for yourselves the horror stories they have endured, allegedly due to dealer staff ignorance. The very expensive POSs cost Over $50 and $60k respectively. He posted the above in the discussion beneath "Autoline Daily". BTW these POS are made in MEXICO, but Ford does not seem interested in passing any of the savings to the buyers.

  • EBFlex EBFlex on Dec 02, 2022

    How many ICE vehicles have been rendered completely unusable after fueling up?


    Answer? Zero.


    Yet even more reason to avoid these Earth damaging government vehicles.

    • See 4 previous
    • Ffighter69 Ffighter69 on Apr 09, 2023

      I can happen if you get a tank of bad fuel but it won't take a week or more and cost thousands of dollars to repair.


  • Oldskooltoy Oldskooltoy on Dec 02, 2022

    Many folks here are quite happy with their ICE machines and all the attention lavished on the EV is about as popular as a porcupine in a nudist colony.


    A statement in this article about future charging stations really hashes my corned beef-


    “The situation should improve with government investment and other funds.”


    I may not be behind EVs being forced down our throats , but every tax payer will be “invested” in their upbringing and have no choice in the matter .


    Glad I’ve been around for the Golden Years of ICE.

    • See 1 previous
    • Bobbysirhan Bobbysirhan on Dec 02, 2022

      It seems that VoGhost deleted the comment that I replied to. It would seem that he knows exactly the evil that he is serving after all.


  • Ed Marineves Ed Marineves on Dec 06, 2022

    Just about any new car has a couple of horror stories. Seeing as this is cutting edge tech on so many fronts, I'm for not rushing to conclusions on the entire vehicle line. Haven't heard too much bad, and I imagine most are happy with their vehicles.


    Certainly nothing here to try and start an "EVs are bad/ will never work" chant with. Give it some time.

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