Aaron Brzozowski 
Ford’s first ever fully electric F-150, the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, isn’t just a green, tree-hugging version of the Blue Oval’s best-selling model line; it’s a veritable Swiss Army knife, capable of running power tools out in the field and even powering your home in the case of a power outage. Now, we can add one more handy function to the list: partially recharging other EVs out on the road, and not just those with a Ford badge.
The function comes courtesy of Ford’s Pro Power Onboard system, which is optional on both the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning and Ford F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid. Basically, it pairs each truck’s high-capacity battery with an onboard generator with about a million different uses, including recharging fellow EVs through a 240-volt outlet. Ford calls this “vehicle-to-vehicle” charging, and it could represent the shape of things to come as more drivers opt for EVs and, inevitably, a greater number of drivers find themselves occasionally sidelined by a depleted battery pack out on the road.
To execute vehicle-to-vehicle charging, a Ford F-150 Lightning driver or F-150 PowerBoost driver with the Pro Power Onboard system need only connect to the stranded EV using a Ford Mobile Power Cord charger, which plugs straight into the F-150’s 240-volt outlet. The cord is capable of Level-2 charging with either the 7.2- or 9.6-kW Pro Power Onboard, delivering up to 20 miles of range per hour on a RWD Ford Mustang Mach-E, for instance. At the same charging rate, a stranded fellow fully electric F-150 Lightning can regain up to 13 miles per hour, which is more than enough to limp it to the nearest public fast charging station in many parts of the country.
Any EV with a standard SAE J1772 charging port can take advantage of the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning’s vehicle-to-vehicle charging feature.
“There are hundreds of benefits to Ford Pro Power Onboard – and we’ve added one more,” says Ford E-Powertrain Systems Engineer Patrick Soderborg. “Taking power on the road or having extra energy at home brings a lot of convenience and security, and using the F-150 Lightning or F-150 hybrid to top off a friend’s electric vehicle or help them during an outage is one of the many new benefits our customers gain from our Built Ford Tough electrified trucks.”
