When MARK KIRCHER, a staking technician at Wheatland Electric Cooperative, Inc., found out he would be assigned an all-electric truck at work, he admits he was a bit skeptical.
The rumors he had heard about electric vehicles — they’re slow, inconvenient and unreliable — colored his expectations about using an electric pickup at work every day. However, those expectations quickly shifted after he first jumped into his new 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning, the latest addition to the fleet of operations vehicles in Great Bend.
“It really surprised me,” Kircher said. “It rides really, really nice, and it’s very, very fast. I just could not believe how much torque these vehicles have — it will set you back in your seat!”
The Ford F-150 Lightning, a highly anticipated all-electric incarnation of America’s best-selling pickup, was first introduced to consumers nationwide in early 2022 and represents about 3% (25,000) of all F-150 vehicle sales annually (750,000), according to the automaker.
In an effort to lower operational costs, reduce emissions, and utilize the performance features that EVs offer, WEC now has two EVs in our fleet.
WEC’s first EV purchase was a 2021 Hyundai Kona Electric, which is used by WEC employees, for public education ride-and-drive events across our service territory, and during safety demonstrations with first responders.
The new Ford Lightning, with its mid-size battery capable of accepting a 50-amp charge, retains 230 range miles on a full charge and takes about 10 hours to fully charge on a Level 2 EV charger, according to Kircher.
The range miles do not always fully represent how far the vehicle can travel on a full charge since factors like weather, temperature and load play a role in battery life and vehicle performance.
As a staking technician, Kircher meets with cooperative members to discuss electrical needs, design both overhead and underground infrastructure, and make sure members get all their questions answered before, during and after a project.
For his purposes driving in and around Great Bend’s 4-mile radius, the Lightning more than serves his needs and even offers additional advantages that he hadn’t expected.
“The Lightning is a good fit for District 6 (Great Bend) because of our urban area,” Kircher said. “With the location of the battery being in the frame, it balances the truck really well, too, and I have no trouble in the snow and ice because the weight is so well distributed.”
Level 2 chargers typically add about 32 miles of driving range per hour of charge, which is why most individuals who own electric vehicles charge them at home during the evening or overnight, when electricity is cheapest to produce and demand on the electric grid is lowest.
WEC now owns three ChargePoint Level 2 EV charging stations, which are publicly available at our offices in Garden City, Great Bend and Harper. Each charging station features two individual charging ports to charge two vehicles simultaneously and are accessible 24/7 through the ChargePoint app on a smartphone or other internet-connected device.
WEC’s charging stations represent three of about 500 public EV charging stations across Kansas (with about 1,100 individual charging ports), according to the Alternative Fuels Data Center of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Our charging stations connect WEC’s southwest and central Kansas service territory to a much larger national EV charging network of about 62,000 stations (Level 2 or faster) across the country.
Kircher admits getting used to driving the Ford Lightning has required a few changes in his workday, including making sure the truck is plugged in to be charged at least once weekly and checking weather stats like wind speed and temperature before making longer trips, like those to WEC’s Garden City office about 125 miles away.
These changes are minor, however, when compared to the high efficiency cost benefits offered by EVs like the Lightning, including high fuel economy, lower operating costs, reduced vehicle maintenance and performance features that make the driving experience both smoother and safer.
“I really must watch myself, because it makes almost no noise and on a couple of occasions I accidentally left it on,” Kircher said, and laughed, adding that it’s been fun to drive a pick-up truck that can accelerate like a sports car.
“Everyone’s got this misconception that EVs are slow, that they’re like a go-kart, and boy they’re not — they’ve got a heck of a lot of torque!”
