Drivers of the Ford F-150 Lightning electrical truck will quickly have the ability to select to navigate with Apple Maps, if that’s what they like, and obtain steering on the place to cost alongside the best way.
The information comes by way of CarsDirect, which observed the function talked about in a Ford vendor communication despatched out this week, disclosing that each one Lightning homeowners would have entry to the function, though it requires Apple iOS 15.4 or newer and Ford Energy-Up 6.3.0 or greater.
The Apple Maps EV steering isn’t utterly new to Ford EVs, however it’s to this mannequin. It got here to the Ford Mustang Mach-E final spring, masking all 2022 and 2023 fashions, in addition to some fashions going again to the 2021 mannequin yr, relying on the Sync 4A infotainment system’s software program model.
Apple CarPlay EV steering
As Ford defined then: “Apple Maps will use your iPhone to learn automobile and battery knowledge when related to CarPlay and help you in your journey by including chargers into your journey as mandatory.”
Inexperienced Automobile Experiences hasn’t but examined charging-stop performance with Apple Maps versus Ford’s native navigation options and using the BlueOval charging community.
Different EVs are, like Ford, letting Apple Maps faucet into their state-of-charge knowledge to be able to help navigation on the fly—however they seem to permit it to various levels.
Apple Maps in Porsche Taycan
Porsche, as an example, boasts that Apple Maps within the Taycan tracks power use each step of the best way and can adapt the path to elevation modifications and different components. It notes that the Taycan’s built-in Charging Planner prompts battery preconditioning for a high-power charging cease, whereas navigation with Apple Maps gained’t.
Apple has permitted this function set since 2020, and BMW was the primary model to declare that it could be enabled in a U.S.-market EV—the 2022 BMW i4.
Google first added electric-car chargers to its navigation in 2018, however they have been basically simply factors of curiosity at the moment. Solely earlier this yr did it announce a deeper stage of knowledge on charging stations, permitting some EVs with Google built-in entry to their state-of-charge and vary estimates, and thus related dynamic navigation with charging stops. These fashions, as of earlier within the yr, have been the Polestar 2, Volvo XC40 Recharge, Volvo C40 Recharge, Cadillac Lyriq, and GMC Hummer EV.
2023 Ford F-150 Lightning
In the event you’re not on the Apple ecosystem you’re not lacking out on something particularly within the Lightning, apart from one other interface selection. Ford notes that a lot of options stay accessible via its embedded navigation, when related to the FordPass app, that aren’t provided via Apple Maps—together with charging station availability, whether or not or not a station is Plug & Cost succesful (with cost particulars linked to a singular automobile identifier), and whether or not cost stations are a part of Ford’s BlueOval cost community. Ford’s native navigation system additionally permits customers to see BlueCruise-enabled roads.
Ford can be including a Cost Help function that permits drivers to make use of the infotainment system’s display screen to seek out, begin, and pay for a public charging station somewhat than having to make use of the FordPass app or the charging community’s app. That function began to roll out in batches of car updates pushed beginning Sept. 4.