F-150 electric trucks help keep the lights on after the hurricane

• Electric trucks have become unlikely saviors in extreme weather events.
• Ford F-150 Lightning owners in Florida and South Carolina have used their trucks as mobile generators.
• Ford saw a major increase in the use of Pro Power Onboard following Hurricane Helene.

When Hurricane Helene knocked out power at Justin Long’s North Central Florida veterinary practice, he was prepared.

For the second time this summer, Long drove his electric Ford F-150 Lightning to the Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic Friday morning and prepared to use his truck’s electricity to restore power.

After using store-bought extension cords during a previous storm to keep the clinic open at about 50 percent capacity, Long said he was prepared this time with a bypass kit and transfer switch so he could use the Lightning Laraiat to run everything but air. conditioning.

“It was basically business as usual; it was hot in there,” Long told Business Insider.

As the only horse-equipped veterinary hospital in the area, Long said it’s important for Springhill to continue operations in times of crisis.

“For the horse owners and the other veterinarians in the area, knowing that we’re here, that we’re open, it takes a lot of stress out of people,” he said.

Long, who also hosts the Straight from the Horse Doctor’s Mouth podcast, will talk to anyone who will listen about the capabilities of his electric truck. He says it has changed the way he runs his business, cutting fuel costs and providing power for tools on the job.

That mindset encouraged him to go the extra mile on weekends, using his truck to fuel a community event at his veterinary clinic.

“So many people were amazed to realize that everything inside the vet clinic was running out of my truck,” Long said. “I spent a lot of the day just talking about the electric truck and the benefits of having one.”

Electric trucks have become unlikely saviors in extreme weather conditions, as many models like the Ford Lightning are equipped with technology that turns the truck into a mobile generator.

Owners of F-150 Lightnings in the path of Hurricane Helene told Business Insider this week that they used their trucks to power everything from rescue devices to home internet.

Ford has seen a 6-fold increase in owners using their cars as generators

According to Ford’s internal monitoring of Pro Power Onboard usage, there was a six-fold increase in owners using the system (which converts battery energy into usable power) immediately after the storm in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

In Long’s case, his standard Lightning could power his computers, lights, lab and fridge for 48 hours before he had to drive it to a charger.

Meanwhile, in hard-hit South Carolina, Chris Wilson says his electric truck is “literally saving my life.” Wilson has acute sleep apnea and without the use of his CPAP machine, he may die in his sleep, he said.

After the power went out Thursday night, Wilson said he rushed to a hardware store to grab an extension cord long enough to run from his truck to his house so he could keep his breathing apparatus running.

“Without this truck, we would have been in a situation where we would have been looking for a place out of state, like an emergency shelter or something like that,” Wilson said. “Trying to sleep without electricity would have been dangerous for me.”

By Tuesday, Wilson had three extension cords running from his truck to his house to power his CPAP machine, several ventilators and his home Internet connection. His children — ages 20, 15 and 13 — are happy to have Internet access again, Wilson said.

“That really calmed their nerves and anxiety with all of it,” he said, noting that two of his children are autistic and rely more on electronic devices, he said.