Ford Lightning Helps Tesla Model S With 0 Miles Of Range Get Back On The Road

The Pro Power Onboard feature of the Ford truck brought the Tesla back to life.

Ford Lightning rescues stranded Tesla Model S

Photo by: Twitter

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

May 25, 2023 at 9:50am ET

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The Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck has once again saved the day with its neat Pro Power Onboard feature which effectively acts as a mobile generator, offering electricity via its frunk- and bed-mounted outlets.

In the past, the all-electric Ford truck helped keep the lights on at a dealership after a major earthquake, powered an entire house during a massive winter storm, and helped people get on with their day after a hurricane cut the power for thousands of people.

Now, a rather interesting story has popped up on Twitter, written by the user @EZebroni, who says he used his Ford Lightning truck to help a Tesla Model S owner get back on the road after the electric sedan ran out of juice and stopped working.

As Ethan explains in his lengthy post (embedded below), he was driving home when he stumbled upon a white Model S stopped in a turn lane with its emergency lights on and all the windows down. So he pulled up in front of the Tesla, got out of the truck, and went to see what was going on.

Apparently, the 2013 Model S had all the signs of a depleted high-voltage battery, as it was showing a low battery warning and zero miles of range on the digital instrument cluster. Plus, the cabin overheat protection wasn’t working.

The owner of the Tesla told Ethan that he was concerned because he didn’t have his wall connector to charge the battery, but to his surprise, @EZebroni opened the frunk of the Lightning, grabbed a 240-volt Tesla mobile connector, and plugged it into one of the electrical outlets found on the Ford truck.

But why would an owner of an electric truck from the Blue Oval company carry a Tesla charger? Well, as the post explains, Ethan owns several Tesla vehicles that he rents out on Turo, so he’s always prepared, in case something goes wrong.

The problem is, when he tried to plug in the connector into the charging port of the Model S, the bottom latch wouldn’t release so the charger couldn’t be plugged in. A police officer even stopped by the scene and tried to help Ethan find the manual release latch, but to no avail.

A gift card came to the rescue, but even with the port manually opened, the car still wouldn’t accept a charge. A few attempts later, though, the Tesla finally started accepting electricity from the Ford truck at a rate of around 21 miles per hour.

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But as it turned out, the owner of the Model S was just about one mile away from his home, so after a short top-up, they made their way to the house, with the Tesla still showing zero miles of range.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this story, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.