When the totally mismanaged Texas power grid failed last winter, EV and hybrid owners had relief parked in their driveway.

While millions of Texans found themselves without electricity for days without the ability to run refrigerators or stoves in the freezing temperatures of the 2021 winter, Randy Jones, a retired refinery worker from the town of Katy (outside Houston) and owner of a Ford F-150 Hybrid equipped with Pro Power Onboard had no such issues. He just plugged into his truck, and turned on the lights.

“You’re living your life normally and all of a sudden you’re thrust into the dark. I think it got around 9 degrees,” Jones told the Detroit Free Press. “It’s been in mid-20s and low 30s. You don’t expect that in south Texas. You don’t expect to lose power when we [the US] have nuclear, natural gas, wind and solar power … the truck gave us light at night, TV access to catch the news and weather. It helped give us a little bit of heat and a good pot of coffee.”

The same thing happened earlier this summer, when flash floods in Kentucky drowned out the grid in a number of mountain towns. Ford responded by sending Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickups down to the region to help get crews back up and running.

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