At a recent event held in Sonoma, Calif., Ford showed off the workhorse capabilities of the Ford F-150 lightning. Wilbur-Ellis, a global distribution leader in sustainable agriculture products and consulting, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), an electricity provider serving northern and central California, are announcing plans to add Wilbur-Ellis plans to add F-150 Lightning Pro trucks, Ford Pro Charging solutions, charging software and in-vehicle telematics into its fleet in Sonoma County and the Salinas Valley of California. As part of the strategy to meet its stringent new sustainability goals, the company will integrate 10 battery electric trucks initially, while learning to optimize energy solutions alongside Dutton Ranch, a longtime Wilbur-Ellis customer that is already testing Ford Pro vehicles, charging and software in real-world farming conditions as part of a pilot program with the Sonoma County Winegrowers.
This announcement coincides with a pilot program between Ford Pro and Sonoma County Winegrowers, designed to create a blueprint for how industries and companies can best adopt and manage battery electric vehicles for the next frontier in sustainable fleet operations using Ford Pro products and services. The pilot includes integrating Ford Pro Telematics into farmers’ existing gas fleets.
Already in these early weeks, the pilot program has sparked interest from ranches around Sonoma County exploring ways to operate more efficiently. As a result, Sonoma County Winegrowers has offered Ford Pro Telematics to all 1,800 members for one year as farmers look for ways to improve efficiency, even in fleets of gas-powered vehicles.
PG&E is continuing its ongoing electric vehicle collaboration with Ford, announced in March, now with Ford Pro to add charging hardware and software solutions to select F-150 Lightning Pro trucks into its California fleet. The company will begin testing energy management improvements using Ford’s vehicle-to-grid technology. As part of the initiative, PG&E will assimilate the electric vehicles into its fleet operations alongside Ford Pro charging stations and explore leveraging the F-150 Lightning Pro batteries to shave peak energy usage at one of its depot locations.
Ford Pro Telematics is designed to work on Ford and non-Ford vehicles alike. Ford Pro is also helping government agencies and businesses of all sizes do their part to address the urgency of climate change and help accelerate progress toward a sustainable future by showing them the clear advantages of an electric ecosystem. Ford Pro recently launched relationships with industry leaders on sustainability such as United Rentals, Penske Truck Leasing and Sunbelt Rentals.
