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'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

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Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But everyone shitting on Texans for owning trucks is crazy I didnt see anyone do that. I saw someone on a website complain about the price of gas to fill their truck, and someone else ask them if they considered driving something other than a truck. (honestly, "do you NEED the truck?" is a very good question. I drive a Yaris to construction sites. Wouldn't work for every job, but everyone else in my position drives…

There is definitely some shitting going on. It’s the same argument people make when they say people buy Apple products because they are a status symbol. And honestly, NEED is a dumb question. You can ask do you NEED just about anything. No, it’s not strictly a need, and neither is anything else nerds regularly spend their money on. All of what we buy lands somewhere on a spectrum of Need-Convenient-Frivolous, and peo…

> It’s the same argument people make when they say people buy Apple products because they are a status symbol.

A more accurate comparison would be: Apple Owner A complains about the price of apple products, Person B comes along and asks if said person has considered if they NEED an apple product. Totally reasonable. It's the initial complaint (about the cost!!!) that makes the question acceptable. Many people don't TRULY consider needs (as you rightly point out, it's a spectrum from need to frivolous). If you consider it and decide you do actually need the truck (or the apple product, or whatever) then that's totally fine. (well, tragedy of the commons global warming stuff excepted, but that's a society-level problem).

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#132
post #25
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I think the cultural problems will scuttle the whole thing. https://jalopnik.com/bro-truck-owners-are-deliberately-block... > Bro-Truck Owners Are Deliberately Blocking Tesla Supercharger Spots > I generally like people, which may be why I never fail to be surprised when I encounter people being truly unrepentant dickheads for no good reason whatsoever. That’s what seems to have been going down at a Tesla Superch…

Yeah, I read that article when it came out, and it seems that these guys were trolling hard. However, I'm willing to bet that once a truck fan (not the ones in your article) drive an electric pickup truck and experience all the low end torque that it puts out, they'll quickly become converts.

Yeah. If you actually want to pull something heavy - or just want to accelerate fast - that flat torque curve you get from an electric motor will leave ICE trucks in the dust.

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#133
post #132
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I read that article when it came out, and it seems that these guys were trolling hard. However, I'm willing to bet that once a truck fan (not the ones in your article) drive an electric pickup truck and experience all the low end torque that it puts out, they'll quickly become converts.

Yeah. If you actually want to pull something heavy - or just want to accelerate fast - that flat torque curve you get from an electric motor will leave ICE trucks in the dust.

Electric motors should deliver more torque at lower RPMs, not simply flat torque, because power is torque x angular velocity. If we hold power constant, lower angular velocity means more torque.

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#134
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no reason why pickup trucks need to have the MASSIVE flat grills they do today, other than aesthetic preferences. They're a disaster aerodynamically as well as for pedestrian safety. Obviously there's a lot more to it (like the bed) but it's a start.

I don't think the grill is significant - the 'whale' shape is supposed to be near ideal. No, its the box in the back that tanks pickup mileage.

Are aerodynamics even that significant an energy bleed at the speeds we’re talking about? I’m guessing engine losses for those large low rev torque tuned engines are a bigger difference. And of course the massive weight of most pickups these days.

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current generation lithium-based batteries will be recycled into batteries for non-automotive applications, e.g. fixed-location storage, etc. It's a wear component, just like cars have always had wear components. If/when a viable contender technology reaches manufacturing at scale, allowing for very-high charge/discharge cycles, that picture will change dramatically. There's currently a ton of money and R&D effort be…

I've always wondered what the degradation is like, because it dictates what secondary applications are viable. Is it just peak capacity? What happens to peak discharge rate? Charge efficiency? Discharge efficiency?

>I've always wondered what the degradation is like, because it dictates what secondary applications are viable.

All of the above. Internal resistance increases as the SEI layer (boundary between electrolyte material and the anode) gets thicker and thicker. Eventually it reaches a point where internal resistance is so high that it becomes dangerous to even charge, and at that point the battery basically has to be completely disassembled and recycled. There's essentially no way to safely reuse a whole cell because of the wildly different charge/discharge profiles each one may have been exposed to, which affects the discharge curve accordingly.

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1210/1210.3672.pdf

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#137
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, "we're going to make the F-series all electric" and "we're going to make an all-electric F-series truck" are very different headlines.

It may be because they view the F-series as a platform. So they are adding "all-electric" as a feature to the F-series platform. Along with hybrid.

But then the sentence still isn't right. You'd have to say "We're going to add all-electric to F-Series" or "We're going to make all-electric for F-Series."

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#138
Used to own a factory Ford Ranger EV.

The vehicle was a dead ringer for the gas version, down to the same weird gearshift off-by-half-a-position thing. I even gave people rides and they didn't notice it wasn't gas.

Alas, it had a second-hand 312V lead acid pack made up of out-of-production 8V batteries. One battery went bad and then it became a yearlong half-finished battery changeout. Sold it for about what I paid for it.

Would buy one (if they ever made any more) in a heartbeat. Word is Ford crushed most of the ones they made, rather than all of them.

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#139
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe that pickups are the three most sold models in the US. That's really insane. https://www.businessinsider.com/best-selling-cars-and-trucks...

I started driving a truck 15 years ago after a number of sports cars/sedans/etc. I will never go back. Its not insane when you consider any number of factors, starting with the fact that Americans are BIG. As a large person myself (although not overweight), I'm here to tell you that what a 120 pound 5'6" person finds comfortable frequently is painful for me. Second, I spend upwards of 2+ hours a day sitting my my car…

Minivans get a bad rap IMO. The covered transport space inside when you fold the seats down is insane.

Re: 'We're going to electrify the F-Series,' Ford exec says

#140
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use my back seats all the time. Where do you think we put our Whole Foods bags?

Surely the bags are reusable , so it’s not so much “Whole Foods bags” as it is, “bags of Whole Foods groceries”.

I dunno. I’ve got a lot of bags.

The kernel of truth in that: stores are required to charge for bags here (East Bay outside of SF). We have a bag of shopping bags - the “meta bag” - in our trunk so that we always have plenty available.

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