Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 915 posts

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#131

Post by JumpCrisscross »

epolanski wrote: post #102
lefstathiou wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue is that the administration is in an adversarial relationship with China. Risky to allow a foreign power have a kill switch on critical infrastructure.

Cars are not critical infrastructure, also, the idea that China would turn off their EVs or starting to use them as weapons from the other side of the world is borderline absurd. Occam's razor suggests that the simplest solution is the most probable: they are scared of the competition, because they know that if those cars enter the market they will dominate it.

> Cars are not critical infrastructure

Their production infrastructure is.

> the idea that China would turn off their EVs or starting to use them as weapons from the other side of the world is borderline absurd

Is it? If we got into a shooting match with Beijing, would we not try to hijack Tesla’s OTA features to disrupt their economy?

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#132

Post by kryogen1c »

exabrial wrote: post #43

I expected the "T word" to come out in the article, however this fails to address any of the practical reasons it isn't a good replacement for the value-engineered F-150: * The price isn't right for small businesses. These trucks are quite expensive * They're difficult to repair. A regular F-150 is designed to be repaired; these things are designed like iPhones to be disposable. * Parts availability is scarce, contra…

This is pretty much dead on. I live in a rural part of the US and there are tons of old, worked-on trucks. The idea that there might be an all-electric f150 hanging out in 40 years is, frankly, laughable.

I know a lot of city kids think trucks are some obnoxious luxury good, but they're basically a functional requirement in most of the (very large) country.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#133

Post by aorloff »

cogman10 wrote: post #16
izend wrote: post #7

I am actually surprised they cancelled the F150 Lightning, I see a lot of them the Metro Vancouver area where a lot of contractors, (gardeners, pool maintenance, labourers, etc...) are driving them as electricity is super cheap here and gasoline is quite expensive.

That's exactly where I expected this thing to sell like hotcakes. It's a perfect fleet vehicle for many businesses. I think the price just wasn't right.

I am reading this article and thinking, darn there's going to be too many people like me trying to find these on the used market, and the prices will stay high.

Big fancy expensive powerstroke mega trucks with a person-high wall in the front look cool, and occasionally haul heavy things, but little white trucks that are busted up and 20 years old do all the duty. And those trucks drive way less than the range on the lightning each day. Once these lightnings price down to work truck level, I expect to see them on the road a long time.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#134

Post by nebula8804 »

api wrote: post #35
nomel wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with all but a few EV manufactures [1], they were losing money each sale ( >$30k)[2]. [1] https://www.carscoops.com/2025/03/only-four-ev-brands-are-pr... [2] https://www.theautopian.com/ford-lost-36000-for-every-electr...

The only two car companies to make any meaningful profit on EVs were founded as EV companies first? That’s not that surprising. It’s very hard to make elephants dance. If that remains true it means all these auto companies will be dead in 25 years, or eternally strung along on government support. If there were no tariffs or other market barriers I get the impression that BYD would bulldoze the entire world and there…

This video here describes why BYD is so competitive: They have done a splendid job vertically integrating as much as they can to get the price down. This $11,500 EV is an excellent example of how other companies should start to shift their thinking.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izvdO-zdlKg

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#135

Post by rascul »

tacticus wrote: post #22
vondur wrote: post #2

I would imagine for 80% of truck owners, having an electric truck is fine. However, if you are towing or carrying heavy loads, they are a bad choice. I suspect most F-150 drivers barely ever do these sorts of things. I have an F-150 but do use it to tow my travel trailer on vacation.

> However, if you are towing or carrying heavy loads, they are a bad choice. given the testing that has been done on this it's the aerodynamics that matter more than the weight. > I suspect most F-150 drivers barely ever do these sorts of things I would suspect that most of these oversized "angry boy" utes only ever see a non sealed surface when they're driving to park on footpaths.

> given the testing that has been done on this it's the aerodynamics that matter more than the weight.

At highway speeds with minimal need for acceleration.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#137

Post by api »

baby_souffle wrote: post #122
nebula8804 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we will find out if many of these things actually matter with the Slate truck. It is in many ways the antithesis of this electric F-150. If that vehicle fails then there are no more excuses, a significant chunk of Americans just don't like electric vehicles and are destined to be laggards.

I might be biased because I hang out in the slate subreddit and have been pretty attentive to The product as a whole since they announced it this spring but I think they're on to something assuming they can figure out how to build out the service and parts network. The vehicle itself may be a runaway sales success but if there's only or two locations in each major state where you can get it serviced, that runaway suc…

They seem like Framework for cars. Am also following closely.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#138

Post by empthought »

kryogen1c wrote: post #132
exabrial wrote: post #43

I expected the "T word" to come out in the article, however this fails to address any of the practical reasons it isn't a good replacement for the value-engineered F-150: * The price isn't right for small businesses. These trucks are quite expensive * They're difficult to repair. A regular F-150 is designed to be repaired; these things are designed like iPhones to be disposable. * Parts availability is scarce, contra…

This is pretty much dead on. I live in a rural part of the US and there are tons of old, worked-on trucks. The idea that there might be an all-electric f150 hanging out in 40 years is, frankly, laughable. I know a lot of city kids think trucks are some obnoxious luxury good, but they're basically a functional requirement in most of the (very large) country.

Less than 20% of Americans live in most of the (very large) country. The rest live in cities and suburbs.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#139

Post by ghaff »

delecti wrote: post #83
wagwang wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish my ev has dope perks... too bad California is dead set on making EV charging more expensive then gas lol.

Yeah, I was being a bit glib about that part. IMO, the biggest perk is dependent on the ability to charge at home. If you can, then the price per mile is about half (if Google is right that California rates are about $0.30/kWh) or less than for an ICE. But even if the $/mile were equal, never needing to visit a gas station again is itself the biggest perk. And sure there are people for whom an EV won't meet their ran…

>But even if the $/mile were equal, never needing to visit a gas station again is itself the biggest perk.

I maybe fuel up once a month unless I'm doing a road trip. It isn't that big a deal.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#140

Post by dyauspitr »

happyopossum wrote: post #109
dyauspitr wrote: post #14

That’s too bad, I love my lightning. I spend about $20/month on home charging, love the acceleration and it’s good enough to haul all the things I need for my small farm. Also, it’s great for long distance recreational drives (from a very specific perspective)- I like driving 250-300 miles in a day and then parking at an RV spot for the night instead of a hotel room. I can run the heat and AC all night as well as hav…

Most campgrounds I’ve seen here (Northern California) explicitly say you can’t charge your EV in RV spots.

Ah, maybe they’re catching on then. I haven’t run across one yet.
Post reply on HN