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

251–260 of 915 posts

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#251

Post by dalyons »

kyralis wrote: post #187
sroerick wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Truck Country, Wyoming If you need a truck for work, you're probably going to be towing in it. Now, some of those guys who are hauling are gonna need a 250 or a 350, but a lot of them will do just fine with the 150. Even if your job isn't hauling, per se, if you work on job sites you wanna be able to haul stuff. Imagine if you showed up to your new Tech Lead job with an 8 year old Chromebook. You'd look a l…

Interestingly, I live in rural Vermont, and there are a surprising number of Rivians around me - including those set up for contractors, complete with scaffolding in the bed with tools and ladders on them. That said, we have an F250. I'd love to have an electric truck, but I use mine for towing almost exclusively. If I'm hauling a trailer hours away, I really don't need to deal with the hassle of stopping along the w…

The R3X will be that. Although you could just get an R1, incredibly capable off-road but yeah, bigger.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#252

Post by rootusrootus »

molsongolden wrote: post #193

Pretty surprised here and I think it was really just bad marketing or I guess unsustainable unit economics. Price out the cheapest F-150 (XL) with a supercrew cab and 4x4 and you are looking at $50k. Trucks are just expensive. The Lightning is expensive but not that much more than any other truck and the Ford incentives + EV credit brought it down quite a bit. The Lightning Flash (extended range) was routinely sellin…

> The Lightning is expensive but not that much more

Indeed, I paid 50K for mine. The powerboost F150 I had been shopping for was a good bit more expensive.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#253

Post by rootusrootus »

turnsout wrote: post #95
cogman10 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wasn't the original announced price like $39k? Did they ever hit that?

Not really. The Pro was about that, maybe a couple grand more, but I don't think it was ever 39K.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#254

Post by adrr »

class3shock wrote: post #237

The F-150 is in one of the markets I think ev's will take over first (small commercial vehicles) but it just was not the right vehicle to start with. To expensive, even when the tax incentives were still a thing, and Ford suffers from having corrupt dealers taking a large cut on top of that. So you are selling to either the top 5% or bigger businesses. If you are a top 5% buying this you want it to tow your expensive…

They should be cheaper than the F150 but Ford can’t figure out how to make batteries cheaply. Evs are a lot less complex, no gas engine, no transmission, no exhaust systems with hundreds of dollars of precious metal in them. It should be cheaper than a gas equivalent.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#255

Post by rootusrootus »

ninkendo wrote: post #129
bdcs wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Oh, an EREV is fancy way to say "hybrid" ok Kind of. EREVs are what locomotives have been doing for a century (and to a lesser extent barges), which is called diesel-electric in that field. I agree the terminology is lacking, but EREVs are quite compelling (and their high market share in China supports consumer demand). Hybrid: * ICE must run during regular operation (except for ~very short distances at ~very slow s…

I guess you’d call my Chrysler Pacifica an “EREV” then. It’s honestly perfect for us. 32 miles on a charge, we barely touch the gas except for the winter when it’s so cold out we need the engine to warm us up. Any other time and the battery is all we need, and it charges overnight on a simple 110V wall outlet. Long trips are still possible, you just drive. We go through maybe 8 tanks of gas per year with our occasion…

There have been no EREVs produced and sold yet AFAIK (though maybe BMW had a version of the i3 that did? I'm not sure). Dodge has one in the works. Ford has now announced one. The old Chevy Volt was philosophically wanting to be an EREV but was as a practical matter still a parallel hybrid.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#256

Post by lemming »

hirvi74 wrote: post #249
class3shock wrote: post #237

The F-150 is in one of the markets I think ev's will take over first (small commercial vehicles) but it just was not the right vehicle to start with. To expensive, even when the tax incentives were still a thing, and Ford suffers from having corrupt dealers taking a large cut on top of that. So you are selling to either the top 5% or bigger businesses. If you are a top 5% buying this you want it to tow your expensive…

> "tow your expensive toy somewhere which ev's suck at currently" Do EVs suck at towing because of battery life? I thought electric engines were often superior to comparable internal combustion engines regarding torque.

The instantaneous torque definitely helps, and EVs are often heavier which helps with stability. But if you're towing anything with significant air resistance (e.g. a boat, a caravan, a big trailer) it kills your range. The general rule of thumb is that it will cut your range in half, which depending on your original max range is ok for some use cases, but unacceptable for others.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#257

Post by rootusrootus »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #68
kerblang wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay are we just saying they just discontinued one electric F150 in favor of another? Meh. Edit: Oh, an EREV is fancy way to say "hybrid" ok

I get that a hybrid is attractive because of the flexibility, but still the change is a strange decision. EVs are simpler to maintain than ICEs, but a hybrid is more complex, it adds the possible EV problems atop possible ICE problems. Maybe keep the trucks as much they are now, just the essential changes to replace the engine? There's plenty of space on those huge trucks.

The biggest loss in the EREV in my opinion will be (I assume) the frunk. That has turned out very handy on multiple occasions.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#258

Post by nandomrumber »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #212
bsder wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. A van is almost always a better choice if you're actually looking at functionality. Shielding from the elements is way more useful than some mythical ground clearance benefit that you will never use. Sure, a very small number of people go offroad and need that cl…

> some mythical ground clearance benefit Maybe not where you live but there are many parts of the US where you really do want significant ground clearance regardless of vehicle type. The ubiquity of Subarus in several regions of the US isn't because people are fond of Subarus as an automotive brand. High ground clearance isn't about "going offroad".

My Renault Master van has more ground clearance than anything Subaru offer.

My VW T5 van has as much ground clearance as the Subaru Forester / Outback.

Re: Ford kills the All-Electric F-150

#260

Post by rootusrootus »

cogman10 wrote: post #48
johanvts wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you need a truck? Serious question, in europe professionals have a van, like the Ford e-transit, and if you just need to haul some stuff from your summerhouse sometimes you hitch a trailer to your car. Why do you need a truck? Couldn’t you buy an electric van instead?

> Couldn’t you buy an electric van instead Not sold (really) in the US. There's the VW electric van but that's more of a gimmick than anything else. In the US, there's also just a pretty big infrastructure around tooling trucks for professional work. Not that that doesn't exist for vans in the US, it's just somewhat more common to see trucks having full toolsets on the side for quick access with a decent sized bed. T…

Ford themselves has the eTransit, and I guess it is mildly popular in a certain segment.
Post reply on HN