Ford torture tests F-150 Lightning towing in extreme temperatures, terrain

[CB750F]

Gents,

I really like the idea of an EV but always thought that 2025 would probably be a good year to buy one. I was thinking standards & tech for batteries leap frogging todays batteries. If you have 1hr, pls listen to this guy. I never heard of him but very fascinating.
Basically, all this green stuff is disruptive, anything that is 10 times cheaper or efficient gets used(overtakes what we use today). Google the guy, seems legit.



I thought a PHEV was the answer but now, I'm not so sure. The first 5 mins is a real eye opener. I have read so many people that laugh at going EV because 'infrastructure'.
I bet people in 1900 thought the same thing about the horseless carriage.
Iphone came out in 2007, where is Nokia?

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[Ames]

Gents,

I really like the idea of an EV but always thought that 2025 would probably be a good year to buy one. I was thinking standards & tech for batteries leap frogging todays batteries. If you have 1hr, pls listen to this guy. I never heard of him but very fascinating.
Basically, all this green stuff is disruptive, anything that is 10 times cheaper or efficient gets used(overtakes what we use today). Google the guy, seems legit.



I thought a PHEV was the answer but now, I'm not so sure. The first 5 mins is a real eye opener. I have read so many people that laugh at going EV because 'infrastructure'.
I bet people in 1900 thought the same thing about the horseless carriage.
Iphone came out in 2007, where is Nokia?

I haven't watched the whole thing yet but it's nothing groundbreaking so far. Interesting? Sure. When something new comes along that's better, it makes something else obsolete. And when this happens, there are those who drag their feet and are left in the dust.

 

[troutspinner]

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see any references to how the towing affected the range of the truck. Other towing tests I've seen with electric vehicles just clobbered the range - like going from 300 miles to less than 100 miles on a charge. That would be extremely useful and interesting info.

I have noticed the same and I just don’t think an electric vehicle will ever have the range to be a complete tower. It’s fine for the person taking a boat to the local lake on the weekend or towing a trailer for yard work but imagine if you’re the person towing an enclosed trailer half way across the country, it would take forever stopping every 2 hours with refills and strategic refill locations.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I have noticed the same and I just don’t think an electric vehicle will ever have the range to be a complete tower. It’s fine for the person taking a boat to the local lake on the weekend or towing a trailer for yard work but imagine if you’re the person towing an enclosed trailer half way across the country, it would take forever stopping every 2 hours with refills and strategic refill locations.

I would never say never - battery technology is improving rapidly. At some point I think it would be viable, but for now, I would agree. I will bet that within the next 3-5 years range will extend to 500-1000 miles and even towing it will be acceptable to most people.

 

[VegasRanger]

Mine gets torture tested here every summer. When it's 115 outside the garage is well over 135. ?

Same here brother! What I did last summer is bought a large swamp cooler. I crack the garage door open about 2 inches, and place the swamp cooler by the door and turn it on high. It helps a lot. Especially after parking the truck inside after a drive. You know how hot the garage gets in the summer after parking a hot vehicle inside the garage! Freaking oven man!

 

[Apples]

There is another way to look at the issues. A gallon of gasoline has about 120,000 BTUs. Diesel is a bit more. A 100 kW battery has about 320,000 BTUs. The Tesla Plaid has a battery capacity go 99 kW, but is advertised as a bit more. We have to figure in the various efficiencies too.

Depending on the weight, aerodynamics of the vehicle, rolling resistance, and a bunch more, it takes between ≈1,600 BTUs per mile, upwards of ≈3,000 BTUs per mile to move the average passenger vehicle one mile. Trucks take a whole lot more BTUs!

Simple high school math will give you a bunch of numbers, all of which tell a tale. I'll get you started with this. An Eco-boost Ranger holds 18 gallons of gasoline. That's 2,160,000 BTUs. And the overall efficiency? Well, say 25% to 35%, perhaps a bit more for some vehicles. So we're taking around 320 miles per tank. Take the Tesla Plaid, assume you're getting 100%—you're not obviously—and you get about 150 miles on a tank (battery) of BTUs.

Yes there are generalities and assumptions taking place, but you it doesn't take a rocker scientist to come to a conclusion!

 

[Apples]

Ames, where does coal and natural gas come from? The obvious answer is, fossils. which require more fossil fuel to mine and/or drill to obtain. And how much of the world's energy comes from renewable energy? About 12%, with biomass, geothermal, solar, hydro, wind, and biofuels figure into the total. However, the vast majority of this, 90+% comes from hydro. And don't forget the energy used to manufacture and erect the remaining sources.

 

[MountainGoat]

Well evs are bad. But not like they are being touted as. They are not good either. And all the solar oanels popping up around my neighborhood are connected to the grid. Not on an outlet to chatge anyones phone or car. Very few are.
An ev can save fule over an ice car. Duh. But without good mpg so to speak on the highway, evs are not practical for non city folk, or folks who work with their trucks

Imo right now ev is not the way to go.
Hybrid is the way to go. Best of both worlds

Hybrid is great and it's easy peasy compared to electric. No charging, no infrastructure problems, just drive normally. But the tech as all but been abandoned. 1st gen Prius was getting 55mpg, new one is getting maybe 58? In 23 years they barely improved it and now the message is all electric or nothing. I don't think they've done even minor upgrades to the Prius in 5+ years.

Instead if they poured more R&D into hybrids, maybe stuff like diesel hybrids, we could have had real gas sippers that make the issue a non-starter even with $7/gal gas.

 

[troutspinner]

I would never say never - battery technology is improving rapidly. At some point I think it would be viable, but for now, I would agree. I will bet that within the next 3-5 years range will extend to 500-1000 miles and even towing it will be acceptable to most people.

I do know lithium and power is changing, I actually use Lithiums on my boat and it neat watching the advances and price changes….for the better. I do worry that the EV industry will see a significant setback with lawsuits when it comes time for batteries to be replaced. While most know that batteries only last so long, that logic will not be used when people start filing lawsuits and the squeaky wheel gets the grease often.

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