Featured Ford teases electric F-150 towing 1 million pounds

tesla has ford a bit nervous, but i'm wondering how many pick up owners want an ev

 

Yes, I was wondering. There was a local article about a possible upcoming EV light truck (smaller than Tacoma) - and the comments were mainly in that vein.

Talking about FORD - the Escape (KUGA in EU I think) has been announced is coming here as a PHEV and possibly a Hybrid about the end of this year. Interesting to see how it sells against the RAV4. Not sure what sort of hybrid drive it's got though.

 

If they put the battery under the hood... ...I'm not sure that's such a good idea.

 

especially if it has no quick charge infrastructure. Especially if it only charges on L2. Especially if it doesn't have at least a 300 mile range.
Wonder how hard it is for a vehicle to pull train cars on steel rails? Consider Eddie Hall for example. On much tougher rubber tires and asphalt he could pull 70,000 pounds.

In other words dividing 70000 into a million, the truck pulled 14 times as much weight as a strong human can do.

Then all you have to do is divide the distance Eddie Hall pulled the truck versus the greater distance the train cars moved. As was pointed out in the video, once the momentum is there, the hard work is pretty much done. So yeah, don't be offended, even though it's a sort of trickery stunt.
Good on Ford for at least saying they are going to do something, albeit with no date or specs. Most likely this stunt was done so that Ford can forestall pickup owners from jumping ship when Tesla releases their pick up date .... meaning, if new pickup buying folks believe that waiting for a Ford won't be too long, they will hopefully not by a Tesla pickup. ... that is - if Ford comes up with QC infrastructure, liquid thermal management, & decent long-range? the race is on!
(& it won't just be a race for 3⅓ football fields, on steel rails)
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Ford needs to do a clever video to show how it can be modified to run on untaxed electricity. In my neck of the woods, half the point of a truck is to run it on home heating oil instead of highway diesel. No stickin’ it to Washington? No sale.

 

Nice thought - but .... Many cars already can have their odometer read over the air. Road taxes could simply be collected by mileage & weight - w/ each year's new registration tags.
Buaahahahahaaa

Anyway - a Ford F-150 ad recently bragged about what their drag coefficient is ... saying theirs was better than all the others.
Fiat / Chrysler / Dodge called them on it, writing that the;

2015 Ford F-150 is Most Aerodynamic F-Series Ever - MotorTrend
wow ..... that's got to be embarrassing, making the claim that they wouldn't substantiate. And whoever thought that .36 drag would be something to brag about.
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Interesting in the train video, they never show the dash or interior. The truck could be in super low range 4WD with locked or welded Differentials. How to say that the transfer case or transmition wasn't super low geared to pull off the stunt?

Sorry Ford, but until Joe Smith does it with a "off the lot" truck, I wont be impressed.

 

i notice the ford ads lately specify, 'as defined by ford', when making some claims

 

My guess is a 4 cyl or 6 cyl phev pick up would be liked. Pick up truck people want torque, and plug-ins provide more. A BEV pick up is an easier design though. Pretty much you drop the battery pack and motors of the tesla model 3 performance then design the best truck cab and bed around them. There is not much proprietary there so ford can do something similar. Pack geometry might be a little different, but easier to do than a phev.

Probably a turbo 4 fwd geared front with a battery through the road rear axle would be the least expensive way to build a phev. Its no where near as straightforward though to design.

 

I would like an EV pickup to replace my Ram 2500. 350 mile range or better while pulling a camper or a horse trailer. With a horse or two in it. $3 a gallon gas is expensive when you only get 15 miles per gallon.

 

if it weren't for tesla, ford probably wouldn't be interested at all. so if you're gonna compete, you might as well go head to head.
i'm skeptical of the market though, but it will be interesting.

 

I'm a big fan of four time world champion strongman Brian Shaw... His friend and fellow competitor Eddie Hall might be in the video but the person pictured in the video is Brian Shaw and the video you chose is from Brian Shaw's youtube channel as well.

 

- it doesn't even require a truck to move massive loads. The ⅝ scale Disney river boat for example, weighs almost ⅓ of that milliom Lbs, & a single strong person can push it into motion (done it) - because water, like steel train wheels & their rails, have very LOW drag. A strong person can generate over 2HP for short periods. Hook that to a very high torque, low gear set bicycle set up? How embarrassing would that be to fords' ad - moving train cars with measly Pedal Power.
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I sold my last truck in 2002, so I’m a bit removed from that market. But I’d say you’re on to something there.

Quite a lot of what I did with that truck could be done by a BEV truck. It’s the all-day drives with a trailer on the hitch that mess it up, but a PHEV would take care of those situations nicely, and eliminates the need for high-amp charging infrastructure.

I think a lot of current truck users could go for that.



Well, except for the ones I referenced in my earlier post, but they’re beyond help in other ways too…

 

Ford has given Rivian a hunk of change. So expect some partnership there.

The hybrid and PHEV should be on dealer lots here by the end of the year. The hybrid system is a FWD power split similar to Toyota's. Past Escape hybrids used a mechanical system for AWD. It looks like the PHEV won't have an AWD option.

It's a PR stunt. No different than Toyota getting a Tundra to pull the space shuttle.

Best guess is that the F150 hybrid will be using the parallel system in the upcoming Explorer. A PHEV will just need a more powerful motor.

 

.36 - isn't that what TESLA quoted for their Semi Truck.

Though - it varies by frontal area, doesn't it? In absolute terms, how would a PRIUS at .24 and an F150 at .36 compare? I suspect they're not directly comparable, but it's decades since I read much about Drag Coefficients.

 

So could that be similar to Mondeo drivetrain? Like 2WD RAV4 is similar to Camry (except for AWD).

 

Can Ford create an electric F150 will superior performance to its diesel or gasser counterpart? Sure

Can Ford make a reasonably priced one with more than a 10-mile range? I'm skeptical.

This might fall under the "compliance truck" category.

 

And where are the Tundra & Tacoma EVs?
At one point Toyota said they were going to produce a Tundra ybris after they completed the Camry.
I am still waiting...