...almost like a government entity should have built that infrastructure in advance...
You know....like FDR's "Electrification of Rural America" has dramatically increased demand for all the things that run off electricity in your house today...
Demand for electric pickup trucks . . .
- Thread starter torbee
- Start date
You know....like FDR's "Electrification of Rural America" has dramatically increased demand for all the things that run off electricity in your house today...
Why do you want to "keep the gas stations", and have to cart liquid fuels around everywhere, when you can simply wire all that energy anywhere you want, and all those fuel trucks are now off the roads, too?
But if everyone had electric and plugged their car in when they pulled into the garage, everyone would be leaving home to evacuate with a full battery. No lines at gas stations (charging stations) until you're 300-400 miles inland, and the slow pace described due to traffic would only improve range.
If you are stuck in traffic for hours how much battery are you using?
I can and have bought little pieces of shit for commuting to work that get 40+ mpg brand new for $10,000 or less. I am not spending money on an electric car for commuting.
In a couple years we are talking about electric cars that can go 400-500 miles. I am willing to drop a lot of money for that and use as my “good / main” vehicle.
I can and have bought little pieces of shit for commuting to work that get 40+ mpg brand new for $10,000 or less. I am not spending money on an electric car for commuting.
In a couple years we are talking about electric cars that can go 400-500 miles. I am willing to drop a lot of money for that and use as my “good / main” vehicle.
Tow trucks with battery packs that can recharge electrics are going to become "a thing" too.
If I were in this industry, I'd consider designing electrics with small proprietary tow hitches that can tow 1000#, and make small trailers that can be delivered to them to enable them to drive 100 miles or so with the "battery trailer" in an emergency. Towers could stack several of those small trailers to deliver roadside, then pick them up at charging stations after use.
Not unlike those electric scooter companies that have their scooters available to use/drop off anywhere.
You wouldn't be able to drive 70 mph with the battery trailer, but 40-50 mph or something like that to enable you to get to a charging station.
The Chevy did advertise truck-to-truck charging, so this could be a thing. The towable battery pack would be even better, with a transfer switch in the main truck to bypass the onboard battery. Most batteries don't work to charge and discharge simultaneously, so you'd probably need to bypass it.
Yes, it may need to be a designed-in feature to handle external packs and charge at the same time. That feature could limit speeds or pack discharge rates for propulsion to a fixed kW level, using the excess current capacity to charge the battery.
I'm sure we'll see features like this become commonplace over time; just like "induction charging parking spaces" will be another innovation, and gas stations will disappear.
300 mile range for a P/U is reasonable for many. When you drill down, that range is adequate most of the time. For us a 2 vehicle arrangement, long and short range makes sense.
The 300 mile range is a little sketchy. I had two sales reps that bought Tesla’s and had them arrive in late December. They are finding that if they drive on the highway at 80 mph the battery drains quickly. One drive to Naples last weekend and it showed a range of 180 miles when he was at 80mph.
We just ordered Maverick all electric trucks for the service supervisors and they are worried that their 200 miles a day will be an issue
And there we have the biggest waste of $70K yet. A truck with a 4.5 foot box is a a car with an open trunk. Totally worthless for any type of "truck" work. It's a look at me vehicle and nothing more. Not to mention it's ugly AF.
So you going to buy one?
The reality is that most truck owners do few big truck things.
I see a lot of these small bed trucks driving around. Doesn't seem particularly useful, but I also think that in general people under estimate the utility value of a van and overestimate the value of a truck. Obviously a truck is needed for certain types of jobs but there are many that a van can handle arguably just as well if not better.
I saw one last week being unloaded off a flatbed in front of one of those multi million dollar homes on Rosedale Road in CR. Someone with a 10,000 square foot home doing his part for the environment 
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Why the hell would I buy one? It doesn't even have the payload of a half ton truck. It reminds me of an Avalanche, simply worthless.
I would agree, that's why I said that thing is a waste of 70K. If you are paying that for a "truck" then get an actual truck. Otherwise it's just a status symbol.
Right?
Honda sells ZERO Ridgelines and Chevy sells ZERO Avalanches.
There's just no market, whatsoever, for one of these.... 👀
People who like to hunt actually use "Avalanches" and "Ridgelines", because they can fit a 4-person hunting party in the cab, and toss the deer in the "truck bed" and not mess up the interior of an actual SUV.
They are more "SUV" than "truck", but there's definitely a solid market for that type of crossover vehicle.
“One person owning 30 vehicles is a policy failure. What you really need is a wealth tax.”
- AOC, probably.
I'm the core market for the Ridgeline, which is why I've owned one for five years now. It is the perfect vehicle for home depot runs while still getting decent enough gas mileage for road trips or as a daily commuter. Plus the trunk is extremely useful for the times I have to go to the grocery store. It is the kind of thing that allows me to own 1 vehicle to do all of those activities decently.
I'm not a hunter, so I can't speak about that usage, and I'm definitely not the guy expecting to take it on jumps out at Moab. But it has come in handy when camping with my kids and could easily pull any kind of boat that I might purchase while not being rear-wheel drive where the tires would be in the water at a boat ramp, the kind of "off road" stuff that 98% of truck owners actually do.
I'm hoping that Honda eventually makes an electric version of the Ridgeline because I think it would be an amazingly great vehicle. (that people wouldn't buy because it isn't lifted and doesn't have a pair of truck nuts hanging off of it)
The electric Ridgeline would be my next purchase, unless a Ford Lightning fell into my lap.
They haven’t built the Avalanche in like ten years, but they’re still wildly popular with contractors because you can move 4x8 sheets of drywall in the rain.
Wow I had no idea the Tesla Model 3 has a full charge range of 350 miles now. That’s impressive and a game changer if true. I’m pretty sure the number of trips in a year that I exceed 350 miles at a time is less than 10.
Best to invest in charging stations. Still not enough range before needing recharged. You can fill a tank in less than 5-6 minutes. How long to charge up on the road? And it won't be without cost. They should compromise and build Hybrid versions.
Pretty funny when people spend so much time saying "it doesn't work for this use case"..... Reality is, it works for the vast majority of people. Some of us will absolutely need to keep ICE for their scenarios, myself included, but most people don't use a truck for a truck's purpose. And the battery capacity is fine. And the life span is also fine, and they will get better as they have been for the last 10 years. Are they perfect? no, but good enough.
Well, worthless to you anyway. However, trucks with backseats are more useful to the public at large and for a company like Rivian, they need to hit the market that will give them the greatest number of sales. I talked to an engineer at the factory and mentioned how the trucks were out of my price range (and they are really out of my price range now that they cost $85k). He said this was just the first version to be released to the public but they also have other models planned. I would imagine one of those would be a version without the full size cab so it would have a larger truck bed for hauling stuff. He also said that cheaper models were on the drawing board as well.
The thing I don't like about hybrids is I don't realize some of the benefits of electric because I still have all of the parts of a combustible engine. So I have to maintain all of that.
We are waiting for the new Ford EV trucks to arrive. We are part of a test for our company to see if it is feasible for all of the operations staff to drive one.
Someone at the golf course today had a brand new Rivian R1 (leaf-green).
Sharp looking truck.
From my experience most gas car drivers tend to wait until E or near E to fill up, then fill to full if they can afford it.
That isn’t exactly how it works with charging and EV. I don’t know about other EVs so I can’t speak to them. Tesla’s software is designed to get a driver to the nearest supercharger with about 20% charge remaining. The vehicle/software is at all times attempting to not allow the driver to run it down to 0% and get stranded. If you do this, you are a moron.
Anyways, the typical charge will go from 15%-20% up to about 75%-80% which takes about 15-20 minutes.
Unless you are on a cross country trip and charging back up to 100% every opportunity. Then it will take longer.
the low half 0-50% takes less time to charge than the high half, 50-100% because of physics. The last 10% take the longest, that’s just how it is.
Lets say you had a 500 mile drive, you would leave your house after charging to 100% the night before, you would go to the available charger at 10-25% remaining, you would charge up to 90%, drive until 10-25% again, fill up to 90%.
All in all you are spending more time at a charging station, but if it is a Tesla Supercharger, it isnt nearly as bad as some in the media would make it seem.
If anyone likes engineering, rear motor pulled out:
Model Y was aided in design by spacex engineers, and it shows. The simplicity & efficiency is goddamned beautiful.
Model Y was aided in design by spacex engineers, and it shows. The simplicity & efficiency is goddamned beautiful.
So here is the thing there. There will be charging stations. You drive until you are 1/4 battery charge then do a 5-10 minute change to get you to your destination at about 500 miles. Then charge overnight and move on. You don't need to charge fully every time.
