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I am more impressed with the amount of carbon fiber they are suggesting makes up this truck at the price they listed. As an owner of a 2017 Volt the range exten

I am more impressed with the amount of carbon fiber they are suggesting makes up this truck at the price they listed. As an owner of a 2017 Volt the range extender option is one of my favorite ideas for hybrids. The weight savings over trying to go full battery cannot be dismissed. The trade off is complexity which usually is in the transmission or such. Future REX solutions could involve hydrogen fuel cells or even natural gas. On a side note, I do have a Model 3 LR on order to replace the Volt as it is now capable of doing the two long trips I take each year. The reason I bring this up is because the battery pack on the LR is a little over 1000 pounds which should show the reason why a REX solution is viable because you have to get into heavy duty trucks with full fuel loads to even approach that much weight. *edit: changed 17 Volt to 2017 Volt

cmrdporcupine 8y ago
I'm a Volt owner, too, and I often hear the 'complexity' argument from pure BEV advocates. In reality the range-extended model of the Volt is still a little less complex and fail prone than most pure ICE cars as its transmission is mechanically simpler, and the ICE is rarely used. So it's an improvement over the status quo and not having to haul around an expensive 60kwh battery pack that I mostly only ever use 10-20% of is a serious $$ bonus (and weight as you say) For me the Volt has enough that I can do my 105km a day commute without ever using gas. (I charge at work and at home). If this truck ever actual goes on sale for consumers, I will buy one assuming the Canadian pricing isn't ridiculous. While I don't enjoy driving trucks, I live on a hobby farm and we need a hauler.
tantalor 8y ago
"17 Volt" is rather confusing... Maybe say "2017 Chevy Volt"?
toast0 8y ago
> Future REX solutions could involve hydrogen fuel cells or even natural gas. I don't know about hydrogen, but natural gas in vehicles has a planned obsolescence problem: the fuel tanks expire, and replacing them is expensive (both parts and labor). There's also a pretty sparse network of filing stations (some of which require a lengthy preregistration process) -- adding a different dimension of range anxiety doesn't really solve the range problem. (I tried to get a natural gas crown Vic last year, and gave up because it was way too hard)
dogma1138 8y ago
Carbon fiber is an extremely environmentally unfriendly product, it’s production alone takes on average 20 times more energy than steel, it cannot be recycled (or effectively repaired for that matter) and it and it’s bonding materials are toxic. Carbon fiber is one of the first things we need to replace in car manufacturing if we want to scale hybrid and EVs manufacturing by orders of magnitude.

cmrdporcupine 8y ago

I'm a Volt owner, too, and I often hear the 'complexity' argument from pure BEV advocates. In reality the range-extended model of the Volt is still a little less complex and fail prone than most pure ICE cars as its transmission is mechanically simpler, and the ICE is rarely used. So it's an improvement over the status quo and not having to haul around an expensive 60kwh battery pack that I mostly only ever use 10-20% of is a serious $$ bonus (and weight as you say) For me the Volt has enough that I can do my 105km a day commute without ever using gas. (I charge at work and at home). If this truck ever actual goes on sale for consumers, I will buy one assuming the Canadian pricing isn't ridiculous. While I don't enjoy driving trucks, I live on a hobby farm and we need a hauler.

tantalor 8y ago

"17 Volt" is rather confusing... Maybe say "2017 Chevy Volt"?

toast0 8y ago

> Future REX solutions could involve hydrogen fuel cells or even natural gas. I don't know about hydrogen, but natural gas in vehicles has a planned obsolescence problem: the fuel tanks expire, and replacing them is expensive (both parts and labor). There's also a pretty sparse network of filing stations (some of which require a lengthy preregistration process) -- adding a different dimension of range anxiety doesn't really solve the range problem. (I tried to get a natural gas crown Vic last year, and gave up because it was way too hard)

dogma1138 8y ago

Carbon fiber is an extremely environmentally unfriendly product, it’s production alone takes on average 20 times more energy than steel, it cannot be recycled (or effectively repaired for that matter) and it and it’s bonding materials are toxic. Carbon fiber is one of the first things we need to replace in car manufacturing if we want to scale hybrid and EVs manufacturing by orders of magnitude.