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It's always struck me as weird that they aren't producing hybrids in the vehicles that can most benefit from them: vans, pickups, trucks and tractors. All of t
by dsr_ 7y ago
It's always struck me as weird that they aren't producing hybrids in the vehicles that can most benefit from them: vans, pickups, trucks and tractors.
All of these are vehicles with a focus on power and range that would benefit from the torque and simplicity of electric motors, and could easily absorb the weight penalty of a motor-generator and fuel versus more batteries. The people who buy these for functional reasons would appreciate the long range, easy refueling, and reduced maintenance costs.
- freehunter 7y agoI have a friend who is a diesel mechanic for fleet operations. We've talked about his customers and their views on electric or hybrid vehicles. Obviously this is an anecdote, but he says many of the customers he has are planning to stick to diesel for quite a while because they don't have a team of mechanics who are qualified to work on electric drivetrains. The ones who exist are expensive, and it's expensive to train new ones. Sure they don't need spark plugs and oil changes and they don't break down often, but when they do apparently it's hard to find non-dealership technicians who can repair/replace parts.
- kube-system 7y agoGM used to make a Tahoe Hybrid. It was okay, but I think the price premium was a bit much for the economy gain. It also doesn’t help that the units of “miles per gallon” are not linear with consumption. A improvement from 10 to 15 mpg doesn’t sound nearly as impressive as an improvement from 20 to 60 mpg... but unintuitively, over 20,000 miles, it’s the same amount of fuel savings.
- morbm 7y agoI believe part of the problem is that current hybrid transmissions don't handle towing well.