4 ms·

Ford is really good at blowing smoke about EVs lately. Like their truck pull demo where the camera shot they released showed only one angle, leading to speculat

by natch 6y ago

Ford is really good at blowing smoke about EVs lately. Like their truck pull demo where the camera shot they released showed only one angle, leading to speculation that there was a massive power cord tether hidden behind the bulk of the truck. But I appreciate that traditional car makers are finally getting it that people want EVs that are not just golf carts. Too bad this is just another demo but let’s hope they make some of it real.

anonymousCar 6y ago
First makes 5.9M cars per year and is planning 50k Mach e. That's 0.8% of their line electric. VW seems to be the only major manufacturer that's really going all in on electric and it's only after wringing their hands from the emissions scandal. The old automakers seem to only want to do this in the face of bankruptcy.
- panpanna 6y ago
  Didn't Volvo say they would go 100% electric before 2023? They are not as big as VW, but that sure should "all in" to me..
  - pixxel 6y ago
    Looked up to see who owns Volvo, just out of interest. Ford purchased in 1999 and sold to a Chinese firm in 2010.
    - panpanna 6y ago
      Note that both development and production still happens in Europe. I did some digging for my next car and this is what I found: The Chinese owner established newer companies for the Chinese market mostly in China which use their engineering. One of them is a pure EV company.
  - losvedir 6y ago
    I think it was something like 100% of their models will have an electric option? edit: yeah, found this: https://electrek.co/2018/04/25/volvo-electrification-plan-fully-electric/ https://electrek.co/2018/04/25/volvo-electrification-plan-fu... . And their goal is 50% of sales will be electric by 2025.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- Sebb767 6y ago
  > That's 0.8% of their line electric. And that's probably what they expect to sell. Producing 5.9M electric cars is one thing (and that's not easy on its own), but selling them is the problem.
- Kuinox 6y ago
  Renault does have some electric vehicle.
- hinkley 6y ago
  The cynic in me still thinks the EV1 was a honey pot engineered by GM to kill two birds with one stone. One, get the government off their back. Two, round up all the 'whiners' lay half of them off and demoralize the rest. It is said, with only a very small sense of irony, that the only vehicle to come from the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles was the Toyota Prius. See, Toyoda thought we were serious, was blocked from joining the partnership (Bush/Gore era protectionism at its finest) and built a brain trust to compete with what turned out to be a bluff. Detroit may be the biggest bunch of learned helplessness foot-draggers there is. It's too haaard. See? We can't do it.
kllrnohj 6y ago
> Like their truck pull demo where the camera shot they released showed only one angle, leading to speculation that there was a massive power cord tether hidden behind the bulk of the truck. No, it was just a silly physics trick, same as Tesla's Cybertruck pulling the F-150 stunt (which was just because the cybertruck was heavier & therefore had a friction advantage, had nothing to do with being more powerful or anything like that). As for the train, weighing 1.25 million pounds doesn't mean it took 1.25 million pounds of force to move it, not at all. Just like it doesn't take you ~150 lbs of force to move yourself forward on a bicycle. Wheels are pretty great, and so is a low rolling resistance. A train's steel wheels on a steel track mean super low rolling resistances, and estimates are the Ford only needed around 1875 pounds of force to move that 1.25 million pound train. https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a28506476/ford-electric-f150-train-tow-physics-explained/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a28506476/ford-electri... That's well within the capacity of a bunch of vehicles, no trickery required.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  1800 lbs of pulling force should be well within the ability of most all vehicles on the road, I think. As long as they have enough weight to keep traction.
- natch 6y ago
  But that isn’t the part I suspect they faked. I suspect they didn’t actually build a battery powered truck, not even a prototype or demo. Instead they just bolted a big electric motor into an existing truck, rigged it up to the crankshaft, and wired it up to power. Lame, if true. But it’s just my suspicion and I don’t know if it’s true. It was clearly a PR stunt timed to take some of the limelight away from Tesla.
  - kllrnohj 6y ago
    Why would they go through all that when it's super trivial & simple to just take a battery back and bolt it under the truck bed? An engineering team with a Ford marketing budget & a week of time could trivially do an EV conversion of an existing F150. People do EV conversions as a hobby in their garages at home, why would you immediately jump to such a conspiracy for something so simple? And the video of the stunt also has a bunch of angles, including an overhead shot, and there's no hint of anything like a power cord and the truck bed is visibly empty?

by natch 6y ago

anonymousCar 6y ago

First makes 5.9M cars per year and is planning 50k Mach e. That's 0.8% of their line electric. VW seems to be the only major manufacturer that's really going all in on electric and it's only after wringing their hands from the emissions scandal. The old automakers seem to only want to do this in the face of bankruptcy.

panpanna 6y ago
Didn't Volvo say they would go 100% electric before 2023? They are not as big as VW, but that sure should "all in" to me..
- pixxel 6y ago
  Looked up to see who owns Volvo, just out of interest. Ford purchased in 1999 and sold to a Chinese firm in 2010.
  - panpanna 6y ago
    Note that both development and production still happens in Europe. I did some digging for my next car and this is what I found: The Chinese owner established newer companies for the Chinese market mostly in China which use their engineering. One of them is a pure EV company.
- losvedir 6y ago
  I think it was something like 100% of their models will have an electric option? edit: yeah, found this: https://electrek.co/2018/04/25/volvo-electrification-plan-fully-electric/ https://electrek.co/2018/04/25/volvo-electrification-plan-fu... . And their goal is 50% of sales will be electric by 2025.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
Sebb767 6y ago
> That's 0.8% of their line electric. And that's probably what they expect to sell. Producing 5.9M electric cars is one thing (and that's not easy on its own), but selling them is the problem.
Kuinox 6y ago
Renault does have some electric vehicle.
hinkley 6y ago
The cynic in me still thinks the EV1 was a honey pot engineered by GM to kill two birds with one stone. One, get the government off their back. Two, round up all the 'whiners' lay half of them off and demoralize the rest. It is said, with only a very small sense of irony, that the only vehicle to come from the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles was the Toyota Prius. See, Toyoda thought we were serious, was blocked from joining the partnership (Bush/Gore era protectionism at its finest) and built a brain trust to compete with what turned out to be a bluff. Detroit may be the biggest bunch of learned helplessness foot-draggers there is. It's too haaard. See? We can't do it.

kllrnohj 6y ago

> Like their truck pull demo where the camera shot they released showed only one angle, leading to speculation that there was a massive power cord tether hidden behind the bulk of the truck. No, it was just a silly physics trick, same as Tesla's Cybertruck pulling the F-150 stunt (which was just because the cybertruck was heavier & therefore had a friction advantage, had nothing to do with being more powerful or anything like that). As for the train, weighing 1.25 million pounds doesn't mean it took 1.25 million pounds of force to move it, not at all. Just like it doesn't take you ~150 lbs of force to move yourself forward on a bicycle. Wheels are pretty great, and so is a low rolling resistance. A train's steel wheels on a steel track mean super low rolling resistances, and estimates are the Ford only needed around 1875 pounds of force to move that 1.25 million pound train. https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a28506476/ford-electric-f150-train-tow-physics-explained/ https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a28506476/ford-electri... That's well within the capacity of a bunch of vehicles, no trickery required.

jjeaff 6y ago
1800 lbs of pulling force should be well within the ability of most all vehicles on the road, I think. As long as they have enough weight to keep traction.
natch 6y ago
But that isn’t the part I suspect they faked. I suspect they didn’t actually build a battery powered truck, not even a prototype or demo. Instead they just bolted a big electric motor into an existing truck, rigged it up to the crankshaft, and wired it up to power. Lame, if true. But it’s just my suspicion and I don’t know if it’s true. It was clearly a PR stunt timed to take some of the limelight away from Tesla.
- kllrnohj 6y ago
  Why would they go through all that when it's super trivial & simple to just take a battery back and bolt it under the truck bed? An engineering team with a Ford marketing budget & a week of time could trivially do an EV conversion of an existing F150. People do EV conversions as a hobby in their garages at home, why would you immediately jump to such a conspiracy for something so simple? And the video of the stunt also has a bunch of angles, including an overhead shot, and there's no hint of anything like a power cord and the truck bed is visibly empty?