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America's Favorite Pickup Truck Goes Electric

71 points by nojito 5y ago

eyeball 5y ago
Just don't try to tow anything with it.
- Liiiii 5y ago
  That is not true. For many people towing their boat to the launch it will work excellently. Towing trailer full of junk to the disposal, same thing. Also pulling the wood chipper to the dump. Heavy, but not going far. Picking up lumber in town, just fine. Excellent for picking up steel for the shop. It would be more accurate to claim it will do poorly in cross country towing. For the towing I do, it would be just fine. 1/3 the range when towing is still a 100 miles.
  - donw 5y ago
    Because indicated electric vehicle ranges are never highly optimistic. 100 miles is a very, very short round trip in most of the US.
    - handol 5y ago
      Is that simply your impression, or is there trip length data to support that?
      - gameswithgo 5y ago
        its pretty simple: an electric truck can tow big stuff no problem, but not very far. so whether it is good for towing depends on how far you tow.
    - thebigman433 5y ago
      Do you have data to back that up? 100 miles is pretty significant for a work truck, especially if youre assuming you wont be able to charge it at the turnaround point and get ~200 miles
    - sp332 5y ago
      Most of the land in the US - sure. Most of the people in the US - no.
  - bluedino 5y ago
    What about when you want to tow your boat "up north", and are you going to charge at the campground or what?
- mdorazio 5y ago
  ?? It has the same 10,000lb towing capacity as the standard v6 model. Not sure what you're referring to here.
  - crazyjncsu 5y ago
    Range. Many people expect towing to severely and adversely affect the range.
    - waiseristy 5y ago
      Uh, your range is cut in half in a gas truck too. Expect to get 10mpg or less, even on flat terrain
      - bluedino 5y ago
        Gas trucks have 30+ gallon tanks. Plus you can still get a diesel truck if you really want to tow.
      - xeromal 5y ago
        And gas stations are easy to find
  - ggreer 5y ago
    Range will suffer greatly and non-Teslas have terrible charging infrastructure. Even Tesla owners have horror stories of trying to tow a trailer and not being able to make it no the next charger.[1] MotorTrend tried towing a car with a Rivian R1T. It reduced the maximum range from 314 miles down to 175 miles.[2] Both range and charging infrastructure will improve over time, but it's not quite there today. 1. https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 2. https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with-electric-truck-range/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with...
    - grawp 5y ago
      175 miles seem to be a huge distance for me and I can't imagine not passing by at least one big city with standardized charging infrastructure.
- dieortin 5y ago
  Actually it can tow 4500kg. Not sure about why you’re commenting this.
  - brianwawok 5y ago
    Range is the problem. 100 mile range for a small tow, and with the lack of fast chargers… it’s not enough for a lot of use cases. We need trailers to start having batteries or something :)
    - syshum 5y ago
      For it to be useful the trailer would have to be more than just a battery, it would need to supply power (as in have an electric motor) as well. Which would be an interesting concept,
      - waiseristy 5y ago
        Probably not cost effective. You need a lot more hardware than just a ball and hitch to ensure there is no jackknifing or other weird unpredictable behaviors. A lot of work goes into ensuring trailers almost never push forwards against their hitches (trailer brakes are in a large part a thing to solve just this problem) I bet you could get a fifth wheel hitch to play nice though if the software was tuned correctly
      - sp332 5y ago
        Airstream does have a concept for this. https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-drivetrain-trailer/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-d...
      - stock_toaster 5y ago
        Or put an electrical generator and a small fuel tank in the trailer -- like a train.
      - brianwawok 5y ago
        It does not need to have a motor. Tesla can generate 400-1000+ horsepower, which is more than enough to pull a trailer at 75+ MPH. Would just need the hitch to include a power cable, to send power back to the car.
- pengaru 5y ago
  ... what proportion of american pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country where this wouldn't have practical range? Based on my observations it's a tiny fraction of pickups on the road. Most people seem to be driving pickups empty 99.99% of the time, just so they can move furniture, some 4x8 sheets, or bags of sand/cement when the exceptional need arrives, all locally - which a BEV is perfect for.
  - syshum 5y ago
    >>pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country You would not get a ICE F-150 for that anyway... you would get as F-250 or F-350 for that kind of hauling. F-150 is for Utility hauling for small campers, or Utility trailers and general work, not for 5th wheels, and horses *except maybe one of the small single horse trailers.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      Plenty of people use half ton trucks like that. Sure it's a little harder on equipment and you have to put up with internet commenters taking cheap swipes at you over safety (the heck is the point of having a tow rating if everything up to that rating isn't fair game?) but the trucks handle the job nicely enough.
      - syshum 5y ago
        A 5th wheel trailer will almost always be over the tow rating of an f150 Many people exceed the tow rating, and rightfully get ridiculed online for it
- cialowicz 5y ago
  It should be fantastic for towing heavy stuff relatively short distances (less than 150 miles). Electric motors make 100% of their torque from 0 RPM. This is why freight trains are powered by electric motors, with diesel engines merely generating electricity.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    For all practical purposes a motor operating at full load under hundreds of RPM is stalled. Motors let out the smoke (or have to throttle back) if you do that too much. The operating speed range of a motor is not infinite. For really high torque applications that also demand high speed you are going to see 2spd gear boxes for the same reasons your power drill has a 2spd gearbox. While this truck may or may not (I haven't looked at the specs) have a gearbox expect to see trucks with a gearbox (especially as we start seeing electric commercial vehicles). A simple gearbox consisting of two shafts, four gear and a dog clutch or one planetary and a dog clutch is going to be cheaper, lighter and offer less kludgy performance than over-specing the motor.
bigcat123 5y ago
tomcam 5y ago
Farmer here. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the New Yorker is my first place to look for breaking truck news.
- pcurve 5y ago
  What kind of truck do you currently have? What's your thought on F150 lighting, Rivian, and Cyber truck?
  - tomcam 5y ago
    I’m in the Seattle suburbs and my farm truck is a 1999 full size Chevy van. Much easier to use in the rain and holds 8’ long lumber with 2’ to spare. The van has only 100,000 miles on it so I won’t be evaluating electrics anytime soon. Besides, I don’t understand how the power grid can handle so many electric cars. As we saw in Texas last year, peak power usage can cause extreme problems.
    - chrisseaton 5y ago
      > I’m in the Seattle suburbs Probably not what the new F-150 is aimed at then. I think they’re trying to show they can break into a rural off-road user. Not suburbia.
      - tomcam 5y ago
        Ford stats show a very wide demographic range? https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2020/06/22/The-Great-American-Truck-Survey-2020.pdf https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America...
      - philistine 5y ago
        The F-150 Lighting is walking on a knife's edge. It's trying to show it's capable for rural off-road users, but most of its market is suburban dwellers.
      - travisb 5y ago
mdorazio 5y ago
Regardless of where you stand on whether this is the ideal truck for your particular use case, it's worth noting that Ford really nailed the general market aspect of this truck. It filled all 200,000 preorders in a few months, and has so much proven demand that they're expanding production lines. Hats off to Ford for taking a proven platform and electrifying it at a reasonable price without trying to be edgy (Cybertruck) or cater to a luxury niche (Rivian).
- brianwawok 5y ago
  Okay so how many will they ship in 2022? 2023? Everyone is coming out with an awesome BEV but no one other than Tesla ship any volume. Rivian shipped under 1000 in 2021. Chevy stopped basically all shipments due to cars exploding. In 2022 I think the new Cadallic Escalade is coming, which had rave reviews but I am suspecting will be < 10k units. Almost doesn’t matter how good these EV alternatives are if they can’t ship 100k units in the US.
  - kyruzic 5y ago
    VW shipped more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla.
    - cobookman 5y ago
      Source? Tesla model 3 seems to be outselling all others by a large margin. https://www.statista.com/statistics/972845/electric-vehicles-leading-models-europe/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/972845/electric-vehicles... And December sales Tesla is still #1 https://cleantechnica.com/files/2022/01/Europe-Electric-Vehicle-Sales-December-2021-CleanTechnica.png https://cleantechnica.com/files/2022/01/Europe-Electric-Vehi...
      - conjecTech 5y ago
        Clean technica agrees that VW ships more. VW has more brands and models. Tesla model 3 may be the top seller, but it's one of only 2 models that Tesla has with significant volume. For instance Audi is a VW group company too. Together they have ~5 of the top 20 EVs. [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2021/12/30/15-of-auto-sales-in-europe-were-fully-electric-vehicles-in-november/ https://cleantechnica.com/2021/12/30/15-of-auto-sales-in-eur...
diebeforei485 5y ago
> a Lightning with a fully charged battery could serve as an electric generator, powering a home for several days in the event of an electrical outage If this works as advertised, this could be a huge selling point for a lot of rural areas.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  I agree it's a great feature, but how many people who would be served by a backup battery don't already have a backup generator for when their power goes out?
  - User23 5y ago
    I have a generator and I’d still love to have one of these trucks. It’s nice to have a backup for your backup.
    - Hextinium 5y ago
      I would love to not have to put a generator in my truck and just run stuff off the battery. It wouldn't replace it in all circumstances, but I would switch from always lugging around a generator to pulling it out when I need it.
  - mbreese 5y ago
    It’s still a good selling feature. Do I want to spend X on a home generator, or put that money into a truck that can also provide backup power? I can’t imagine that the backup power from a truck is truly a replacement for a generator. More of a “nice to have because you can” rather than something you’d depend on. If you’re really worried about backup power, you’d have a generator in place.
  - unethical_ban 5y ago
    Many.
  - albrewer 5y ago
    Most of those home generators that run on natural gas have to be serviced extremely frequently. My grandmother has one for her house that was built 2 years ago and the service interval is something like every 100 hours. If she could bridge the frequent 2-4 hour power outages with a battery or truck instead of having the generator kick on every time, she'd be getting some serious convenience out of it. When I used to live out in the sticks, I lost power at least once a week, maybe more. Usually for less than an hour, but sometimes for half the day. I'd wager over the course of the year I didn't have power for maybe 300-400 hours of it.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
I suspect as fullsize trucks become electric we're going to see a lot of "highfalutin commuter car" + "highfalutin SUV/minivan/compact truck" driveways turn into "single electric fullsize truck" driveways since the electric aspect projects a totally different image making these vehicles an acceptable solution for these people.
dvt 5y ago
I'm quite interested in an electric truck (for camping/kayaking/skiing/off-roading/etc. trips). However, I'm quite wary of the range. I was talking to my dad about this a few weeks ago, and I'd be a little nervous to take a truck in the wilderness with "only" a ~350mi range (in perfectly ideal conditions). Your vehicle is your lifeline out there and if you run out of power, it can turn into a life-or-death situation (especially in the winter or at high altitudes). I'm not sure how a Rivian or the new F-150 Lightning would compare to a more typical rugged off-roading vehicle (e.g. Raptor, a TRX, or a Rubicon), let alone a truly heavy-duty one (Land Rover Defender, H1, or G-Class). Maybe bringing some gas + a generator would be a viable contingency? At the expense of some weight, of course.
- amelius 5y ago
  Bring a satphone.
- dangrossman 5y ago
  I'm having a hard time imagining the scenario you're worried about. You can run out of gas just as easily in the wilderness as electric; in either case you have a fuel meter in your truck telling you how much is left so that you don't run out. If roadside assistance can reach you to deliver gas, they can also reach you to tow you to a charging station. If you're stuck in a blizzard while low on gas, that's much worse than being stuck while low on electric: a gallon of gas will only idle the engine to provide heat for 1-2 hours, while a 5% charge in an F-150 Lightning can run a cabin heater and charge your phones for about 21 hours (and no risk of CO poisoning).
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    >if roadside assistance can reach you to deliver gas, they can also reach you to tow you to a charging station. That's a little bit of a stretch. You can walk a 5gal tank all sorts of places roadside assistance won't go, though that's largely a reflection of corporate policy than physical inability. Also it's way harder to get someone to give you a charge if you run out due to circumstance in the middle of nowhere whereas pretty much anyone will give you a gallon of fuel if you're truly out.
nikkinana 5y ago
throwawaymanbot 5y ago
tafurnace 5y ago
I wonder what the range would be like with a 9.6kW Harbor Freight generator strapped into the bed plugged into the truck's power inlet. They probably have some safety check to prevent this, and I get that this negates the whole zero emissions, safety issues, blah blah, but I am curious. I would love to have this as a daily driver, but then have something to augment it for the long haul. It is why I liked the Chevy Volt concept, but all hackiness set aside, this is more modular since you have a bed and aren't tied to any specific generator in the bed, or a generator at all for that matter.
- grosswait 5y ago
  https://topgear.fandom.com/wiki/Hammerhead_Eagle_i-Thrust https://topgear.fandom.com/wiki/Hammerhead_Eagle_i-Thrust

71 points by nojito 5y ago

eyeball 5y ago

Just don't try to tow anything with it.

Liiiii 5y ago
That is not true. For many people towing their boat to the launch it will work excellently. Towing trailer full of junk to the disposal, same thing. Also pulling the wood chipper to the dump. Heavy, but not going far. Picking up lumber in town, just fine. Excellent for picking up steel for the shop. It would be more accurate to claim it will do poorly in cross country towing. For the towing I do, it would be just fine. 1/3 the range when towing is still a 100 miles.
- donw 5y ago
  Because indicated electric vehicle ranges are never highly optimistic. 100 miles is a very, very short round trip in most of the US.
  - handol 5y ago
    Is that simply your impression, or is there trip length data to support that?
    - gameswithgo 5y ago
      its pretty simple: an electric truck can tow big stuff no problem, but not very far. so whether it is good for towing depends on how far you tow.
  - thebigman433 5y ago
    Do you have data to back that up? 100 miles is pretty significant for a work truck, especially if youre assuming you wont be able to charge it at the turnaround point and get ~200 miles
  - sp332 5y ago
    Most of the land in the US - sure. Most of the people in the US - no.
- bluedino 5y ago
  What about when you want to tow your boat "up north", and are you going to charge at the campground or what?
mdorazio 5y ago
?? It has the same 10,000lb towing capacity as the standard v6 model. Not sure what you're referring to here.
- crazyjncsu 5y ago
  Range. Many people expect towing to severely and adversely affect the range.
  - waiseristy 5y ago
    Uh, your range is cut in half in a gas truck too. Expect to get 10mpg or less, even on flat terrain
    - bluedino 5y ago
      Gas trucks have 30+ gallon tanks. Plus you can still get a diesel truck if you really want to tow.
    - xeromal 5y ago
      And gas stations are easy to find
- ggreer 5y ago
  Range will suffer greatly and non-Teslas have terrible charging infrastructure. Even Tesla owners have horror stories of trying to tow a trailer and not being able to make it no the next charger.[1] MotorTrend tried towing a car with a Rivian R1T. It reduced the maximum range from 314 miles down to 175 miles.[2] Both range and charging infrastructure will improve over time, but it's not quite there today. 1. https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 2. https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with-electric-truck-range/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with...
  - grawp 5y ago
    175 miles seem to be a huge distance for me and I can't imagine not passing by at least one big city with standardized charging infrastructure.
dieortin 5y ago
Actually it can tow 4500kg. Not sure about why you’re commenting this.
- brianwawok 5y ago
  Range is the problem. 100 mile range for a small tow, and with the lack of fast chargers… it’s not enough for a lot of use cases. We need trailers to start having batteries or something :)
  - syshum 5y ago
    For it to be useful the trailer would have to be more than just a battery, it would need to supply power (as in have an electric motor) as well. Which would be an interesting concept,
    - waiseristy 5y ago
      Probably not cost effective. You need a lot more hardware than just a ball and hitch to ensure there is no jackknifing or other weird unpredictable behaviors. A lot of work goes into ensuring trailers almost never push forwards against their hitches (trailer brakes are in a large part a thing to solve just this problem) I bet you could get a fifth wheel hitch to play nice though if the software was tuned correctly
    - sp332 5y ago
      Airstream does have a concept for this. https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-drivetrain-trailer/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-d...
    - stock_toaster 5y ago
      Or put an electrical generator and a small fuel tank in the trailer -- like a train.
    - brianwawok 5y ago
      It does not need to have a motor. Tesla can generate 400-1000+ horsepower, which is more than enough to pull a trailer at 75+ MPH. Would just need the hitch to include a power cable, to send power back to the car.
pengaru 5y ago
... what proportion of american pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country where this wouldn't have practical range? Based on my observations it's a tiny fraction of pickups on the road. Most people seem to be driving pickups empty 99.99% of the time, just so they can move furniture, some 4x8 sheets, or bags of sand/cement when the exceptional need arrives, all locally - which a BEV is perfect for.
- syshum 5y ago
  >>pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country You would not get a ICE F-150 for that anyway... you would get as F-250 or F-350 for that kind of hauling. F-150 is for Utility hauling for small campers, or Utility trailers and general work, not for 5th wheels, and horses *except maybe one of the small single horse trailers.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Plenty of people use half ton trucks like that. Sure it's a little harder on equipment and you have to put up with internet commenters taking cheap swipes at you over safety (the heck is the point of having a tow rating if everything up to that rating isn't fair game?) but the trucks handle the job nicely enough.
    - syshum 5y ago
      A 5th wheel trailer will almost always be over the tow rating of an f150 Many people exceed the tow rating, and rightfully get ridiculed online for it
cialowicz 5y ago
It should be fantastic for towing heavy stuff relatively short distances (less than 150 miles). Electric motors make 100% of their torque from 0 RPM. This is why freight trains are powered by electric motors, with diesel engines merely generating electricity.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  For all practical purposes a motor operating at full load under hundreds of RPM is stalled. Motors let out the smoke (or have to throttle back) if you do that too much. The operating speed range of a motor is not infinite. For really high torque applications that also demand high speed you are going to see 2spd gear boxes for the same reasons your power drill has a 2spd gearbox. While this truck may or may not (I haven't looked at the specs) have a gearbox expect to see trucks with a gearbox (especially as we start seeing electric commercial vehicles). A simple gearbox consisting of two shafts, four gear and a dog clutch or one planetary and a dog clutch is going to be cheaper, lighter and offer less kludgy performance than over-specing the motor.

bigcat123 5y ago

tomcam 5y ago

Farmer here. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the New Yorker is my first place to look for breaking truck news.

pcurve 5y ago
What kind of truck do you currently have? What's your thought on F150 lighting, Rivian, and Cyber truck?
- tomcam 5y ago
  I’m in the Seattle suburbs and my farm truck is a 1999 full size Chevy van. Much easier to use in the rain and holds 8’ long lumber with 2’ to spare. The van has only 100,000 miles on it so I won’t be evaluating electrics anytime soon. Besides, I don’t understand how the power grid can handle so many electric cars. As we saw in Texas last year, peak power usage can cause extreme problems.
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    > I’m in the Seattle suburbs Probably not what the new F-150 is aimed at then. I think they’re trying to show they can break into a rural off-road user. Not suburbia.
    - tomcam 5y ago
      Ford stats show a very wide demographic range? https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2020/06/22/The-Great-American-Truck-Survey-2020.pdf https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America...
    - philistine 5y ago
      The F-150 Lighting is walking on a knife's edge. It's trying to show it's capable for rural off-road users, but most of its market is suburban dwellers.
    - travisb 5y ago

mdorazio 5y ago

Regardless of where you stand on whether this is the ideal truck for your particular use case, it's worth noting that Ford really nailed the general market aspect of this truck. It filled all 200,000 preorders in a few months, and has so much proven demand that they're expanding production lines. Hats off to Ford for taking a proven platform and electrifying it at a reasonable price without trying to be edgy (Cybertruck) or cater to a luxury niche (Rivian).

brianwawok 5y ago
Okay so how many will they ship in 2022? 2023? Everyone is coming out with an awesome BEV but no one other than Tesla ship any volume. Rivian shipped under 1000 in 2021. Chevy stopped basically all shipments due to cars exploding. In 2022 I think the new Cadallic Escalade is coming, which had rave reviews but I am suspecting will be < 10k units. Almost doesn’t matter how good these EV alternatives are if they can’t ship 100k units in the US.
- kyruzic 5y ago
  VW shipped more electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla.
  - cobookman 5y ago
    Source? Tesla model 3 seems to be outselling all others by a large margin. https://www.statista.com/statistics/972845/electric-vehicles-leading-models-europe/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/972845/electric-vehicles... And December sales Tesla is still #1 https://cleantechnica.com/files/2022/01/Europe-Electric-Vehicle-Sales-December-2021-CleanTechnica.png https://cleantechnica.com/files/2022/01/Europe-Electric-Vehi...
    - conjecTech 5y ago
      Clean technica agrees that VW ships more. VW has more brands and models. Tesla model 3 may be the top seller, but it's one of only 2 models that Tesla has with significant volume. For instance Audi is a VW group company too. Together they have ~5 of the top 20 EVs. [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2021/12/30/15-of-auto-sales-in-europe-were-fully-electric-vehicles-in-november/ https://cleantechnica.com/2021/12/30/15-of-auto-sales-in-eur...

diebeforei485 5y ago

> a Lightning with a fully charged battery could serve as an electric generator, powering a home for several days in the event of an electrical outage If this works as advertised, this could be a huge selling point for a lot of rural areas.

heavyset_go 5y ago
I agree it's a great feature, but how many people who would be served by a backup battery don't already have a backup generator for when their power goes out?
- User23 5y ago
  I have a generator and I’d still love to have one of these trucks. It’s nice to have a backup for your backup.
  - Hextinium 5y ago
    I would love to not have to put a generator in my truck and just run stuff off the battery. It wouldn't replace it in all circumstances, but I would switch from always lugging around a generator to pulling it out when I need it.
- mbreese 5y ago
  It’s still a good selling feature. Do I want to spend X on a home generator, or put that money into a truck that can also provide backup power? I can’t imagine that the backup power from a truck is truly a replacement for a generator. More of a “nice to have because you can” rather than something you’d depend on. If you’re really worried about backup power, you’d have a generator in place.
- unethical_ban 5y ago
  Many.
- albrewer 5y ago
  Most of those home generators that run on natural gas have to be serviced extremely frequently. My grandmother has one for her house that was built 2 years ago and the service interval is something like every 100 hours. If she could bridge the frequent 2-4 hour power outages with a battery or truck instead of having the generator kick on every time, she'd be getting some serious convenience out of it. When I used to live out in the sticks, I lost power at least once a week, maybe more. Usually for less than an hour, but sometimes for half the day. I'd wager over the course of the year I didn't have power for maybe 300-400 hours of it.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

I suspect as fullsize trucks become electric we're going to see a lot of "highfalutin commuter car" + "highfalutin SUV/minivan/compact truck" driveways turn into "single electric fullsize truck" driveways since the electric aspect projects a totally different image making these vehicles an acceptable solution for these people.

dvt 5y ago

I'm quite interested in an electric truck (for camping/kayaking/skiing/off-roading/etc. trips). However, I'm quite wary of the range. I was talking to my dad about this a few weeks ago, and I'd be a little nervous to take a truck in the wilderness with "only" a ~350mi range (in perfectly ideal conditions). Your vehicle is your lifeline out there and if you run out of power, it can turn into a life-or-death situation (especially in the winter or at high altitudes). I'm not sure how a Rivian or the new F-150 Lightning would compare to a more typical rugged off-roading vehicle (e.g. Raptor, a TRX, or a Rubicon), let alone a truly heavy-duty one (Land Rover Defender, H1, or G-Class). Maybe bringing some gas + a generator would be a viable contingency? At the expense of some weight, of course.

amelius 5y ago
Bring a satphone.
dangrossman 5y ago
I'm having a hard time imagining the scenario you're worried about. You can run out of gas just as easily in the wilderness as electric; in either case you have a fuel meter in your truck telling you how much is left so that you don't run out. If roadside assistance can reach you to deliver gas, they can also reach you to tow you to a charging station. If you're stuck in a blizzard while low on gas, that's much worse than being stuck while low on electric: a gallon of gas will only idle the engine to provide heat for 1-2 hours, while a 5% charge in an F-150 Lightning can run a cabin heater and charge your phones for about 21 hours (and no risk of CO poisoning).
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  >if roadside assistance can reach you to deliver gas, they can also reach you to tow you to a charging station. That's a little bit of a stretch. You can walk a 5gal tank all sorts of places roadside assistance won't go, though that's largely a reflection of corporate policy than physical inability. Also it's way harder to get someone to give you a charge if you run out due to circumstance in the middle of nowhere whereas pretty much anyone will give you a gallon of fuel if you're truly out.

nikkinana 5y ago

throwawaymanbot 5y ago

tafurnace 5y ago

I wonder what the range would be like with a 9.6kW Harbor Freight generator strapped into the bed plugged into the truck's power inlet. They probably have some safety check to prevent this, and I get that this negates the whole zero emissions, safety issues, blah blah, but I am curious. I would love to have this as a daily driver, but then have something to augment it for the long haul. It is why I liked the Chevy Volt concept, but all hackiness set aside, this is more modular since you have a bed and aren't tied to any specific generator in the bed, or a generator at all for that matter.

grosswait 5y ago
https://topgear.fandom.com/wiki/Hammerhead_Eagle_i-Thrust https://topgear.fandom.com/wiki/Hammerhead_Eagle_i-Thrust