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>It bugs me that nobody is making a PHEV type F250 class service truck. The market that the F-250 plays in is a completely different market from the F-150 mark

by jdhn 5y ago

>It bugs me that nobody is making a PHEV type F250 class service truck. The market that the F-250 plays in is a completely different market from the F-150 market, despite the fact that the model numbering is very similar. People who buy half and three quarter ton trucks are much more likely to use them for actual truck work such as hauling and towing. As the amount that you tow is a bragging right, manufacturers aren't going to look at a PHEV because the addition of the battery will lower your towing capacity. I'm willing to bet that once battery capacity improves, you'll see half/three quarter ton market truck jump right to EVs, unlike the F-150 which went from ICE only to PHEV/ICE, and now to ICE/PHEV/EV

Syonyk 5y ago
I think you're off by one. The F150 is a "half ton" class truck, often used for passenger service duty. The F250/F350 ("three quarter ton" and "full ton") are more often used for serious truck work, being towing, service truck chassis, etc. But "towing as bragging rights" really only applies to individual truck ownership. There are certainly plenty of those (I'm one), but that sort of thing doesn't matter to fleet owners who care about TCO and if it will do what they need. A 30k tow rating on a company truck that spends the week towing an 8000 lb construction trailer around doesn't matter, and any sane company won't bother with an obscene tow rating if a lower one is fine. That doesn't mean you should be towing at the rating, but a 12k tow rating for an 8k trailer is totally fine. If, in the deal, you get lower operating costs and site power, so much the better. But I just don't think a 3/4 or full ton BEV makes much sense. The range hit you take towing a large trailer (especially a 5th wheel RV) is substantial, and subject to a lot of things you don't have much control over, like winds. A stiff headwind or even a crosswind can make a huge difference in range on a tank of fuel. Putting something like a 200hp diesel (rated for continuous operation) in with a 50-80kWh battery pack for a truck like that gets you an awful lot of nice things. No, it won't be cheap, but trucks aren't cheap anyway. If you had something like a full ton class truck, 50 or 80 kWh battery pack, 150-200hp diesel, 240V/50A out from an inverter when stopped, you've built something that will do just about every work truck duty out there, as well as being exceedingly appealing to the RVers, because now they have a full hookup anywhere they are - and if the battery is low, oh well, the engine kicks on to charge things for a while. $100k, $120k for such a thing, with a decent interior, isn't at all unreasonable. It just has to be able to take a 5th wheel hitch.

by jdhn 5y ago

Syonyk 5y ago

I think you're off by one. The F150 is a "half ton" class truck, often used for passenger service duty. The F250/F350 ("three quarter ton" and "full ton") are more often used for serious truck work, being towing, service truck chassis, etc. But "towing as bragging rights" really only applies to individual truck ownership. There are certainly plenty of those (I'm one), but that sort of thing doesn't matter to fleet owners who care about TCO and if it will do what they need. A 30k tow rating on a company truck that spends the week towing an 8000 lb construction trailer around doesn't matter, and any sane company won't bother with an obscene tow rating if a lower one is fine. That doesn't mean you should be towing at the rating, but a 12k tow rating for an 8k trailer is totally fine. If, in the deal, you get lower operating costs and site power, so much the better. But I just don't think a 3/4 or full ton BEV makes much sense. The range hit you take towing a large trailer (especially a 5th wheel RV) is substantial, and subject to a lot of things you don't have much control over, like winds. A stiff headwind or even a crosswind can make a huge difference in range on a tank of fuel. Putting something like a 200hp diesel (rated for continuous operation) in with a 50-80kWh battery pack for a truck like that gets you an awful lot of nice things. No, it won't be cheap, but trucks aren't cheap anyway. If you had something like a full ton class truck, 50 or 80 kWh battery pack, 150-200hp diesel, 240V/50A out from an inverter when stopped, you've built something that will do just about every work truck duty out there, as well as being exceedingly appealing to the RVers, because now they have a full hookup anywhere they are - and if the battery is low, oh well, the engine kicks on to charge things for a while. $100k, $120k for such a thing, with a decent interior, isn't at all unreasonable. It just has to be able to take a 5th wheel hitch.