2025 Ramcharger Announced

[Silenze]

It's a compliance car. It would cost double the price of a regular ram truck. It is basically a plug in hybrid with 100 to 150 electric miles. There would be zero cost savings vs a gas truck. And zero environmental benefit.

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[mme_and_lightning]

WW2 Submarine technology.

How long will the gas last if I rarely use the ICE? Regardless, we need a robust charging infrastructure.

I had a volt. Same type of setup. Every now and then you will be forced to burn gas and then add some to keep the gas fresh, and to simply run the engine. It's not too often and not too much of a headache.

 

[Zprime29]

How long will the gas last if I rarely use the ICE? Regardless, we need a robust charging infrastructure.

For this vehicle's use case, I would never fast charge it. It'd be engine when I'm on the freeway, EV when I'm not.

For someone that like to take weekend trips 2-3 times a month this is worth considering. Biggest cost for fuel is city driving, I spent $60 for 4 days in a ICE loaner and it sucked big time. In the lightning, I spend $65 for a month. That would be big savings, reduced wear on brakes, and easy road tripping with a camper. How big is the market for this use case? Dunno, but I'm sure there is at least a decent market for it.

 

[Roy2001]

PHEV full size truck with 50+ kWh is my dream. But look at Pacifica PHEV forum, you will be scared.

 

[RickKeen]

Renting a truck for occasional roadtrip towing would be a cheaper option. Key is to find a rental supplier where they are towing-friendly.

 

[lancersrock]

For this vehicle's use case, I would never fast charge it. It'd be engine when I'm on the freeway, EV when I'm not.

For someone that like to take weekend trips 2-3 times a month this is worth considering. Biggest cost for fuel is city driving, I spent $60 for 4 days in a ICE loaner and it sucked big time. In the lightning, I spend $65 for a month. That would be big savings, reduced wear on brakes, and easy road tripping with a camper. How big is the market for this use case? Dunno, but I'm sure there is at least a decent market for it.

As someone who works in rural Nebraska/Iowa/South Dakota and is always given a hard time about my EV I see plenty of people this works for. I showed a few co workers who are very much not EV fans and they all became very interested in this truck. People who drive 30-40 miles to work daily but also drive 200-300 miles to town every weekend and haul campers, boats, and ATV trailers all year but while also dealing with sub-zero temps this is a very attractive option.

 

[sotek2345]

For this vehicle's use case, I would never fast charge it. It'd be engine when I'm on the freeway, EV when I'm not.

For someone that like to take weekend trips 2-3 times a month this is worth considering. Biggest cost for fuel is city driving, I spent $60 for 4 days in a ICE loaner and it sucked big time. In the lightning, I spend $65 for a month. That would be big savings, reduced wear on brakes, and easy road tripping with a camper. How big is the market for this use case? Dunno, but I'm sure there is at least a decent market for it.

I would be the opposite - much more frequent fast charging to make sure I never use the gas engine. Heck - might even empty the fuel tank and disconnect the fuel pump to make sure it doesn't run - just treat it like an EV with a ~150mi range.

Or - I could just keep my Lightning!

 

[Grease Lightning]

I would be the opposite - much more frequent fast charging to make sure I never use the gas engine. Heck - might even empty the fuel tank and disconnect the fuel pump to make sure it doesn't run - just treat it like an EV with a ~150mi range.

Or - I could just keep my Lightning!

I actually like the concept of the truck, but I would rather have one with more ev range and maybe a 50kW generator. As you likely only need around 80-100 hp to run a small generator, why a V6

I think keeping the lightning is the best bet, !!

 

[Zprime29]

As you likely only need around 80-100 hp to run a small generator, why a V6

Bigger engine at lower rpm is more efficient than smaller engine at higher rpm.

 

[Roy2001]

Bigger engine at lower rpm is more efficient than smaller engine at higher rpm.

hmm, that's not necessarily true.

 

[sotek2345]

I actually like the concept of the truck, but I would rather have one with more ev range and maybe a 50kW generator. As you likely only need around 80-100 hp to run a small generator, why a V6

I think keeping the lightning is the best bet, !!

So they don't have to de rate the towing when the battery is dead

 

[Grease Lightning]

So they don't have to de rate the towing when the battery is dead

But if it is supposed to be a “range extender” type system, they shouldn’t have to derate the towing. The balance would be to have the engine spin a large enough generator to keep the truck charged enough to keep driving. Given our Lighting and Rivian towing data you are looking at around 60-80kWH needed to keep going until you are out of Dino fuel.

 

[TheBigBezo]

I'm a big fan of this design although I don't plan on trading my Lightning for one. It makes perfect sense when compared to purely ICE trucks. It has a big enough battery to commute for most people and charging at home is typically much cheaper than buying gas or fast charging. So you can enjoy savings, but if you need to take a road trip you charge up to full and fill the gas tank, and bam, now you can one shot an entire days worth to your destination. Fast charging is barely cheaper than gas so refueling the generator doesn't really hurt the wallet much. For the vast majority of Truck drivers not willing to make the swap, this is the foot in the door with only one small, tiny, itty bitty hang up: it's going to expensive as sin...

I don't like the design of the front, had a weird underbite look, but if Ford made a similar hybrid I could see myself swapping over some years down the road. Ironically, buying at the peak price means I'm now committed to driving the Lightning til the wheels fall off lol.

 

[TexasEdition]

I had a Volt when I was too scared to try a real BEV. I leased it so we could get rid of it after 3 years if it was a mistake. Our Volt turned out to be a good familiarizer. I'm sure this Dodge platypus will be the same for plenty of other EV-curious people.

At this stage, I don't want or value having two propulsion systems. Two systems to maintain. The gas system is dead weight most of the time. The responsiveness and quiet when the Volt was in electric mode really won me over.

I wish Ford would start pumping out a lot of SR Pros. They would be bought up as work trucks by businesses too small to fit into the fleet channel. These trucks being out and about would really speed up changing the opinion of drivers who are not excited about being part of the bleeding edge.

 

[lancersrock]

I had a Volt when I was too scared to try a real BEV. I leased it so we could get rid of it after 3 years if it was a mistake. Our Volt turned out to be a good familiarizer. I'm sure this Dodge platypus will be the same for plenty of other EV-curious people.

At this stage, I don't want or value having two propulsion systems. Two systems to maintain. The gas system is dead weight most of the time. The responsiveness and quiet when the Volt was in electric mode really won me over.

I wish Ford would start pumping out a lot of SR Pros. They would be bought up as work trucks by businesses too small to fit into the fleet channel. These trucks being out and about would really speed up changing the opinion of drivers who are not excited about being part of the bleeding edge.

so in this truck there is only one propulsion system, the EV system. The V6 powers a generator and charges the battery.

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