Farley says Hybrid and Range-extenders are the answer for trucks (except fleets)

[Pioneer74]

My wife's 23 Honda crv hybrid left her stranded yesterday in the rain. Car lit up about a brake issue and wouldn't start.
I go there with my Lightning and start to check it out. Thinking a bad key fob first.. then go and grab my meter. Starting lvb shows 7.15 volts.
Still enough to sort of light up the dash, but not kick in the relays to provide hvb to charge the lvb.
I head home , but instead stop at oriely's 5 miutes away to pick up some jumper cables.
Got the car started with my Lightning. This morning her Honda started just fine.
So a 2 year old hybrid either has a dead lvb or something more serious..but was saved by a 5 month old lightning..
Waiting for today's call to come and bail her out. Even though I Showed her how to jump start her car.

All electric for the win.

Rick

Before you gloat about the infallible pure electric vehicle, head on over to the Mach-E site where 2021 vehicles are dropping like flies because their LVB suddenly dies. And they don't have a key to open the door, so that makes it even more fun.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/infant-stuck-inside-the-car-dead-12v-battery.41505/

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[lightspeed]

Let's be fair and also point out that China spends significantly more money subsidizing their EV and battery sector than basically the rest of the world combined. It also looks like that strategy will pay off for them, since no one else is willing to do the same.

Agree that is certainly a factor. But realistically, nobody in the world can compete with China purely on price when it comes to mass manufacturing. And EVs are relatively easy to make. China already has the industrial capacity to manufacture 40 million cars per year.

The US and Europe will have to tariff or block Chinese EVs if they want to keep their auto manufacturing bases.

 

[Danface]

The "state of the art" will eventually improve enough to overcome the limits of the existing technology. My guess is a combination of better batteries and charging infrastructor. I wonder what the Founding Fathers and Mothers would think of our how we currently live or lives

 

[Altivec]

Reading all of these odes to EV I have to tell you that I love my F150 hybrid. Yes the the handoff between electric and gas propulsion is occasionally a bit clunky under load but where I drive in the Pacific Northwest frankly it’s the best option for me. I regularly have 5-10 hours of driving to do and there just isn’t enough energy infrastructure to compete with a 5-min gas up most of the places I go.

I get the whole discussion of transmission smoothness, something that frankly has never been great on any ice vehicle I’ve owned with an automatic tranny, particularly from Ford, but the affection I have for my truck is multifaceted.

I powered my furnace for a whole week last year for half a tank of gas during an ice storm that chased half the folks out of my neighborhood when their houses went down to <30 degrees. Easily paid for itself in the lack of water damage from frozen pipes that so many suffered. Listening to the engine cut on and off at 2am to charge the battery with ice pelting our house in the darkened street was pure relief. Some may respond about bi-directional charging, but nobody has that for real outside of Japan. My friend works for Tesla and has all the kit - cyber truck/Tesla solar and power wall. After 2 days with no power no more juice and has been repairing water damage and fighting insurance claims all year.

In short EV adoption may be the future but it’s not here yet. And until the Battery tech is PROVEN and infrastructure is in, it is most folks won’t/can’t and frankly shouldn’t put all their eggs in the one basket. At least outside of major metro areas. FWIW my other car is a MachE. I appreciate what BEVs do, just realistic.

The point is not to insult your Hybrid as they have their use case. BUT, Ford already has hybrid tech, They can still use the same technology for this diminishing niche without investment moving forward. There are many Chinese vehicles right now that get 1000 mile range and charge super fast on the latest battery tech. What Ford is talking about in these articles is what they are working on now that will be used in 2027 to 2032+. IE. the future vision.

It takes a ton of engineering time and resources to fuse these technologies and the end result is complexity (more warranty costs to them and the buyer) in a future world where other manufacturers will be pumping out incrementally high ranges and fast charging speeds on a yearly basis. A heavy, efficiency robbing range extender will be obsolete before its even out. I would rather they have a new EV lightning out in 2026 than wasting all this extra time on another 1st gen Frankenstein gas drinker in 2027.

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