Electric vehicles have been with us for quite a while, and are becoming increasingly popular. Manufacturers worldwide have been ramping up models and planning for new EV’s. More are entering the market any day.
Ford has announced the features of the new F-150. People in N. America seem to love, love their trucks. I believe the F-150 is one of Ford’s top sellers. This new E-version of the F-150 looks pretty damn amazing, and seems designed to appeal to a very wide variety of market segments - families, RV trailer towing folks, contractors, etc. I wonder if this truck is going to be the EV that tips the doubters over the edge, and really gets the ball rolling with EV’s
Some features:
Only a 4 door, short box produced for now (most popular model of F-150)
Base price $39,974 (of course, higher end models with additional features/ longer range will be more) This lower priced model is designed for fleet purchases (contractors)
563 horsepower and 775 pound-feet from the dual-motor version with the larger battery pack
DC fast charge, the extended-range version will get 54 miles of range in 10 minutes and get from
240-volt home charger, will charge to full in 10 or 13 hours,15% to 80% in about 41 minutes
0-60 mph in about 4.5 seconds
Range 230 miles for a standard pack and 300 miles for the extended range pack.
4WD, dual motors
New independent rear suspension
Towing capacity 10,000 pounds, payload up to 2,000 pounds
Frunk (front trunk) 400 liters of space (about 14 cubic feet)
Higher end models have Ten 120 V outlets 4 in the bed, 2 in the cab and 4 in the Frunk. Plus a 240V 30 amp outlet in the bed
Future plan is to have the truck able to power your house when the power goes down, with software designed to limit this to retain enough battery power in the truck (don’t drain the battery completely)
Optional towing features, like onboard scales, backup assist, trailer hitch assist etc.
Some are saying that this truck will produce a bunch of “accidental environmentalists”; Folks who really don’t prioritize the environment but will be swayed by the features and ease of use.
I wonder what the range will be while towing. My V-8 powered pickup gets about 17 mpg but I get only 11 mpg while towing my travel trailer. That dropped to 8 mpg while pulling over a mountain pass a few weeks ago. The payload number is low too, my pickup has a towing capacity of 12,000 pounds with a 6200 pound payload. The weight of the batteries must be sucking up a lot of the payload capacity.
My guess is that range will take a substantial hit when towing, so it’s probably not the right choice to take your boat a long distance. But it might be good for towing a work trailer a short distance to the job site. Ford sold something like 800,000 F-150 trucks last year, so if ten percent of those sales convert to this, that’s still 80,000 vehicles.
I wonder about the feasibility of DIY maintenance for these electric trucks. I work for a SMALL construction company - 7 guys including myself - and our “fleet” of vehicles consists of an F-250, an F-350, and a Freightliner dump truck, all of them over 10 years old. All but the most major repairs are performed in-house. When a part needs to be replaced, I get sent out to buy it and bring it back, and it’s usually installed that same day. Can this kind of DIY maintenance be performed on the electric trucks? A lot of people who actually use these trucks as work trucks simply cannot afford to hire out maintenance whenever it’s needed.
We plan on getting one shortly after it goes on the market. We own an organic lawn company, and this fits very well with our company’s mission of greener living. I was worried it was going to cost $80,000 or $90,000, but the fact that we can get it for pretty much the same price as our current F-150 seals the deal for us. I’m actually really excited to get this!
One recurring selling point for EV is that they need much less maintenance. But when they need it, it can get more complicated, particularly if it involves the computer parts. You cannot repair a chip. But you don’t need to change the oil or the oil filter either.
From a maintenance standpoint, electric vehicles definitely have the advantage of requiring relatively little other than occasional fluids and wear parts. The lack of a reciprocating engine, a cooling system that is closed loop and only has to maintain battery temperatures, and regenerative braking means that there is so much less to go wrong. It is true that a failure of some microprocessor is probably not a field-replaceable item, but then that is true of all modern vehicles anyway, and the automotive industry has very rigorous quality standards regarding electronics so such failures are rare. For fleet applications where the vehicle does not travel long distances and is really only in active service for a predictable period every working day, electric vehicle fleets make a lot of sense financially, especially since the vehicle cost is a deductible business expense. And the advantage of the F-150 is that Ford is a known quantity with conventional users who would be more reluctant to purchase a Rivian or a toy vehicle like the Cybertruck.
There are truck applications where an EV is not suitable, such as overlanding, heavy towing, or service work in remote locations far away from a charging station, but these are really niche applications that are unlikely to drive the market away from EV trucks.
Two additional advantages of EVs for enterprises are
one, commercial activities are often carried out in proximity, specially in cities, so the range is not a problem. Charge the EV every night and you’ll likely make it throught he day.
two, the boss can track where the EV is at any time. Bosses love that kind of control.
It looks like a great offering from Ford, but my worry is that they simply won’t be producing enough units. The Mustang Mach E has seen strong demand, but only sold 6600 units in Q1. That’s in comparison to 180,000 units from Tesla. I’m sure that’s entirely a supply issue, given the car dealer shenanigans we’ve seen.
I have little doubt that Ford could sell hundreds of thousands of these per year–the advantages of an EV are just too obvious. But right now I’m skeptical that they’ll be able to produce that many. Few automakers are really taking battery production seriously aside from Tesla, and to a lesser extent VW.
