Not just a battery; the page says, “inside the device would be a small motor, fuel tank, exhaust system, and electronics needed to hook it up to an electric truck.”
Although it seems to me that the frunk is an even better spot for a motor.
Whoops, you are correct.
So basically what I was talking about above. When you can carry 2,000 lbs in the bed, there are many options. You could put a generator and a 50 gallon tank back there, and pretty much go anywhere you wanted. Drive 300 miles off grid, burn 15 gallons of fuel over two days, and you’re ready to drive back. If you had to do this all the time it woildn’t make sense, but for those people who won’t buy an EV because one or two trips per year are beyond the range of the truck, this would solve that problem for just a couple of thousand bucks. And the generator would be useful anyway if you camp for long periods or want an emergency generator at home.
This is a cool feature even without. If I keep my battery at 80% overnight, and don’t want to run it down below 20%, that gives me 60% of the battery to work with, or 72 kwh. Looks like we average about 15 kwh / day usage here in the house, so that’s 5 days worth of being able to power the house right there. And it’s not hard to imagine stretching that with a few behavioral modifications. That’ll get you through most power-losing events, and if it looks like it’s going to be longer (like after a major hurricane), at least you get some advance warning to start clearing through the stuff in your fridge/freezer and not add any more!
That makes sense, I was thinking more about those people that never venture further than a camp site with showers, water hookups and power. You know the ones I mean. This way, no cacophony of gensets (I know the good ones are super quiet; they’re also pretty pricey.) , no dicking around with gas/diesel/propane. Just quiet.
It has disadvantages, but every solution does.
FWIW, induction cooktops work great with cast iron…
Think of the savings if you charge your truck at work for free, and then run your house off the truck whenever you’re home.
Once the idea of running your house off your car / truck at night goes viral on TwitFace I bet pretty quickly the “unlimited free charging at work” bennie will go the way of the old “all you can eat” restaurants.
IOW, now it’s “All you can eat while sitting here & no takeout containers allowed”, not “All you can eat and carryout and hide in your purse and under your shirt and …” like it used to be.
Hey, you leave my foil lined gym bag alone! No, it’s to keep my…clothes…from smelling up the place. Totally.
BTW, you can put about 10 pizzas in a gym bag and enough shot glasses for a checker game…so I’ve heard. Misspent youth and larcenous friends with a super Nintendo are a bad combo…
This is the most logical buyer. Short haul commercial use with decent towing. The fuel and maintenance costs would go way down.
It would be interesting if they made a hybrid with the larger twin turbo V6 and 100 mile range. that
would destroy every other truck in that towing class.
I wounder if the battery can be submerged. I’m thinking of people with boat trailers who get the back end into the water.
Nobody’s doubting EV’s. People are waiting for charging stations to catch up in my area. And I’m not sure it’s a plus for RV trailer towing because those are long distance travelers. But I think this will be an immensely popular vehicle.
Oh there are plenty who doubt EVs. My neighbor just told me yesterday that they will never really catch on. He is still convinced that I need a special charger that will wreck the neighborhood grid, even after I showed him how I charge my LEAF with a 15 amp
Plug in my driveway. He just looked at the evidence in front of him and refused to acknowledge its existence.
The Blind is strong in that one. And 150M of his fellow travelers.
Related to, but not only about the electric F150, are all or most of the charging connectors the same? If I have the F150 and visit someone with a Tesla or Volt, can I charge at their place? Or has each car maker designed an exclusive connector?
Most EV’s in North America come with a charge cord for a regular 120 V 15 amp outlet. This can be plugged in anywhere and is quite a slow charge. Many folks install a 240 V charger in their garage. Both of these plug into the SAE J1772 outlet on the car (most N. American cars have this outlet for charging, except for the Tesla.
For fast charging, (DC charging) there are different types of outlets on cars:
- CHAdeMO (Japanese JEVS)
- CCS (Combined Charging System or ‘Combo’) Ford, Chevy, Honda, Hyundai, Kia
- Tesla’s proprietary supercharger connectors
Can I carry around a bag of adapters and charge anywhere?
I guess the best answer is “it depends”. Tesla has their own proprietary charging port, but most Tesla home charging setups are likely going to be using the mobile connector cable, with an adapter plugged into something like a NEMA 14-30 (240V / 30A, electric dryer), a NEMA 14-50 (240V / 30A, electric oven), or even a NEMA 5-15 (120V / 15 A, regular household outlet). Any of these outlets will likely also work with the F150, assuming you bring your own cable & adapter.
If the Tesla home charging setup consists of a hardwired wall connector, you’re probably out of luck unless there’s another convenient outlet
I think the F-150 Lightning EV has the formula for big success. Businesses and fleets will love these. Hopefully they can at least somewhat keep up with demand, and hopefully there aren’t any big problems.
Personally I would like something a little cheaper with a full 8-foot bed, but this is a great step in the right direction.
Standard charging plugs just need a wall outlet.
All rapid charging stations aren’t compatible with all cars, but in North America all EVs use a standard SAE J1772 plug. Except Tesla - they use a proprietary plug for Level 2 charging, but come with an adapter.
Well that’s one person. I’ve literally never met a person who doubts the future of EV’s. They may not like them because they lack the nostalgia of ICE. I’m all in on owning one when it fits my needs but I will surely miss ICE muscle cars in all their dinosaur glory.
But your neighbor might be correct about the grid, sort of. I think the switch to EV’s is going to be much quicker than people realize. Given the frailty of the grid in places like California it will be an issue. Particularly if they shut it down for fire prevention.
One potential drawback of the F-150 just occurred to me: It might not easily fit in your garage for charging. This is probably why Ford is only offering it with the 5.5 ft bed. Even so, the thing is over 18 feet long, and just over 96 inches wide.
I have a large-ish 2.5 car garage, and it’s a tight fit with our Escape and Saab both in it, with the .5 part of the garageused for storage. The Escape is 15 ft long. I could make an F-150 Lightning fit, but it would be tight. With mirrors, the F-150 is 2 ft wider and 3 ft longer than the Escape. If I had another full sized vehicle instead of a compact car, I don’t think I could fit them both in the garage.
I wonder if the size of the vehicle will limit how many people can charge in their garage. Around here, I notice that almost everyone parks their pickups outside, even if they have a 2-car garage.
Height could also be a consideration for small garages. Especially if you put on big tires or a light bar or something.