120 hour work weeks for Musk? Probably not true but it makes a good article .
That would explain his erratic behavior. I think the decision to hire someone to assist him is a direct result of this.
I was originally planning to trade my Ranger in early next year for a new Ranger once it’s in production, but I’m this close to changing my mind. Mine only has ~110,000 miles on it so it’s nowhere near used up. Now that I have a garage (and the ability to have a 240V/30A circuit run to it,) I’m seriously thinking I’ll run it for another year or two, and then when the BEV utility comes out get one of those instead. I’ve spent the last week in a Fusion Energi, and even with its paltry 20-25 miles of EV range almost all of my driving over that week was electric. plus- being an engineer- I turned it into a game of seeing how far I could stretch that range.* 200-300 miles per charge handles my daily needs easily, with comfortable margin for any “oh crap, I forgot to plug in” brain farts. And the handful of longer (100+ mile) drives I do each year I drive in someone else’s vehicle anyway. And any other long trip contingency would justify just renting a car for the trip.
- 30 miles on a charge, in case you wanted to know
Waiting for the Tesla pickup? 
IIRC, my parents have managed to squeeze high-20s out of their Fusion, but I don’t remember them ever getting 30 mi.
Squeezing out maximum efficiency is a fun game. Most of what I pay attention to is on the regeneration side; timing things juuust right so that I don’t waste time by slowing too early but also don’t have to touch the brake. I’m pretty good at this point.
I know that at low speeds, and when the AC is not working hard, I can can get under 200 Wh/mi (more typical is 240-250). I feel like I could squeeze out 400 miles on a charge if I stayed on 55 mph county roads (and maybe put a few more PSI in the tires).
I think he’s spilling the beans on a Detroit BEV pickup!
no, and no.
Regardless, a BEV truck could be pretty cool. Imagine having a 50 A, 240 V outlet in your truck that can run continuously for hours. Seems like it would be huge for a lot of work sites, or really any situation that currently calls for a generator.
Especially if you could get a kilowatt or more of high efficiency solar cells on the roof.
The problem with pure battery trucks is primarily just that batteries are expensive, and with an inefficient chassis like a truck, you would need 2-3 times as many as a sedan needs.
For some applications, that’s a problem. But an average contractor has a pretty small radius. 100 miles of range is probably enough as long as the vehicle can haul all their stuff. I’ll bet a 100-120 kWh battery would serve a huge range of needs.
I think it would be pretty cool if I could haul enough solar panels in my Model 3 to get some useful charging on a camping trip. The raw size isn’t a problem, but the thickness would be. A dozen 2 m[sup]2[/sup] panels would make it worthwhile but only if they used some kind of thin (ideally flexible) mounting. Would need some kind of specialized charge controller, too (though I bet the car itself could do it with the right firmware).
yeah, but a body-on-frame truck has a lot of space under the chassis to stuff battery.
just so I don’t come off as a douche, I’m referring to this.
Ford’s new performance battery electric utility arrives in 2020.
by the time my Ranger is used up I’ll be ready to change over.
Yes, but if that battery costs $300 per kilowatt-hour, and you need 180 kilowatt hours instead of 60, that’s a $54,000 battery. It’s not the space that’s a problem, it’s the cost.
Even at $100 a kilowatt-hour, $18,000 is probably more than the raw cost Ford pays for an entire gasoline truck drivetrain. Well, maybe. I don’t know what the cost breakdown is for truck that typically has a selling price in excess of 40k these days.
I wouldn’t keep your hopes up for 2020. Most likely Ford is too far behind in EV tech to deliver a really compelling truck that soon, and how can battery prices drop fast enough for it to be affordable? It won’t be.
Got my VIN, and have scheduled delivery for the first week of September.
Now I have to clean the garage and prep the old car for sale.
I definitely wish Ford luck. Just one BEV by 2020 feels pretty late in the game, but we’ll see how it goes.
I don’t think a 180 kWh battery is necessary. An F150 already gets roughly the same mileage as a large sedan like the BMW 7-series. If a Model S can get a decent range from a 100 kWh battery, it should be possible to do the same with a truck. Might have to do some interesting things with the aero, though.
Woot! I look forward to hearing about your delivery process.
There are just a shocking number of Model 3s around here. There’s another in my condo complex, and the last time I went to the grocery store there were three (including my own) just among the ones I could see walking through the parking lot. Not to mention a continuous new supply at work. The only way I can even spot new ones at this point is because they still have the temp plates.
The only car which *might *still be more common is the old Leaf, but that spanned years. And the Model 3 might already be caught up in numbers–it’s close, at any rate.
well, in response I have to say “Where’s BMW’s? Where’s Daimler’s? Where’s FCA’s? Where’s VW’s?”
we’re early in the mass-market EV game. Tesla kick-started the whole thing and created the business case.
What kind of lead time do you get after you order before they let you know it’ll be ready soon? Thinking about scheduling electrician, selling old car, arranging a ride to the Tesla dealer etc.
I ordered a week or so ago, they’re still saying Oct-Dec for delivery. I’d though worry if they send me an email Oct 1 and I have to take delivery by Oct 8 that I won’t have everything set up that quickly.
No argument at all! I’m not trying to come down on Ford specifically; they just happen to be what we’re talking about right now. “Late in the game” is a little unfair, I’ll grant–obviously my benchmark is Tesla and that’s not totally legit. Compared to the other big names, Ford is doing all right and may even have a leg up with their focus on SUVs and trucks.
My parents consider themselves a “Ford family” and while that didn’t quite rub off on me, I have a certain sympathy for them and hope they pull through the EV transition. Not everyone is going to make it.
Repeating a previous post of mine:
2016/3/31 10:20 am: Placed reservation in person at Fremont facility. Understood to be around 2 years until delivery.
2018/2/28: Received invitation to configure / configured. Got delivery estimate of 3-6 weeks.
2018/3/27: VIN appeared on configuration page.
2018/3/29: Got call from Tesla saying that they could deliver as early as tomorrow (3/30). Requested later delivery date due to being out of state.
2018/4/3: Upcoming delivery.
And it was in fact delivered on 4/3. That said, with the higher volume now, the timeframes probably aren’t really the same.
So, it looks like you don’t get any information until your vehicle is off the assembly line. I’d guess that delivery on the east coast would add a bit of a buffer there though.
My original order was on 6/28, so nearly a two month wait for me.
It’s pretty unpredictable. It depends on the options—are they out of white seats, etc. It also seems to depend on logistics—they’re not going to roll a half full truck or overwhelm a delivery location with more than it can handle at one time. They’ve also said that original reservation date plays into it, too. Of the tens (hundreds?) of identically speced cars to mine which have been ordered on the front range, my early reservation might mean that I get this one, instead of one shipping in October.
Of course that’s all conjecture by people who have nothing better to do than post on message boards while they wait for their cars. It might be a random number generator.
As I’ve posted before, I’m going to initially rely on 110 charging. As soon as I can get my car washed, I’m going to start trying to sell it. If I sell it early, great, we’ll deal with the inconvenience. I hope you can be as flexible.