Is the Cyber Truck a Flop?

[4570Man]

Amen! That’s why I don’t understand the almost-religious hatred and fear of something like EVs. They are just another tool, good for certain people, not so much for some others.

Because with pretty much every other tool you have the option to not buy one if you didn’t want it. You currently still have that option with electric vehicles but they were being pushed on us as hard as they could.

 

[WinterDeere]

Because with pretty much every other tool you have the option to not buy one if you didn’t want it. You currently still have that option with electric vehicles but they were being pushed on us as hard as they could.

Really? Where? Dodge just re-introduced the 6.2L supercharged Hellcat this month! Who's forcing you to buy an EV?!?

 

[KennyG]

Michigan just increased EV and plug in hybrid registration fees - in an odd way. The law links EV registration fees to the gasoline road tax. To direct more money to the road fund, the legislature eliminated sales tax on gasoline but increased the road tax by an equivalent amount. So the registration feeds for EVs will go up by $100 per year while the ICE fees are not changed. That will reduce the economic incentive to buy an EV.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

Because with pretty much every other tool you have the option to not buy one if you didn’t want it. You currently still have that option with electric vehicles but they were being pushed on us as hard as they could.

I've never felt the least bit of pressure to buy an EV. Who is pressuring you?

 

[NoTrespassing]

One last post and I'll leave it alone...
One might be able to have a friendly discussion that the EV battery holds the fuel - while the EV electronics and drive motors are more equivalent to the ICE engine and transmission.

But at any rate, with some easy basic design changes, it would be straightforward to decouple the battery to make it self contained and industry wide swappable.

EVs have very few shared standards today other than maybe the plug used to receive an external charging cord.

It seems the primary complaints with EVs which "everybody" makes (including EV owners, though maybe not admitted to) are:

1) limited distance per charge
2) Time required to recharge
3) high cost to surgically replace a dead/old battery

All easily addressed constraints with an industry standard swappable battery. It would remove the majority of the barriers to widespread EV adoption.

Well that, and maybe a redesign of the Tesla Pinewood Derby truck...

MSN

Is It Time for EV Charging Stations to Simply Offer Quick-Time Battery Swaps?​

Perhaps it’s time we dust off General Electric’s plan from 1910, when it equipped its GeVeCo electric trucks with separately leased Hartford Electric batteries designed specially to be swapped quickly when depleted. Together, these electric trucks covered 6 million miles between 1910 and 1924. Electric forklifts have used battery swapping since the mid 1940s, and Israeli startup Project Better Place (later just “Better Place”) endeavored to revive that idea for electric cars beginning in 2007.

 

[WinterDeere]

MSN

Is It Time for EV Charging Stations to Simply Offer Quick-Time Battery Swaps?​

Perhaps it’s time we dust off General Electric’s plan from 1910, when it equipped its GeVeCo electric trucks with separately leased Hartford Electric batteries designed specially to be swapped quickly when depleted. Together, these electric trucks covered 6 million miles between 1910 and 1924. Electric forklifts have used battery swapping since the mid 1940s, and Israeli startup Project Better Place (later just “Better Place”) endeavored to revive that idea for electric cars beginning in 2007.

I'm not sure why anyone would think battery swapping is the way to go. According to 3 seconds spent on Google, base-model Tesla's have battery capacities near 50 kWh, and their long-range models closer to 100 kWh. But they're also out there replacing their older 325 kW superchargers with new 500 kW models.

I know there's always some tail-off as you near full capacity, but the 10% - 90% charge time on a 50 kWh battery should be under 5 minutes on a 500 kW charger. No way you're doing a battery swap in less than 5 minutes... heck the wait time for a technician to pull your car into a service bay is probably going to be longer than that.

To me, 5 minutes seems about the perfect time to wander into Wawa and grab a coffee or sandwich, while the car charges. The only real problem I see is that there just aren't that many of these chargers deployed in rural areas, yet.

But I think the main aversion to battery swapping (historically) was that no one wanted to give up their nice new or well-cared-for battery, to let Tesla slap some used battery of unknown condition into their car.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

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I know there's always some tail-off as you near full capacity, but the 10% - 90% charge time on a 50 kWh battery should be under 5 minutes on a 500 kW charger. No way you're doing a battery swap in less than 5 minutes... heck the wait time for a technician to pull your car into a service bay is probably going to be longer than that.

I've watched some videos of automatic battery swap stations in Japan and other countries (most of which have failed) and they are painfully slow. Anyone thinking it would be "easy" to design a common, fast swappable battery is not an engineer and has never worked in the automotive design field.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I'm not sure why anyone would think battery swapping is the way to go. According to 3 seconds spent on Google, base-model Tesla's have battery capacities near 50 kWh, and their long-range models closer to 100 kWh. But they're also out there replacing their older 325 kW superchargers with new 500 kW models.

I know there's always some tail-off as you near full capacity, but the 10% - 90% charge time on a 50 kWh battery should be under 5 minutes on a 500 kW charger. No way you're doing a battery swap in less than 5 minutes... heck the wait time for a technician to pull your car into a service bay is probably going to be longer than that.

To me, 5 minutes seems about the perfect time to wander into Wawa and grab a coffee or sandwich, while the car charges. The only real problem I see is that there just aren't that many of these chargers deployed in rural areas, yet.

But I think the main aversion to battery swapping (historically) was that no one wanted to give up their nice new or well-cared-for battery, to let Tesla slap some used battery of unknown condition into their car.

I agree, just pointing out that it has been attempted and is still being attempted.

I think solid state fast charging, if it ever happens, will be the catalyst that brings EVs to parity or better with gasoline.

 

[deezler]

I've never felt the least bit of pressure to buy an EV. Who is pressuring you?

Well it was about to get ugly pretty darn soon. California and the other 17 states that follow them were set to ban sales of new internal combustion passenger vehicles starting in 2035. Because of the long development and production cycles to manufacture and distribute vehicles, this likely would have starting having real effects on consumer choices even sooner.

Thankfully for all of us, congress repealed their waiver that allowed them to go above and beyond EPA regulations.

 

[Blue Mule]

Not that I'm buying, but I am curious about your truck. What kind of range do you get? What do you plug it into? Do you drive it every day? How much room is under the hood to store tools? What did you pay for it and what options did you get for that price?

Thanks

I came from a LONG line of gasoline and diesel trucks over the last 30 years. Traded a '19 F-250 6.7 diesel for this F-150 Lightning. I drive the Lightning daily, and use it exactly like I used my F-250. The Lightning has a 5,000 lb. RAWR and over 2,000 lbs. of payload which allows for some fairly heavy use unlike other "1/2 ton" trucks.

Ford has a promotion going called the "Power Promise". They will cover all costs to have a 240 volt / 60 amp level 2 charge station installed at your house. It cost me zero. Now I just plug my truck up in my garage on Sunday night before bed and Monday morning I'm ready for the week. I get 315 miles of range on a full charge.

The "frunk" is very useful. It's totally out of sight and out of weather. I haul things in there all the time. I'd say it's the same size as the trunk on a large car. The model I got is the "Flash" which is above the XLT but below the Lariat. It's got more bells and whistles than a toy shop. Half of it I never even use because I'm old fashioned. But I do LOVE the heated steering wheel, heated seats, 360 degree camera view, and adaptive cruise control.

I leased it because I wasn't sure how I'd like it. They were doing $500/month deals on them in August.

It's been costing me $14 per "fill up" over the last nearly 3 months. My insurance premium dropped $80/month, only thing I can figure is the safety tech that's all over this thing.

And why would you want to do that? Do you like replacing tires prematurely?

I would think that kind of low end torque would work against you in snow, or maybe even wet roads.

Who said I do that constantly? The point, clearly, was that it WILL do it.

The truck has 5 drive modes. One of them is specifically for slippery conditions. That, combined with the weight of the EV and the AWD system will make this a CHAMP in snow and ice this winter. That's my prediciton.