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Anyone thinking about a new Truck

trucks electric

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#21 Zoomad

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Posted 10 December 2019 - 05:44 AM

If you are planning on putting a brick like camper in the back of an electric truck you can forget about stated range with your batteries.  The aerodynamic loss is going to be brutal.  We've all seen it with ours.  I dropped mileage in mine by 25%, some of that was the gain in weight, but most of it was aero drag.  

 

That loss of range will suck for playing off road.  Remote areas like valley of the gods, San Rafael Swell and other areas in Utah. Then think about Death valley, Mojave Road or heading out to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.  Driving at low speeds with the heat or AC going is going to cut into range.  It's hard to find a place to get fuel in those areas much less a high amperage charging station.  

 

I'm in the auto industry, electric vehicles are coming there's no doubt in that.  Are they going to be the mainstream choice for trucks in two years, no.  They will be a choice, but they won't work well for everybody.  Add to that the grid that others have spoken is woefully unable to handle the capacity of charging a higher percentage of electric vehicles.   Towing a 35-40 foot 5th wheel toy-hauler RV trailer isn't going to happen with an electric truck.  Towing a decent sized boat from my side of the rockies to Lake Powell isn't going to happen on 1 charge either.  When folks only have a week or two off in a row for a vacation the last thing they will want to do is kill time waiting for the vehicle to charge for half the day when they could still be on the way to the destination.  Somebody going full time that's retired and not limited on free time isn't the norm either.  

 

Part of the argument is that the electric is better for the environment due to the lack of fossil fuel consumption.  Sure that's true about vehicles lack of emissions at the vehicle itself.  What about where that electricity came from?  Not all of our grid is renewable.  It's mostly fueled by coal or natural gas.  So there's sill fossil fuels being consumed to power that electric vehicle, it's just not at the vehicle itself.   As others have said the battery production is very dirty from mining the materials and such.  

 

There will be a place for the electric trucks, but I don't see them replacing conventional trucks completely in two years.  Once the technology gets cheaper and drives the price down and the electric infrastructure has greater capacity to cope with a higher volume of electric vehicles then you'll see them take a bigger dent out of the conventional truck sales.   


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#22 PaulT

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Posted 10 December 2019 - 08:49 AM

Search for "lifetime environmental cost hummer prius"

 

Results are dismaying and that was not for an all electric vehicle where having a massive battery encourages much higher use of electric energy consumption. I was interested in a hybrid but am waiting for more mature technology. 

 

Paul


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#23 Wandering Sagebrush

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Posted 10 December 2019 - 01:17 PM

Paul, I for one think you would be more comfortable in a rig like this.


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#24 windy

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Posted 10 December 2019 - 03:46 PM

If I sell everything I own I could go in halves with someone!
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#25 PaulT

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Posted 10 December 2019 - 11:42 PM

Paul, I for one think you would be more comfortable in a rig like this.

 

Missed my planning budget by that ...............................................................................................................................................much.

:blink:

Paul


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#26 Kolockum

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Posted 11 December 2019 - 04:29 PM

Paul, I for one think you would be more comfortable in a rig like this.

My house costs less than that car!

 

I like the amount of torque that is available from an electric motors and they will have a lot of potential off road when the battery/fuel cell technology matures. The removal of drive shafts and axle shafts (assuming the motors are in the wheel hubs) will allow for great ground clearance. However I will miss my stick shift.

 

I like idea of my FWC camper covered with high efficiency solar panels charging the batteries of my truck while I am out hiking around in the desert. Although it would not do much for when I am skiing on a snowy day in the Cascades. Technology is coming but we still have a ways to go.


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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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#27 PaulT

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Posted 11 December 2019 - 07:07 PM

Remember that a stick shift is a millennial antitheft device and should be considered as part of the security system.  :P

 

Paul


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#28 JaSAn

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 04:04 AM

Screen Shot 2019-12-08 at 4.16.12 PM.png


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#29 ski3pin

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 04:24 AM

:)

 

Remember that a stick shift is a millennial antitheft device and should be considered as part of the security system.  :P

 

Paul

 

 

 


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2003 Ford Ranger FX4 Level II 2013 ATC Bobcat SE "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."- Abraham Lincoln  http://ski3pin.blogspot.com/


#30 JaSAn

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Posted 12 December 2019 - 09:34 PM

I thought long and hard before replacing the un-syncro'd tranny in the Power Wagon for just that reason.


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