Ford, GM rev up electric pickup trucks to head off Tesla

[ddpt]

The future?

“You pick up all that extra space where the engine compartment has been,” Ford said. An electric F-Series could be a work truck - with its batteries functioning as a job site power source, he said. And it could be positioned as a high-performance vehicle next to the gas-fueled, 450 horsepower Raptor pickup truck.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based company has said it will invest $11.5 billion electrifying its vehicles by 2022, including adding 16 fully electric models, all of which will be profitable.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...pickup-trucks-to-head-off-tesla-idUSKCN1VY0YE

 

[jabroni619]

It'll be interesting to see what happens here. I suspect it will be difficult to beat the upcoming Tesla truck in terms of performance and range. Porsche couldn't do it in the sports sedan segment with the Tycan. Slower to 60 by a tenth or two, nearly 100 miles less range and about 80k more expensive.

 

[melvimbe]

The article made a good point that it's going to appeal as fleet vehicles much more than individual customers at first. And I'd guess non-truck people are going to be more into it than Truck folks.

It's going to be a huge infrastructure and culture shift that just won't happen overnight. I'd say it's probably a decade or more before electric sales are on par with combustion. And although trucks outsell cars these days, electric makes more sense on cars then trucks, IMO. People buy cars for practicality and low maintenance. People buy trucks/jeeps, to customize it, make it their own, and project an image...or just more fun.

It'll be interesting to see what happens here. I suspect it will be difficult to beat the upcoming Tesla truck in terms of performance and range. Porsche couldn't do it in the sports sedan segment with the Tycan. Slower to 60 by a tenth or two, nearly 100 miles less range and about 80k more expensive.

I don't know that they necessarily need to beat Tesla. Are companies buying fleet vehicles going to go with Tesla over Ford and Chevy? Will 'truck guys' go with Tesla, where there'll be little to know aftermarket to mod their truck? Your right that price is a huge factor, but there's no reason to think Ford will pricing this out of range.

I do think this is the future, but it's still a long way before electric sales match combustion engine sales. There is still so much culture and infrastructure that needs to shift.

I also think car/truck designs are going to shift. So much of current design is built around the engine. Remove the engine, and you can shift the driver forward quite a bit, with only concern for safety and the wheel wells potentially. I think that will eventually happen, but will take time as people want these things to still look like combustion engine cars and trucks.

 

[jabroni619]

The article made a good point that it's going to appeal as fleet vehicles much more than individual customers at first. And I'd guess non-truck people are going to be more into it than Truck folks.

It's going to be a huge infrastructure and culture shift that just won't happen overnight. I'd say it's probably a decade or more before electric sales are on par with combustion. And although trucks outsell cars these days, electric makes more sense on cars then trucks, IMO. People buy cars for practicality and low maintenance. People buy trucks/jeeps, to customize it, make it their own, and project an image...or just more fun.



I don't know that they necessarily need to beat Tesla. Are companies buying fleet vehicles going to go with Tesla over Ford and Chevy? Will 'truck guys' go with Tesla, where there'll be little to know aftermarket to mod their truck? Your right that price is a huge factor, but there's no reason to think Ford will pricing this out of range.

I do think this is the future, but it's still a long way before electric sales match combustion engine sales. There is still so much culture and infrastructure that needs to shift.

I also think car/truck designs are going to shift. So much of current design is built around the engine. Remove the engine, and you can shift the driver forward quite a bit, with only concern for safety and the wheel wells potentially. I think that will eventually happen, but will take time as people want these things to still look like combustion engine cars and trucks.

If they want to maintain fleet sales, truck guy sales, etc etc, they will need to beat or at least be very competitive with Tesla.

 

[SilverBolt]

Fleet/In town delivery vehicles actually make sense. Not many will exceed the 200/300 mile range in a day. Recharge overnight and ready to go again. Very surprised that UPS & Fedex are not ramping up on this.

 

[squeak]

Fleet/In town delivery vehicles actually make sense. Not many will exceed the 200/300 mile range in a day. Recharge overnight and ready to go again. Very surprised that UPS & Fedex are not ramping up on this.

Might be something with heavier duty uses and long run times. Ford just came out with a hybrid explorer for police use. I was hoping for an electric version since they spend most of their time at idle or at low speed patrolling you'd think it would save a ton of money. It seems like the full electric is behind on these types of vehicles. I don't know why.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[melvimbe]

A lot of fleet vehicles need to carry specialized equipment and travel long range. There could also be shift work there the truck can't really afford to be charging overnight. Electric won't fit in seamlessly for that. I can see local delivery making some sense, but for large trucks with heavier load, the 200-300 mile range is going to have different battery requirements and perhaps require a compromise between storage space and battery space. It does make a lot of sense considering these trucks make frequent stops and idle often.

If UPS did try and switch over to electric trucks, they would likely need to design the vehicle themselves (with flexibility as batteries improve), build up the charging infrastructure, train maintenance, and still maintain the infrastructure for gas vehicles, since it will go in stages and won' t apply to the long range vehicles right now. This is all at a time when they are facing new competition from Amazon deliveries.

 

[london blues]

maybe not completely germane to this thread regarding possible fleet trucks, but as a 2019 screw 802.a and a 2016 tesla model x p90d owner, if you haven't already done so, check out rivian. we buy our raps mostly to for fun toys, and the rivian r1t will be awesome!
once the infrastructure improves, ranges are easily 400mi and charge times to at least 80% full are < 20 min, many will see the electric benefit. torque to spare, no lag, and fewer moving parts (i.e. more reliable).
rivian has a 10+ year history, owns a former Toyota plant in IL and has lots of capital.
have fun my friends!!
#nogaragequeens

 

[realjones88]

Profitable just means you make sure to charge more than what it costs you to make it.

Getting people to actually buy it will be very tough if costs more than a similar performance gas truck (which as a fleet truck can run all day). People want cheap vehicles, not necessarily electric ones. People were going electric because you could get a $40K car for $30K after rebates and such. For cheaper ones like the Leaf sales plummeted once the credits were gone - some states like GA had their own add'l credit. Tesla just reported a huge loss for last quarter....their first one after their credit was halved.