Lightning with Raptor bits

[rschap1]

Saw this earlier in my emails...

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2024-ford-f-150-lightning-switchgear-rtr-off-road-electric-pickup-truck/https://www.motortrend.com/news/2024-ford-f-150-lightning-switchgear-rtr-off-road-electric-pickup-truck/

 

[DFS]

I would like to think the engineers will get the batteries sorted out in the next 2-4 years. Power grid, charging efficiency, etc. will get better organized too. EV is a garbage fire at the moment, but the smarts will figure it out at some point.


Been watching the IG posts, that thing looks like a ton of fun.

2-4 years? You must know something about energy density no one else does. Battery technology is advancing, but not at that rate. Infrastructure is at least a decade away from having nationwide support structure for EV's in a more meaningful way, that doesn't mean adequate. California's electrical grid can't handle it's current load, replace another 100,000 ICE vehicles with EV's and you're going to really overload that system.

 

[thatJeepguy]

 

[ToadSmasher2K1]

 

[GordoJay]

I would like to think the engineers will get the batteries sorted out in the next 2-4 years. Power grid, charging efficiency, etc. will get better organized too. EV is a garbage fire at the moment, but the smarts will figure it out at some point.

You're wildly optimistic. Nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't invest much money on the premise. Yes, electronics improves exponentially. But batteries are chemistry. That improves much more slowly. And once you find a big improvement, you have to design, build, and debug a factory. And then you have to get your battery designed into EVs. Combined, that's probably a ten-year process, best case. Then there's the grid. Copper wires. Towers. Transformers. Not many gains to be had through innovation, but lots and lots of heavy shit that needs to be built and installed. That takes time, money, and resources. Until there's enough demand, it won't happen. I'd guess we're looking at two ten-year processes and one is time lagged, so maybe 15 years until real progress is apparent? If anything goes wrong, it will be longer.

 

[shigman]

For some reason “range anxiety” is what people care about, but they actually don’t. It’s charge rate, and charging station issue anxiety. If i had an electric car with a 250 mile range and a 5 min 100% charge up Id be totally fine with that. IMO the hummer EV and Lightening (new one) are some of the dumbest vehicles every made.

 

[GordoJay]

For some reason “range anxiety” is what people care about, but they actually don’t. It’s charge rate, and charging station issue anxiety. If i had an electric car with a 250 mile range and a 5 min 100% charge up Id be totally fine with that. IMO the hummer EV and Lightening (new one) are some of the dumbest vehicles every made.

Then there are those who routinely go 100 or more miles away from the nearest civilization. Range anxiety is real.

 

[DFS]

Then there are those who routinely go 100 or more miles away from the nearest civilization. Range anxiety is real.

Exactly, I could drive a TRX and get 50% the range my Raptor has, I could fill it up in 5 minutes. It still doesn’t get me where I want to, I don’t want to hunt down gas/charging stations more frequently than I absolutely have to. It’s range anxiety, and with EV’s charging anxiety as well. My brother rented a Tesla on Oahu because they were basically giving them away since no one wants to rent them. He could never find charging anywhere because charging takes too long, and there’s not enough chargers to support the volume of EV’s on the island. Find the same thing on I-80 driving cross country, only 2 super chargers in a lot of places, often with several people lined up waiting to charge for 45 minutes each.

 

[BoostCreep]

Exactly, I could drive a TRX and get 50% the range my Raptor has, I could fill it up in 5 minutes. It still doesn’t get me where I want to, I don’t want to hunt down gas/charging stations more frequently than I absolutely have to. It’s range anxiety, and with EV’s charging anxiety as well. My brother rented a Tesla on Oahu because they were basically giving them away since no one wants to rent them. He could never find charging anywhere because charging takes too long, and there’s not enough chargers to support the volume of EV’s on the island. Find the same thing on I-80 driving cross country, only 2 super chargers in a lot of places, often with several people lined up waiting to charge for 45 minutes each.

Man, that just sounds miserable. I’ve seen it first hand so know it’s true, and I always laugh to myself that people would knowingly subject themselves to that level of inconvenience.

 

[CVP33]

2-4 years? You must know something about energy density no one else does. Battery technology is advancing, but not at that rate. Infrastructure is at least a decade away from having nationwide support structure for EV's in a more meaningful way, that doesn't mean adequate. California's electrical grid can't handle it's current load, replace another 100,000 ICE vehicles with EV's and you're going to really overload that system.

Actually there was a huge breakthrough in December of last year, just published. And yes, it’s likely this will be brought to battery tech and manufacturing relatively quickly. 2-4 years is reasonable.

Solid state means:

- more power and range
- lighter weight
- less risk of damage/fire in a wreck and overall
- lower degredation over time (see the attached, 6K cycles retaining 80% capacity)
- more resistance to the recent, very public cold charging issues

This is literally game-changing.

Solid state battery design charges in minutes, lasts for thousands of cycles

Researchers have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times -- more than any other pouch battery cell -- and can be recharged in a matter of minutes. The research not only describes a new way to make solid state batteries with a lithium metal...

www.sciencedaily.com