The FORD Lounge

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, I'm sure that would be the thing to do. But, notice how it is squatting with just the ATV in the back? I think my tool box and its contents weigh more than the ATV.On the other hand, if its windows are any indication of how well it is going to work, I think I'll pass.

I'm sure whatever went wrong will be fixed, but yeah, that wasn't exactly inspiring.It's actually been a non-inspiring week in general for Musk, here's Wednesday's pressure test of his Mk1 Starship:

 

Despite picking on him sometimes, I still think Musk is the most important person in the country today. I really, REALLY want him to succeed.

Yes, he's had some problems. But I, like you, want him to succeed. He's doing things that will transform the way we live in very good ways.And while I don't think the truck is going to cut it for what I do, we'll never turn the corner on electric vehicles unless someone makes them and lots of people buy them.Just look at battery-powered tools. Ten years ago they were toys. But today they are serious tools. And I think electric vehicles will get there. But, there are lots of things that need to be worked out before they replace everything.

[ArdWrknTrk]

So did everyone see the big news from Tesla? The CYBERTRK is here!

Gary, you can stop wrestling with Big Blue and just grab yourself one of these for overlanding, Elon Musk has you covered.

Hi Matthew!

I guess you're slacking from your studies???

Gary, I think the truck squats like that for the ramp.

Specs say 3,200 load capacity.

And the idea of no emissions, little to no regular maintenance, ridiculously cheap cost per mile and 100% torque from a standstill makes me drool.

The early '80 styling reminds me of some high buck Italian prototype/show cars from Guigario or Bertone.

But it seems like a godawful monorail from Logan's Run.

(Farrah Fawcett at her best! 😉)

[Gary Lewis]

Hi Matthew!

I guess you're slacking from your studies???

Gary, I think the truck squats like that for the ramp.

Specs say 3,200 load capacity.

And the idea of no emissions, little to no regular maintenance, ridiculously cheap cost per mile and 100% torque from a standstill makes me drool.

The early '80 styling reminds me of some high buck Italian prototype/show cars from Guigario or Bertone.

But it seems like a godawful monorail from Logan's Run.

(Farrah Fawcett at her best! 😉)

You may be right on the squatting, Jim. Good point.

But I disagree on the lack of emissions. Don't forget that the vast majority of our electricity is currently generated using fossil fuels. Granted those plants are more efficient than our little engines are. And, the percentage of fossil fuel generated power is dwindling as the company my son works for, as well as plenty of other companies, install solar and wind farms rapidly.

On the other hand, the reduced maintenance and gobs of torque are certainly nice.

Some day we'll get there, and we have to have trucks like this one in order to find and turn the corner. But I'm not ready as this one doesn't fit my needs.

[Dorsai]

And I think electric vehicles will get there. But, there are lots of things that need to be worked out before they replace everything.

Exactly. And yes, your application for Big Blue would be one of the last things to be taken over by an electric truck. But, if they're ever able to get the energy density of batteries close to that of gasoline...who knows? For now I'm sure he's aiming at the middle of the light truck market, which is mostly people who drive around town and never carry more than a few small items home from Lowes in the bed.

Hi Matthew!

I guess you're slacking from your studies???

You know it! I've got an exam due on Monday, and I need to finish my capstone project (analyzing pitches for an MLB team, it's really kind of interesting) by Dec 2. Then a final on Dec 12, and I can graduate on Dec 13.

The early '80 styling reminds me of some high buck Italian prototype/show cars from Guigario or Bertone.

But it seems like a godawful monorail from Logan's Run.

(Farrah Fawcett at her best! 😉)

One of the articles I read said that there's another, more conventional design/style that they've worked on. I suspect this one is mostly for show, and what actually goes on sale will look a lot more like an actual truck.

[ArdWrknTrk]

You may be right on the squatting, Jim. Good point.

But I disagree on the lack of emissions. Don't forget that the vast majority of our electricity is currently generated using fossil fuels. Granted those plants are more efficient than our little engines are. And, the percentage of fossil fuel generated power is dwindling as the company my son works for, as well as plenty of other companies, install solar and wind farms rapidly.

On the other hand, the reduced maintenance and gobs of torque are certainly nice.

Some day we'll get there, and we have to have trucks like this one in order to find and turn the corner. But I'm not ready as this one doesn't fit my needs.

I should have said zero tailpipe emissions.

But with coal teetering on the edge of its grave (thankfully), newer -more efficient- NG plants coming online, AND all the new wind and solar being added to the grid, electricity is orders of magnitude cleaner than ICE vehicles could ever hope to be.

There are new banks of Superchargers being installed at all the rest stops in CT, and pads for the Megachargers have been poured.

* punctuation & formatting

[85lebaront2]

I should have also said that while that "truck" has good specs, I have some doubts. Here's what is said:

• 250+, 300+, and 500+ miles of range

• 3500 lbs payload

• Towing rating between 7.5k to 14k lbs

• 250 kW charging

• Off-road performance with 35 degrees approach angle, up to 16″ clearance, and 28 degrees departure angle

• 100 cubic feet of exterior storage

Since there are three versions available (single motor RWD, dual motor AWD, and tri-motor AWD) I'm going to assume that the driving range is in the inverse order. So a dual motor AWD, which is comparable to Blue, would have the 300 mile range - when not towing. But Blue has 600+ mile range when not towing.

As for towing, let's assume that increasing the gross vehicle weight decreases the range proportionally. (It is probably much worse than that since you go from 4 tires on the ground to 8 and the wind drag goes up dramatically if you have something way up in the air, like Big Blue, but this makes it easier.) So, when Blue was towing Big Blue on a car-hauler the weight was 2.5 times that of Blue. And that would make the driving range 120 miles. But the distance we towed was 1000 miles, so the Tesla would have to stop every 120 miles and wait for a re-charge? In out of the way places that probably don't have a Tesla charging station? How many days would that have taken?

Gary, you just hit the head on the nail. Here on Virginia's appendix there is one Tesla running around. My concern is what you referenced, charging stations. The Centre at Salisbury has a row in one of the back corners, problem is, that is 75 miles one way from me. The other direction, to Virginia Beach, roughly 60 miles to VB, but 22 miles of it is the CBBT so if an electric vehicle became discharged there it would need to be towed to a charging station.

Jim, power generation, we have a load of solar "farms" here, put up by Dominion Energy (who does not serve us!) and apparently Amazon buys their entire output. These basically take up what used to be farmland, much of which the produce from was shipped up to New England. So, for clean electricity you will ultimately pay higher food prices do to reduced supply. Wind turbines, sore subject, they want to stick a bunch of them off-shore. Not only is the Navy against it so is the tourist industry in VB. Look at the cost in energy to build one, maintain it through it's (relatively) short life span and then either replace it or scrap it. Not every area has (a) good prevailing winds (b) open areas to site one or more and © how many birds are killed by them?

Power, here ours comes down form Maryland's Eastern Shore, most likely from a fossil fuel plant, Dominion Energy operates two of the safest Nuclear plants in the country, humerus part, they sell most of it up North and mid-West, and buy electricity from Duke Power, who also operates nuclear plants. Yes, they produce hazardous waste, but are pretty damn reliable and safe. We would have more in this country if it wasn't for fear mongers 40 or so years ago saying how dangerous they are and pointing to Three Mile Island as an example.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Gary, you just hit the head on the nail. Here on Virginia's appendix there is one Tesla running around. My concern is what you referenced, charging stations. The Centre at Salisbury has a row in one of the back corners, problem is, that is 75 miles one way from me. The other direction, to Virginia Beach, roughly 60 miles to VB, but 22 miles of it is the CBBT so if an electric vehicle became discharged there it would need to be towed to a charging station.

Jim, power generation, we have a load of solar "farms" here, put up by Dominion Energy (who does not serve us!) and apparently Amazon buys their entire output. These basically take up what used to be farmland, much of which the produce from was shipped up to New England. So, for clean electricity you will ultimately pay higher food prices do to reduced supply. Wind turbines, sore subject, they want to stick a bunch of them off-shore. Not only is the Navy against it so is the tourist industry in VB. Look at the cost in energy to build one, maintain it through it's (relatively) short life span and then either replace it or scrap it. Not every area has (a) good prevailing winds (b) open areas to site one or more and © how many birds are killed by them?

Power, here ours comes down form Maryland's Eastern Shore, most likely from a fossil fuel plant, Dominion Energy operates two of the safest Nuclear plants in the country, humerus part, they sell most of it up North and mid-West, and buy electricity from Duke Power, who also operates nuclear plants. Yes, they produce hazardous waste, but are pretty damn reliable and safe. We would have more in this country if it wasn't for fear mongers 40 or so years ago saying how dangerous they are and pointing to Three Mile Island as an example.

I'm 100% behind nuclear, but not the messed up way it's getting done now.

You only have to look at the Westinghouse bankruptcy and Summer plant to see that

Meanwhile. If it's more profitable for farmers to lease their fields to a solar farm, they don't have a chance of crop failure or any multi-million equipment lease, nor CropCo's like Bayer (nee Monsanto) ADM or Cargill bleeding them every rotation, I say MORE POWER TO THEM.

I hope to see the day that we (like Britain already has) have weeks where all needs were met by renewables, and NO fossil fuels were burned.

It took billions of years of the sun's energy to be concentrated by phytoplankton and algae to create the oil we have now, and hundreds of millions of years of plants to create the coal.

Do you really think we can burn all that in a couple of hundred years and get away with it?

[ArdWrknTrk]

And I think electric vehicles will get there. But, there are lots of things that need to be worked out before they replace everything.

Exactly. And yes, your application for Big Blue would be one of the last things to be taken over by an electric truck. But, if they're ever able to get the energy density of batteries close to that of gasoline...who knows? For now I'm sure he's aiming at the middle of the light truck market, which is mostly people who drive around town and never carry more than a few small items home from Lowes in the bed.

Hi Matthew!

I guess you're slacking from your studies???

You know it! I've got an exam due on Monday, and I need to finish my capstone project (analyzing pitches for an MLB team, it's really kind of interesting) by Dec 2. Then a final on Dec 12, and I can graduate on Dec 13.

The early '80 styling reminds me of some high buck Italian prototype/show cars from Guigario or Bertone.

But it seems like a godawful monorail from Logan's Run.

(Farrah Fawcett at her best! 😉)

One of the articles I read said that there's another, more conventional design/style that they've worked on. I suspect this one is mostly for show, and what actually goes on sale will look a lot more like an actual truck.

Matthew,

Delivery trucks are the ideal EV.

Lots of stopping for ReGen, no need for high speed, and they return to a Depot every night where they can recharge.

Companies like UPS micromanage drivers to where three rights make a left, if it wastes less gas and improves the number of delivery's they can make.

The USPS is also ideal.

Neither have routes of 200 miles, and shorter range batteries will save big on the purchase price.

Both would literally save hundreds of millions each year on fuel and maintenance.

It's really a no brainer.

[Danny G]

I had to swallow hard at the pumps yesterday...ugh.

1.37/L for diesel. That's about $5.25 per gallon (CDN dollars of course). Converted to USD, that's about $4 bucks. Thank goodness the car gets 40 mpg...but still.

http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n44103/IMG_9234.jpg

One of the reasons my Bullnose has a 5spd and the 3.08 gears are staying right where they are...lol.

Man that sucks hard... its $2.17 USD / Gallon by me.

[Nothing Special]

Matthew,

Delivery trucks are the ideal EV.

Lots of stopping for ReGen, no need for high speed, and they return to a Depot every night where they can recharge.

Companies like UPS micromanage drivers to where three rights make a left, if it wastes less gas and improves the number of delivery's they can make.

The USPS is also ideal.

Neither have routes of 200 miles, and shorter range batteries will save big on the purchase price.

Both would literally save hundreds of millions each year on fuel and maintenance.

It's really a no brainer.

A guy I work with has had a Nissan Leaf for a while, and now bought a Tesla (I don't know the model). The Leaf had enough range for him to commute ~25 miles each way 3 seasons of the year, but he couldn't run his heater in the Minnesota winters unless he could recharge at work. Now the Tesla will let him run the heater and still make it home, plus it will let him drive it from the Twin Cities to his cabin in northern Wisconsin (150 ~ 200 miles). In use like that just being able to plug it in at home (or at the cabin) lets him charge it up overnight so "refueling" essentially takes him no time at all.

However on a cross-country trip (especially if towing another truck on a trailer!) you need to stop driving just to "refuel". And so far that happens more often and takes longer with electric than it does with gas or diesel. So for cross-country use electric cars are still mostly going to be owned by people who want the novelty of it (not that there aren't really good reasons to want that novelty).

And for what it's worth, another friend told me that he heard that if all passenger car usage switched over to all-electric cars we'd need to increase the capacity of our electric grid by 25%. I don't know if that's accurate, but assuming it is, that's not insignificant, but it's not out of the question either.