I hope this will never happen because I think it would be a disaster for this company. I don’t understand why some think it’s a good idea?
17 replies (most recent on top)
Last commenter nailed it. I'll drive a V8 powered pickup until the day I die.
Issues with BEV:
- Range/5 minutes recharging: Currently being worked on. There are batteries/methods to charge in 5 minutes (affecting battery health).
- Keeping the battery charge in cold areas: No real solution here so far. The trickle warmer have a limited time.
- Keeping the temperature stable inside the car (AC/Heater) reduces range considerably: Improving the performance/energy ratio of AC/Heaters is limited by physics laws (Carnot's Law).
- Battery recycling: We currently do NOT recycle batteries (only 5% of lithium batteries are recycled). Increasing the amount of batteries ending in landfills will only poison the land and people living near by.
- Vehicle recycling: BEVs depreciation and battery replacement costs mean it is cheaper to buy new. Hence, vehicle life will be short.
- Most/All the rare earths needed for BEVs are in countries with child workers or lacking human rights: Some companies are trying to minimize the usage of the rare earths. Still, business trumps decency.
- Deploying infrastructure for BEVs: Not only chargers in the highways. We need chargers in the sidewalks too, improved electrical lines, more nuclear power plants, etc.
- Towing load reduces range: No solution.
We are trying to replace a very ineffective power source (gas/diesel) with an effective one. The issue is that the fuel is very energy dense (1 gallon of gas is 36.6 KWh), while batteries in BEVs do not pass 200 KWh (Ford Lightning battery will be 131 KWh, around 4 gallons of gas). Fuels are easy and cheap to store, while electricity is hard and expensive to store.
There are many engineering challenges in the conversion, so many that politicians are not aware of, while they keep pushing for it. We are NOT ready yet to replace ICE with BEVs. And the reasons used to push for this conversion are NOT true, not greener.
@6sml+1finAOOL ... regarding dependence on Other foreign materials...i was orig gas car poster, this is so true. frying pan into fire. The Reckoning still applies though :)
The human rights issue in cobalt, lithium and other metals needed for the batteries is a huge issue. Bill and Jim sending us all to this DEI training while the Congo uses child slave labor to produce cobalt. SHhhhhhH! Dirty little secret.
Start driving an EV, ki-l a little African child. Sad.
Yes, range is one issue - but the real, real issue is battery pack replacement cost. Guy is Norway was earlier adopter for Tesla S (he got it in 2012).....2021 comes around and total battery pack replacement needed at a cost of $22,600. His response to the repair bill was epic: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/26/22853573/tesla-model-s-explosion-repair-bill
The first BEV manufacturer that solves this problem will win the market in the long run. For the life of me can't figure out why Ford, as a relative latecomer, has not seen fit to devise a way that their battery packs can fail gradually, sequentially and be replaced in smaller "packs within a pack" thus extending the life of the vehicle and reducing dead battery pollution by minimizing a potentially huge problem.
Until someone solves this problem, I believe the common sense solution is to produce more hybrids than full on BEV's....but other than Toyota, there does not seem to be a lot of manufactures going down this route.....most of them seem to be going head long into full on BEV from ICE.
@6uob+1finAOOL Yup reduce dependence on foreign oil, but increase dependence on other materials from foreign countries, also we have yet learned to responsibly handle the toxic waste materials from producing those other materials for which our dependence is increasing.
The auto companies have known for a long time how to drastically reduce emissions and increase gas mileage (think hybrid like Prius). They chose not to spend $ to do so, until a disrupted came along and forced their hand. Now instead of taking measured quality approach they are swinging for the fences, and counting on a bailout if they strike out.
Either way Car-Car gets his paycheck and bonus.
i like my V6s and V8s, but one good thing about EVs is that they reduce reliance on foreign oil, the cause of so many of our problems since 1973. read The Reckoning ... a lot of things he talks about are still so true about fomoco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reckoning_(Halberstam_book) ... it's funny when the managers want you to read "who moved my cheese" type of fluff books, yet they pass over books with real research and in-depth reporting.
"People do not want electric vehicles."
Really? Perhaps you need to review Tesla's sales data and get your head out of the sand. Not everyone is ready for electrics, but they make sense for quite a few folks, and more every day.
A couple years ago, before most moved to remote work, the parking lots in Dearborn increasingly had non Ford vehicles. What do you think it will look like if everyone went back to the office now?
Fords push for electric vehicles is pathetic. I work at a plant that employs about 1000 people. There are about 10 people that have electric vehicles and only 2 chargers in the salaried parking lot. None for the hourly personnel. Ford discriminates.
Funny thing is that one of the 10 vehicles is a Tesla Model S. It is owned by an LL6 manager. He also owns a Porshe GT3 RS.
I would buy a Tesla EV long before a Ford EV.
I agree that going all BEV is the wrong direction. What’s wrong with Hybrid? Whats wrong with having a BEV variant along with ICE? The general public doesn’t want all BEV… oh wait the elites want that and that’s who runs Ford Motor Company…woke elites. Good luck!
Yes, but at his current east Ann Arbor McMansion, he forewent a garage! He's such a green warrior!
Every time I read about how Bill is going to save the planet by going EV, I remember a research paper that calculated the energy footprint of the Ford family and other “elites”. Heating and cooling multiple McMansions, energy costs to produce all the contents of those McMansions, boats, yachts, private jets etc.
The result was that the “elites” like the Ford family consume more energy than their earth savings ideas would ever save. And ironically their efforts to save the planet often have the opposite effect. Many are vanity projects, many are just profit making schemes.
We have no power grid to handle charging vehicles.
The de-rating curve is falls off sharp when using things like, AC, a Heater, or headlights.
The range advertised is BS.
Everyone who thinks they can just charge a car at home doesn't know what thier talking about. You're driving around town here and you need a charge ... You think you'll just drive home and charge? My car doesn't use gasoline when I'm driving home. Lol
The new truck will be good for soccer mom's driving the kids to school and goecery store and that about it.
Once the battery life is up , that is it, your vehicle is totaled.
People do not want electric vehicles.
I know the change is hard, but going all electric needs to be and will be done. A lot of companies go out of business because they refuse to change.
I am OF the opinion that yes someday there will be another way to power a car other than ICE. But they totally missed how a customer will use their vehicle until such a time. Also, the infrastructure is not there. The range and charge time are critical if you plan to do a long-distance trip. EVs may work ok in the cities provided they are set up for that system. but if you travel across a rural area and the number of charge stations are limited and the time to full recharge is long the customer will not like it.
A hybrid approach would act as a good way to power a vehicle until both the grid and battery technology are in place. Just my opinion.