jpd80

I see, the Lariat indeed has the long range battery but what confused me is that it didn’t start the test with the advertised 320 mile range before tow mode was selected, it was something like 282 or 40 miles less even before the test began. So yes, There’s something wrong with either the battery or Ford’s range software…. however, I agree that towing normally reduces a pickup’s range to about a third so even with the full advertised range, the Lightning still wouldn’t make it to the destination without a charge. Even the 400 mile range of the Lightning EV wouldn’t quite get there….

Or more like Ford grabs a good name before the competition thinks of using it on one of their models…

But that wasn’t the point of this test as TFL used the Lightning with a standard battery.

Both manufacturers supply smallish base fuel tanks, mostly because a lot of crew cabs sold are use more like cars with infrequent towing.

A ton of full sized crew cab pickups are bought with little or no intention of towing, maybe on the odd occasion. Heck orders are showin that most Lightning buyers are not repeat F150 buyers, so Lightning is pulling lots of sales form everywhere except F150 which is good but shows that maybe Lightning is seen as more of a big sedan and expectations are different?

I wonder if GM is thinking damn, there goes another good name……..

Correct and thinking about that, developing a true EV will probably be easier if both remain FWD, just add the motor and drive to the engine cradle and modify the floor pan to accept battery pack. AWD is probably unnecessary with such a short wheelbase, less than 100”. For C2 products, extending that FWD based EV approach is possible, even adding AWD in a rear carrier is possible and probably much cheaper to do that MME’s GE platform. So yes, consider me very interested in the smallest BEV execution as a template for C2 if Ford doesn’t use VW’s MEB. Just my opinion, The original plan for C1 electrification failed as a FWD vehicle because the wrong vehicles were selected, imagine that Ford had switched from Focus EV to Escape EV instead of C-Max……that bad decision to develop an electrified C-Max all stems from Ford quitting on the original hybrid Escape right when they should have doubled down. I won’t go on and on about this but really, Ford brass caused a lot of their own misery and rework by completely misreading the wants and needs of buyers (imagine that).

European mid sized utility (Escape sized) and a crossover (Focus Active sized) Some of the rumours getting around that VW is ready to ditch it work on MEB because can’t compete with Tesla on build time and complexity causing cost problems, all to be shared by Ford….Hackett didn’t read the fine print on VW supplying batteries, motors and electrical switchgear, it’s the same bad deal they had with Magna based Focus EV, supplier makes the profit, not Ford……

Ford has only agreed to 1.2 million MEB units over six year period and that’s based on just two vehicles, the ones at Cologne. There’s no agreement to use MEQ and yes, it’s still a couple of years away. https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/2022/03/volkswagen-and-ford-expand-collaboration-on-meb-electric-platfor.html#

Random thought, what architecture is going under the BEV Puma? Is that Ford doing a clever rework of the narrower GE1 for its own purposes?

Maybe the trick is to aim for a richer sales mix (remove the entry trim) and then see how the prices sit post 2023.

Yeah but Ford also shut down the order bank in April because it couldn’t meet demand mostly due to limited production capacity until 2023, so maybe there’s a way to increase prices on new orders beyond those currently held…

When the electric version comes, it’s going to be like MME’s mini me…..

On topic, why doesn’t Ford just increase Mach E’s North American prices like it did for the Euro models? Surely that would be better than broadcasting that Mach E is now break even, just do something about it…

The plan as I heard it was always Global launch plus 12 months for North America as the current Ranger had upgrades over final PX III Ranger it was base on. Those upgrades were intended to keep it fresh for slightly longer than the global version. Probably wise anyway to get more Bronco production stability before switching Ranger. I know this disappoints certain Ranger buyers but a little bird says that Maybe Ranger Raptor is coming sooner than the rest of the NG Ranger range, I’ll keep my ear to the ground on this one…could be false.