slemke

Hard to say for certain. They may end up with a salvage title, but that’s usually based on a percentage of value. If it is only a few parts back ordered, probably worth buying and holding until parts are available. Insurance company wants it off the books. Particularly if they are paying for a rental car until the damages can be repaired. You may be able to buy the car yourself and fix it later.

I thought you were using the standard 26 gal tank for your estimate instead of the 36 gal extended range tank, so I added range based on using the full additional 10 gal of fuel and the mpg stated for the 3.5eb and 5.0. Looking at your math, I’m not sure how you calculated it. I’d say 225 miles (7x32.1 gal) eb to 290 miles (9mpg x 32.2 gal) coyote for the extended range and 155 to 200 for the standard range. Powerboost has a 30gal tank, which would give 185 or so miles on a tank. At any rate, extended range Lightning may come pretty close to standard tank eb for towing range. The big difference comes in refueling time if you need longer distances and the extended range tank. Doing the math, it sure looks like Ford benchmarked the standard 26 gal tank for range comparisons for towing if the Lightning does indeed get the numbers you’re using.

For those that tow, the regular f150 is available with a 36 gallon tank…so another 70-90 miles of range in your above example. We will see what the actual numbers come out to be later this year. Driving 2 hours and then spending an hour to recharge isn’t going to be fun. I doubt, though, that many early lightning adopters will be towing heavy loads very far. Those folks will continue to buy F250s with a diesel.

I wasn’t aware of that aspect. Russia is one of the major nickel suppliers and the sanctions contributed to the pricing speculation. Reality is Russia will just export to friendly nations, like China, and prices will moderate. Still not wise energy policy to rely on those two for critical materials. For that reason, I see LFP being used where maximum energy density isn’t required (battery walls, short range EVs) and additional nickel mining in the US. Otherwise we are trading Middle East oil dependence for Russia and China mineral dependence.

The rapidly rising price of nickel is changing some plans. Tesla has worked diligently on supply contracts for raw materials and uses lithium iron phosphate cells in the standard range models. They are less affected than others, but are still raising prices considerably. This will have consequences as to when if ever BEV reaches price parity with ICE. LFP batteries are primarily from China, so that doesn’t relieve national security issues, but expect that to change in the future as the materials are more widely available. More companies will be using them as an alternative to higher priced NMC batteries with shorter range for the same weight. I still think hybrids and plug in hybrids are the way to go for the next decade or two. Lots of bang for the buck in terms of fuel savings vs materials needed for batteries. A plug-in hybrid could save 80-90% of fuel (highly dependent on length of trip) with less than 20% of the battery capacity of a full BEV. A wireless charging pad on the garage floor to keep it charged is effortless.

And the autoweek article has been taken down….need to wait a couple hours for the embargo to end.

Time to break out the old Johnny Cash song “One piece at a time”. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwihzo6goeD2AhWSTN8KHXmDBPgQyCl6BAgYEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D18cW_yHo3PY&usg=AOvVaw3a43BOrJwrkRNNmjMJAkLE One chip at a time…..

Thanks Fuzzy. My hometown had a Soo Line and Burlington Northern rail lines. Now both are gone. The old soo line track was converted to a trail. I didn’t know that CP had bought Soo Line up. Apparently there are still a couple locomotives with the old red and white hockey stick paint scheme I remember growing up.

According to this spreadsheet from Ford-trucks.com it is the Cottage grove Ramp operated by Canadian Pacific. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dFdPnCn3ecHk1ioXKJ3Cc1p3snlOfXSh3MXswVtsahw/edit?usp=sharing

I was thinking Taurus and Escort Gt. Definitely had the 80s aero wedge look. Subaru was crazy enough to actually use the window inside a window on the svx.

Working from home I don’t visit a gas station very often either. So what does our President do? Suggest that we return to our downtown offices. What ever happened to conservation? The last time gas hit $4+, companies allowed more work from home.

But would they buy them or Maverick and escape hybrids? I’m betting the latter. Too bad Ford doesn’t have the battery supply to quickly increase the hybrid mix. Toyota is going to make a killing on their hybrids.

Multiple “door malfunction “ even though the electronic latches still work, it was telling us how to use the emergency release, a 4wd error and a couple others. May have been drive mode. I had checked the battery voltage and noticed it was low. Put a charger on it and it charged for a couple minutes and indicated it was full. It would crank right over, but give an assortment of error indicators to my wife. When I checked the battery again, it was at a low voltage. The Lincoln has an AGM battery which seemed to behave differently than the regular lead acid in all my other vehicles. In my SHO, the battery goes from no problem cranking over to the no crank condition. My ‘99 F150 just cranks slow and won’t start when the battery goes.

Does your MKZ have an active exhaust system? Combined with your other issue, it may be a weak battery. Voltage drops just after starting when all the system checks are run, so the diagnostics fail. Same if you have a large transient load switched on while driving. My wife got all sorts of malfunction indicators when the battery on her Lincoln failed. Replaced the battery and all was well. 2020 was tough on batteries. Not much driving so the battery slowly drained and then deteriorated such that it couldn’t be recharged to full capacity.

I’m guessing large investors….Wall Street as you stated. If Ford can get them interested they can either spin off the electric vehicle group or issue additional stock without dramatically reducing the value of stock currently held by investors. I concur on them getting ahead of themselves. To me, it is no different than the rush to diesel and compact cars in the 2003-2012 timeframe. Lots of money spent to develop them only to be shunned by consumers after fuel prices stabilized. Having more demand than supply isn’t the worst problem to have. Honda made it work in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

But that wouldn’t bring in the big “green” investors to raise capital needed to develop the vehicles. BEVs are an expensive proposition being pushed by government and activists. There are many unknowns. We don’t know how much demand there is and when it will materialize. We also don’t know how or when the supply chain issues with battery production will be straitened out such that it isn’t a limiting factor. If there isn’t organic demand for BEVs on the scale of current auto sales, there will be many companies folding or consolidating. The best thing that can happen is demand leads the switchover so companies make the change based on customer demand and remain profitable during the transition.

It might be a good way to raise capital for BEV development. Look how much Rivian raised.

You could stop at cheap. Just look at the stuff on Amazon. We’re a country addicted to cheap stuff like a bad drug without thinking of the consequences of how it was produced. Just caring about the price.

It is certainly to maintain or grow sales. Probably for those who wanted autonomous driving and still have a manual for fun time. Make it easier for people not dedicated to a manual and they could pick up additional sales. I doubt the wear would be any more severe than on a leather wrapped shift knob. Just some pressure sensors under the covering.

I don’t see much demand for 7-10 year old BEVs until we find out how long they last in the real world. The battery cells used are good for 500-1000 cycles. If charged once a week, they could last 10 to 20 years and 150000-30000 miles. I’d buy one if it was cheap enough and the battery capacity tested out good. Battery life could be hit or miss. A friend of mine got rid of his model3 for a different one several months after getting the first one because the battery range was deteriorating quickly. He had no problems with the second one. By the way, it was $28k to replace the battery pack on the Mach-e that was damaged being towed. It will be interesting to see how insurance companies deal with it as more BEV hit the market and are involved in collisions or other mishaps.

I think the point is to alleviate the monotony of using the clutch for stop and go driving in addition to blue cruise with a manual. Provided it could be driven as a regular manual, computer assisted clutch engagement, or full automation I can see some value in it.

I thought ZF licensed the design to Stellantis to manufacture. If so, a bad example. I agree, though, that there are likely some big suppliers or critical components that are exempt or refused to sign. Stellantis would be forced to shop around and if they could find a supplier willing to sign, pay a hefty premium for the price protection. It is a good way to win the most hated auto manufacturer award by suppliers.

The problem continues, but it isn’t like they are cutting production 40 or 50 percent for a quarter as they had in the past. Sounded more like a few days worth. So things have gotten better, they just aren’t back to full speed. Depending on demand, they may not need to get there. They may also be shifting parts around to balance inventory. I thought the F series was up to 70 days of inventory. In that instance, it may make sense to shift parts to something that is in even shorter supply. China has been shutting things down recently to control COVID before the olympics causing more supply chain havoc. Used car prices are expected to start falling later this quarter or next quarter. It is getting better, but still has a long way to go. I doubt we will see widespread rebates and incentives this year, unless demand tanks.

Similar to the urban vs rural used in the article. I get the impression that the politicians in Washington just don’t understand the folks in rural areas they are supposed to represent. Many just don’t have the means to buy a high priced electric car that might save them some money over the life of the vehicle…depends on how long the battery lasts and where they charge. A 20k, 40mpg Maverick hybrid just works out better economically. A Rivian R1T gets 314 miles out of a 135kwh battery pack. 12k miles @ $3.20/gallon is $960 in fuel for the Maverick. 12k miles @ $0.12/kWh is $620 in electric. If you have to use an electrify America charging station like TFL at a cost of $0.31/kWh, you would spend $1600. The savings touted by the politicians just isn’t there over driving an inexpensive, fuel efficient vehicle.

I got my ‘99 f-150 in 1 day. Of course, I’m only a couple hundred miles from the old Norfolk, VA plant where it was built. A coworker ordered a Fusion. That took several months to get here from the time it was built. He tracked it and it definitely took the scenic route.