GearheadGrrrl

Only most of SCCA's 60,000+ members who have been buying Miatas, Mustangs, GTIs, and Vettes for decades. Ford is clearly targeting the new Mustang at amateur autocross, shouldn't the Mustang Mach-E have the same track cred?

Autocrossing, for a start- course is usually less than a minute in length but you may need full power for half that. The Mach-E's poor performance on the Michigan State Police track tests really demonstrated the car's limitations.

EVs just like biomass fueled vehicles are for all practical purposes low carbon vehicles, as almost all of them rely on some of their electricity coming from carbon fuel sources as well as the carbon used in their manufacture. If you read the article you'll see that Brazil is getting carbon reduction similar to what EVs would give without the hassle of replacing the whole fleet and building out a massive charging system.

Interesting article from Bloomberg today complaining that the success of ethanol fueled cars is killing EV sales in Brazil. No reason to complain- Brazil is getting most of the benefits of EVs by switching fuels instead of cars and electric grids! Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-07-19/why-brazil-is-falling-behind-in-the-electric-car-transition?srnd=premium

What Ford needs to do is "hedge their bets" on electrification. Automotive history is chock full of trends that were going to takeover like diesel cars, downsizing, front wheel drive, and now electrification. The wiser companies kept their gas engines around, kept full size rear drive models fresh, and now they're keeping their IC vehicles competitive just in case electrification stalls like all these earlier trends. GM is developing new gas and Diesel engines... Will Ford have anything to compete?

Because I'm old school and know how to downshift my IC vehicle's pad wear rates easily match that. Problem is, the metal parts of the pad rust out before they wear out so I usually have to replace them every 10 years or so anyways. EVs will have the same rust problems as well as hydraulic system repairs regardless of use or powertrain.

For the users that can do their jobs with a heavy duty pickup EV's limited range, it'll be great. For users that need to drive over a hundred miles a day, it won't save them any $$$.

I fall into the "superuser" category by mileage, but thankfully flunk out on fuel use. I put about 18,000 miles a year on a VW TDI at about 45 MPG, using about 400 gallons of fuel of which about 40 is renewables at a current fuel cost of about $1400. I put about 12,000 miles a year on a Transit Connect with E85 capability at about 24 MPG, using about 500 gallons of fuel of which about 400 gallons is renewable with a GHG contribution about half that of gasoline, for a fuel cost of around $1200 a year at current prices. So my fuel cost is about $2600 a year with a GHG output similar to 680 gallons of gasoline. Both vehicles will easily and safely pull a 2000 pound trailer, and The Transit Connect with a small trailer can easily haul a metric toon of payload. Meanwhile, IIRC the study's average superuser is using 3000 gallons of gas at around $10,000 cost in a big pickup or SUV to drive the same 30,000 miles I do, but rarely if ever uses their massive vehicle's hauling capability.

Having read the Cloture study, one of the limitations of switching these "super users" to EVs is that they actually haul heavy loads and tow with them. Currently the highest payload EV is the F150 Lightning at about a ton isn't enough for many of these users who are farmers, tradespeople, etc.. For those who need to tow heavy and/or big trailers, those loads will cut the F150 Lightnings load to the point it can't do the job. So reality is, even the F150 Lightning won't do the job for many of these "superusers".

The biggest factor in EV costs is battery life- The increasing experience with EVs shows that if you never let them go below 20% of charge or over 80% they're probably good for a couple hundred thousand miles which in most cases will be the 20 year life of the car. But in applications like mine, rural roads with winter and high winds and long distances between chargers, expected range using only the "safe" 60% of battery capacity is maybe half of expected range. And given that the battery is about half the cost of an EV, the cost of a new battery on a decade old EV will exceed the cars value, sending it to the scrapyard. Meanwhile, a 10 year old IC car with a blown engine or transmission gets a used or rebuilt replacement and keeps on going.

But in my use case I haven't had to rebuild or replace a car engine or transmission since the 1970s, but I've gotten more than enough practice at fixing the tire, brake, suspension, and electrical problems that EVs have just like IC cars.

I suspect not power or gearing but the tire's speed rating will determine your top speed.

From my experience 80% of vehicle repairs are to everything but the powertrain. That said, I'd consider a Ford EV because Ford has dealers nearby that will be here for decades to come as well as service data necessary to make repairs. Tesla has locked everyone else out of repairing their vehicles, so I will never buy a Tesla.

With this uncertainty, the only thing certain is that Ford needs to be ready to build whatever mix of competitive EV, PHEV, and IC vehicles the market demands.

No private well here, our newly rebuilt city water system is fed by a rural water system whose pumps are powered by a very reliable REA Co-Op backed up by diesel generators. While I have 220V 200A power available in the garage, unfortunately it's fed by an investor owned utility via a 25 mile long near abandoned 440V line and said utility wishes we'd go away. So no, I don't have reliable power for home charging.

The rolling and powered chassis of my '98 Ranger is sitting in front of my shop, and I'm not done with it yet... So you can safely assume that I'll be doing every service procedure up to and including battery cell replacement on any EV I'm able to put in my garage for a couple decades. Tesla has locked down their cars so I can't do that, thus I can't buy a Tesla.

I live in the middle of a couple gigawatts of wind energy. There's gigawatts more potential wind energy ready to harness out here, but the grid can't handle it... Given the difficulty of permitting new infrastructure like power lines, that wind will probably be "stranded" for decades.

Access to the TSLA chargers will be helpful, but that's years out and they'll probably be overwhelmed by the increased demand. Right now only Teslas can use that network, and I live so far from TSLA's metro centric dealers that a routine service on a Tesla costs a minimum of $500!

Been an early adopter all my life and at 73, I'm not about to quit, so I seriously looked at EVs last time I bought a new car. Where I live the population is so thin the gas stations are having a hard time surviving- Last one in my town closed decades ago and have 4 surviving about 7 miles to the east, south, and west. They're all Indies, the stations are lacking in capital investment, a sign they won't be around much longer. Nearest up to date stations are 20 miles north and south, 30 miles east, and 40 miles west. If the gas stations are barely surviving, in this county where EVs and plug in hybrids have barely .1% market share, how will a charging station ever pay back the investment? Even with massive subsidies the charging infrastructure is barely inadequate, and it will get worse as the equipment deteriorates because unlike construction, maintenance isn't subsidized. Tesla and their network is out because there's no support for their vehicles out here. Going north is iffy, a reputed charger halfway to Fargo and a couple on I-29, in both cases not the shortest route. Going east is the best with a couple Munis putting in chargers but given how long they took to come online, repairs will take months too. Going south is worse, even along I-29 they're far apart and not much on the shortest routes which are generally 2 lanes. Going west is pretty hopeless- Again have to go the long way via I-90 or I-94, and chargers are usually a hundred miles or more apart so even one dead charger means an expensive tow bill. As for charging in the big cities, it's usually at expensive hotels and malls I can't afford to patronize- I've yet to see a charger at Costco! So even with massive subsidies charging is largely a perk for wealthy urban dwellers, and will probably never really be available for rural and working class folks.

I live in a rural area where EVs are currently not an option and may never be. But give us a plug in hybrid with a 50 mile range and with 20% of the batteries an equivalent EV uses we could do 80% of our driving on electricity. That's a good deal for everyone, but force EVs on us instead and you'll get zero adoption as we bitterly hang on to our IC vehicles.

Ford isn't the only automaker betting almost everything on rapid electrification- Look at GM and VW. Later in this decade when all they'll have is holdover IC cars to supplement the slow selling EVs, some smaller automakers, Stelantis, and Toyota who haven't bet their billions on EVs alone may have a great growth opportunity.

Ford dealer nearest me can get plenty of power from their municipal utility, but above a certain level the price rises steeply- So steeply that they put in a big solar array so they don't hit that rate "mountain" when the air conditioning kicks on. Dealer I do business with also has Muni power, but I suspect the rate jumps too when they have to fire up the "peaker" diesel generators to supplement their usual renewable sources.

For decades proponents and opponents of one model or another have argued over this, and real answers are quite evasive. For example, the starting price of the Bronco and Ranger 4x4 crew cab are similar, so a lot of the profitably of each is determined by how many customers choose upmarket trims and options. There is also the question of factory capacity or lack there of- If a factory shift would be sent home early with 8 hours pay without Ranger production to keep them busy, that lowers the Ranger's cost. On the other hand, if shifts are being held over into overtime to build Ranger's, that makes the Ranger less profitable. Factor in other variables like tooling and development costs and it can be even harder to ascertain profit and loss... No wonder fans are still arguing over Harley's decision to close Buell and other beloved but discontinued vehicles.

Very nice! Can you imagine those high back seats in a B model concave back cab?

Ford is offering financial incentives to dealers who build new truck service centers with multiple high bays, etc.. But given how dealers were abandoned a quarter century ago when Ford sold off heavy trucks and the lack of even a basic tandem straight truck chassis in the lineup that ends at F750, how many dealers will bother?