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EVs and Their Drawbacks


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You think this just might push demand for more hybrid F150s. The best free advertising money can buy is a storm making you new product indispensable in a crisis.(sarcasm)  Hopefully Ford can capitalize on this. Does any other truck manufacturer offer such a useful option. 

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1 hour ago, pictor said:

Does any other truck manufacturer offer such a useful option. 

 

Upcoming BEV pickup trucks from all manufacturers are expected to at least have the option of 220V power outlets + onboard generator. Ford F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid is the first and currently only LD pickup truck that offers it for now.

Edited by rperez817
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3 hours ago, pictor said:

You think this just might push demand for more hybrid F150s. The best free advertising money can buy is a storm making you new product indispensable in a crisis.(sarcasm)  Hopefully Ford can capitalize on this. Does any other truck manufacturer offer such a useful option. 


They are giving dealers extra money ($600)  to put them in their demo/service fleet, want to get them out in the field ASAP. This is a dream feature and event to get Chevy/RAM/GMC/Tundra owners to switch.

 

https://www.autonews.com/automakers-suppliers/ford-asks-texas-dealers-loan-out-f-150s-generators-during-outages

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10 hours ago, akirby said:

 

Some grids are not affected - specifically those serving hospitals or other vital services.  My co-worker hasn't lost power at all but he's near the hospital.

It’s good to live on the same grid as a hospital.  Not mentioned when buying a house, though, as things to look for.

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FWIW, US Rep Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has a podcast called Hold These Truths, and the latest episode is on what happened in Texas (the episode title is literally "What Happened in Texas"). It's definitely in the political realm, so I'll not link it here, but it is available on his YouTube channel.

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11 hours ago, SoonerLS said:

FWIW, US Rep Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) has a podcast called Hold These Truths, and the latest episode is on what happened in Texas (the episode title is literally "What Happened in Texas"). It's definitely in the political realm, so I'll not link it here, but it is available on his YouTube channel.

Synopsis is on Twitter feed.

 

60% of backup battery capacity was lost due to the cold temps.  25Gw of wind capacity was offline.  Nuclear plant shut down because a sensor froze.  When it rains and freezes, it gets bad really fast.

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20 hours ago, slemke said:

Synopsis is on Twitter feed.

 

60% of backup battery capacity was lost due to the cold temps.  25Gw of wind capacity was offline.  Nuclear plant shut down because a sensor froze.  When it rains and freezes, it gets bad really fast.

In short, everything in Texas failed, I'll leave it at that.......

 

Edited by jpd80
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With the worst of the Texas power crisis now behind us, the blame and fingerpointing begins, and while the jury is still out whose actions (or lack thereof) may have led to the deadly and widespread blackouts that shocked Texas this week, Cascend Strategy writes that "in case there was any doubt why the Texas grid collapsed, the data is clear"

Link to Article

 

Interesting post with data, graphs, and recommendations from Cascend Strategy.

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2 hours ago, jgonza5 said:

 

Interesting post with data, graphs, and recommendations from Cascend Strategy.

Thanks for the link.  Very similar story to what was posted on the Crenshaw Twitter feed.  I didnt realize natural gas was keeping up for a while.  Conclusion seems reasonable and along the lines of what I would suggest, but my advice is worth what I’m getting paid for it ....nothing.

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5 hours ago, jpd80 said:

In short, everything in Texas failed, I'll leave it at that.......

 

Yup...time to learn from the experience and move on.  If we want greater reliability in our infrastructure we have to pay for it one way or another.

 

Ford certainly got some good publicity for the powerboost f150.  Let’s hope Ford has enough batteries to keep up with demand.  Powerboost intro seems to be following the same success story as the original 3.5l ecoboost.  “Experts” said customers don’t want a v6 truck....then they said they won’t buy a hybrid truck, especially when gas prices are low.  What they missed was the utility Ford brought to the table with both.

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12 hours ago, slemke said:

Yup...time to learn from the experience and move on.  If we want greater reliability in our infrastructure we have to pay for it one way or another.

 

Ford certainly got some good publicity for the powerboost f150.  Let’s hope Ford has enough batteries to keep up with demand.  Powerboost intro seems to be following the same success story as the original 3.5l ecoboost.  “Experts” said customers don’t want a v6 truck....then they said they won’t buy a hybrid truck, especially when gas prices are low.  What they missed was the utility Ford brought to the table with both.

 

I doubt very much that Ford can keep up with demand for even the 2021 F150 let alone the hybrid model since Ford plants are either closed or down to one shift. Many are predicting summer before this changes significantly.

 

Meanwhile, gas prices are up to $2.60 around here and expected to keep increasing making hybrids and plugins more popular. I doubt if Ford has the battery supply chain to keep up with hybrid demand as gas hits $3.00+/gallon.

 

Add in the $2 Trillion stimulus bill and inflation is just around the corner as vaccines damp down covid. Pent up demand is really going to push up demand for everything except Chlorox and toilet paper. 

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1 hour ago, FordBuyer said:

 

I doubt very much that Ford can keep up with demand for even the 2021 F150 let alone the hybrid model since Ford plants are either closed or down to one shift. Many are predicting summer before this changes significantly.

 

Meanwhile, gas prices are up to $2.60 around here and expected to keep increasing making hybrids and plugins more popular. I doubt if Ford has the battery supply chain to keep up with hybrid demand as gas hits $3.00+/gallon.

 

Add in the $2 Trillion stimulus bill and inflation is just around the corner as vaccines damp down covid. Pent up demand is really going to push up demand for everything except Chlorox and toilet paper. 

$2.50-$3 gas has been the norm around here for the past decade.  I think it will take $4 gas to make any significant change in buying behavior.  Particularly when many people will still be working from home and driving less.

 

inflation has been just around the corner with the low interest rates and money printing for the last decade.  Still hasn’t materialized.  I do expect it to at some point.  The pent up demand will likely be in tourism as folks try to see friends and relatives they haven’t seen in 18 months.

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Apparently cold does affect wind turbines: https://www.kfyrtv.com/2021/02/17/wind-turbines-affected-by-cold-temperatures/

 

Needs to be -24F, though to shut them down.  South Dakota was only producing 8% of their electric from wind, when it is typically 20% and can be as high as 65%.  That’s a huge variation and will require significant investment in over capacity to mitigate the variability.  Green power has a ways to go before the technology catches up with traditional electric generating plants for reliability.  The first nuclear plants had significant down time too, if I remember correctly.  Just takes time to get all the bugs out of the system.

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8 hours ago, slemke said:

Apparently cold does affect wind turbines: https://www.kfyrtv.com/2021/02/17/wind-turbines-affected-by-cold-temperatures/

 

Needs to be -24F, though to shut them down.  South Dakota was only producing 8% of their electric from wind, when it is typically 20% and can be as high as 65%.  That’s a huge variation and will require significant investment in over capacity to mitigate the variability.  Green power has a ways to go before the technology catches up with traditional electric generating plants for reliability.  The first nuclear plants had significant down time too, if I remember correctly.  Just takes time to get all the bugs out of the system.


So global warming should help, right?

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10 hours ago, paintguy said:

Observed windmills turning in -17 F weather. Now how much energy was being produced? Hard to say. How many windmills do we need to charge up 100 electric F-150s?

From the article, -24F is the cutoff point, so -17F is no problem.  Efficiency probably drops some at those temps.  Main reason for stopping the at -24F was to prevent damage to the blades.

 

1 windmill.  You didn’t state how long they could charge.

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They can handle extreme cold... but not ice:

 

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-wind-turbines-equipped-to-handle-extreme-cold-ice-is-another-matter-20210219

 

Ice causes several problems.  A typical wind turbine blade is longer than the wing of a 747 and is shaped for maximum efficiency.  Ice build up changes the shape and reduces efficiency.  It also adds a lot of excess weight, plus if the build-up isn't uniform it can cause balance problems.

 

 

Edited by CoolScoop
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52 minutes ago, CoolScoop said:

They can handle extreme cold... but not ice:

 

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-wind-turbines-equipped-to-handle-extreme-cold-ice-is-another-matter-20210219

 

Ice causes several problems.  A typical wind turbine blade is longer than the wing of a 747 and is shaped for maximum efficiency.  Ice build up changes the shape and reduces efficiency.  It also adds a lot of excess weight, plus if the build-up isn't uniform it can cause balance problems.

 

 

 

I don't know why people continue to forget/ignore this fact.

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22 hours ago, slemke said:

From the article, -24F is the cutoff point, so -17F is no problem.  Efficiency probably drops some at those temps.  Main reason for stopping the at -24F was to prevent damage to the blades.

 

1 windmill.  You didn’t state how long they could charge.

True enough. You could also drain the ocean with a teaspoon. But vehicles average about 12K miles per year. With everything in Texas being bigger, mileage probably tends higher as well. Material selection and deice systems could also affect operating temperature limit. All a matter of cost. For example: Light aircraft generally can't operate in icing conditions. Jets use deice fluid for takeoff and hot compressor bleed air inflight to prevent icing.  

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