The problem with this whole segment is that its large-scale adoption is being driven by gov't regulation, not the market itself. If there's consumer demand, you can figure out what they want, and a large scale manufacturer (like Ford) can leverage its size and capabilities to make what meets the demand. For a segment like this, where it's really a niche market that's being forced into wide adoption by outside forces, how do you figure out what meets that need?
In my case, I'm not parking where I have access to charging every day, but that doesn't mean I never park where I can charge. F'rinstance, my car is frequently parked at my brother's house on the weekends, so I can charge there, and with a 150mi range, I could drive my daily commute all week without burning any gasoline.
I can remember 5-8 years ago I think, Ford was working on a reciprocating engine to be a range extender for the F150. Can't find anything on that though. It was similar to a hydraulic piston going back and forth.
Since this tech is similar to what trains currently use for motive force, I can see this type of vehicle coming to class 8 soon. There is a company called Capstone Turbine working on it with their micro-turbine system...
Sorry, the article is behind a paywall, but you get the drift.....
https://www.automotiveworld.com/articles/90171-us-capstone-turbine-announces-truck-erev-programmes/
I believe Ford has been working on range extenders for quite some time. There were rumors about a range extender for Lightning before it debuted.
The question is where to use it and how to package it. Hopefully they don’t lean in on this too much and ignore regular HEVs or PHEVs.
Absolutely and I see it as spaghetti of a sort because Ford still hasn’t figured how to execute this.
It’s simply something PR to say when they have no real idea of what to do next without major changes.
This is all Farley could come up with after months of reviews?
Yeah you can bet this is a real morale gut buster…and Farley has to explain to Bill Ford and the board