Ford stops taking orders on the lightening

FishOnOne wrote:

Reisender wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:

Reisender wrote:

Huntindog wrote:

time2roll wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:
TFL's Ike Gaunlet test of the Rivian pulling a small trailer exposed the poor performance of the batteries capacity which the take away was
electric trucks are not ready to replace ICE trucks anytime soon.

For the narrow specific use of towing a large frontal area trailer up hills and long distance, Yes.

Plenty never tow anything ever.

Ummmm we are on the TOWING FORUM RIGHT? I am sure there is another forum somewhere to talk about commuter/grocery getter vehicles.

I don’t know. Lots of people with half tons tow RV’s around here. Most never go more than a couple hours from home because they have to be back at work on Monday. Long haul heavy towing will stay in the realm of gas and diesel vehicles for a few years yet. But many just don’t do that. From personal experience towing with an EV is superior to towing with a gas vehicle. Those who try it will only look forward to the day they switch. We tend to go camping somewhere every week or two with our little trailer and are still amazed how nice of a towing experience it is compared to our previous SUV. To each his own though.

Jmho.

The Rivian battery capacity is 1 mile/1 percent of battery capacity towing that small load which means the Rivian couldn't even make a 2 hour trip without having to disconnect the trailer and pull into a charging lane which is completely unacceptable.

I don’t know. A few things stand out to me.

- The Rivian battery capacity was 1 mile per 1 percent of battery in a stretch of highway that changed almost 7000 feet in altitude.

- That was a medium range model. That’s probably all they could get for the test.

- it might be just how we use our half tons here but 8100 pounds would not be considered a small load for a half ton. Not necessarily heavy either, but most people around here start to look at 3/4 tons if they are towing north of 8000 pounds regularly. Might just be a regional thing.

Jmho.

Could be but the technology for battery capacity compared to a fuel tank capacity is still a real issue as layed out in the early video I posted by Engineering Explained. A gas truck pulling that same load is able to tow the load to the Ike, perform the test and drive back to their office without refueling.

The battery capacity problem is not as significant in a car but for a truck is a showstopper IMO.

A challenge yes. A showstopper no.

But yah. I think you are correct in as far as seeing 3/4 and 1 tons replaced by electric anytime soon. And diesels are just a whole other category. Before we changed to the motorhome lifestyle we towed with an F350 dually with a 7.3 powerstroke. Great truck.

Safe travels.