Ford working on F150 hybrid

Two very different situations in the USA with which the truck manufacturers are grappling. With passenger vehicles they need to meed the CAFE federal standards that specify fuel economy averaged over all the vehicles sold. They have their most profitable vehicles, pickups and SUV's also providing the worst fuel economy.

The end result is production of hybrid vehicles and diesel engines powered ones that cost their customers more to buy but help the manufacturers to meet the CAFE numbers. Great when they can invest a little in R&D and then the burden shifts to their customers.

With commercial trucks it is very different and the move has been in part to hybrid and even all electric vehicles but where the largest growth has been in trucks powered in part or completely with liquified natural gas. With the big rigs towing trailers there has been a lot of development on hybrid diesel and LNG powered trucks. The good thing with this approach is that when the natural gas boom fades in a few years the fleet operators can switch back to diesel or if they truck is operating further out from a LNG filling station it still can run off the diesel.

Hannibal wrote:
Can't argue with 60mpg. I need the back seat and trunk area as it's packed with tools and work related stuff. Roof rack for a ladder is a growing possibility. It's surprising the leg room and comfortable seats in the Smart car. We see a lot of them around the Tampa Bay area as well. Have you seen the youtube 70mph crash test with the Smart car? Amazingly tough little car.

Like a little egg. :) Having said that I suspect it would really suck to get run over by a big a$$ SUV. :) We'll try to avoid that. :)

Can't argue with 60mpg. I need the back seat and trunk area as it's packed with tools and work related stuff. Roof rack for a ladder is a growing possibility. It's surprising the leg room and comfortable seats in the Smart car. We see a lot of them around the Tampa Bay area as well. Have you seen the youtube 70mph crash test with the Smart car? Amazingly tough little car.

Hannibal wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:
You need to clarify Hybrid vs Plug In Hybrid

They are much different animals.
- A standard hybrid, still has a relatively small battery and typically pulls power for a few seconds at a time before quickly being recharged.
- A plug in hybrid, will pull more power and for much longer durations, so it needs a bigger battery bank and will spend more time drawn down.

My non plug-in Prius will run about 1.5-2.0 miles at 30~mph on battery with the engine off. It will sit with the a/c on and radio playing for a long time before starting the engine to recharge. Some hybrids run the engine any time the car is "on" and use the battery to assist the gas engine. At traffic lights, mine shuts off while decelerating and will stay off until I accelerate again. Coasting and decelerating also recharges through dynamic braking. Some short trips report over 100mpg while other short trips report 35~mpg depending on state of charge when I start it. The hybrid battery won't charge over 80% nor under 20% for longevity. It lives a relatively easy life.

Very cool. Thanks for posting. The Prius is always on our list for when the time comes to replace the smart cars. We haven'tneeded four seats for awhile but one of our two vehicles will probably have 4 seats next time around. The smart cars are going on 10 years old and show no signs of giving up so it will be awhile but when the time comes the plug in Prius is one of the cars on the list along with the leaf. Meantime we'll just keep running the little smart diesels. Hard to argue with 60ish mpg combined.

valhalla360 wrote:
You need to clarify Hybrid vs Plug In Hybrid

They are much different animals.
- A standard hybrid, still has a relatively small battery and typically pulls power for a few seconds at a time before quickly being recharged.
- A plug in hybrid, will pull more power and for much longer durations, so it needs a bigger battery bank and will spend more time drawn down.

My non plug-in Prius will run about 1.5-2.0 miles at 30~mph on battery with the engine off. It will sit with the a/c on and radio playing for a long time before starting the engine to recharge. Some hybrids run the engine any time the car is "on" and use the battery to assist the gas engine. At traffic lights, mine shuts off while decelerating and will stay off until I accelerate again. Coasting and decelerating also recharges through dynamic braking. Some short trips report over 100mpg while other short trips report 35~mpg depending on state of charge when I start it. The hybrid battery won't charge over 80% nor under 20% for longevity. It lives a relatively easy life.

I realize this is about Hybrids but here a another one to think about. My Best Friend works for Mercedes. They offered their Total Electric Smart Cars to their employees for a $60.00 per month lease. He says it is great for running around town plus he says that he has had it up to 100 mph. The fuel savings over driving his Toyoda is over $200.00 a month.

I guess this is one way to get your CAFE numbers up.

You need to clarify Hybrid vs Plug In Hybrid

They are much different animals.
- A standard hybrid, still has a relatively small battery and typically pulls power for a few seconds at a time before quickly being recharged.
- A plug in hybrid, will pull more power and for much longer durations, so it needs a bigger battery bank and will spend more time drawn down.

Lessmore wrote:
. . . Also my understanding is that the eventual cost of battery replacement for a hybrid, runs easily into the thousands.

Think battery replacement comes around every 8/10 years...+/-. If I bought a used 5-10 year of hybrid vehicle, this would be my concern. Think Toyota with their Prius has an 8 year/100,000 mile warranty....but I'm not sure.

What happens when the battery needs replacement...on my dime. That would be my issue . . .

goducks10 wrote:
I thought they lasted longer than 50-70,000 miles.

The Design of Hybrid Car Batteries
Most hybrid car batteries are designed to last for a significant number of miles. Toyota provides a guarantee of 100,000 miles with its Prius model. Its lab testing indicates that its battery pack lasts up to 180,000, which is longer than most people will own a car. Honda and Ford provide 8-year/80,000 mile warranties associated with the hybrid car battery packs.

Brother-In-Law purchased a new 2002 Toyota Prius back in the day. After 12 years and 415,000 HARD miles commuting in the LA area, it's still (to this day) running great on its original hybrid battery.

A hybrid 1/2 ton pickup is a great idea. Most people in my neighborhood use their 1/2 ton pickups for driving kids around. In the city traffic, hybrids do very well. My father drives a Prius, and although it is an incredibly ugly car, I like his 45-46 mpg city mileage.

I wonder why they went with a smaller diesel engine. Even the Prius has a normal sized 1.8L comparable to other cars it's size. The idea is to let the fuel burner work less by supplementing battery power, not struggle to get the job done with inadequate power.