New 2020 Ford HD gasser engine coming

Fordlover wrote:


As far as electric vehicles, I calculate based on time to refill vs. range gained. Electrics still really suck at this. I'm absolutely sure I've ever said to myself, "Gee, right now seems like a really good time to hang out at the gas station for 30 minutes to an hour."

At the current state of the art I agree with you and since I need a car at the current time I have been looking at some of the options out there. The Honda Clarity PHEV has a really interesting approach that could be expanded to any size of truck and offers a lot of benefits. I could see any of the big three offering a one-ton truck with their current 3 liter diesels or small gas engine, about a 40Kwh battery pack and an electric drive motor from the Model 3 (350hp) for the times when you need very little power or more than 200hp. This would offer more benefits in a truck since they have to do a lot more down hill braking than a car. In hilly terrain the ICE engine could be chugging along at an efficient speed while the electric portion would provide assist over hills and taking care of engine braking going down, saving that energy for the next climb.

I will say that the Model 3 has some really nice features that have little to do with being electric drive that the big 3 need to take note of. If you haven't looked at one it is an opener.