EV Concept Truck

That's the first guy I expect to flaunt one!

 

The biggest problem with BEV towing is that currently the EV charging stations don't accommodate a BEV truck with a tow attached.

The charging rate will eventually improve, but the fact is an ICE truck can refuel 100% in 5 minutes. That's very relevant to our towing needs.

 

Well as someone who lives in such a place, I can tell you that there's minimal interest in full electric vehicles around here. There's a couple Teslas running around, but they're owned by people who mainly drive around town and I don't think I've ever seen one in winter. EVs are looked upon as "a nice idea, but mainly for city people who just need to get groceries once in awhile". The temperatures and distances are just too extreme for EVs to take over any time soon. For example, on Friday they're calling for a high of -24F and the nearest city larger than 70,000 people is a 4.5 to 5 hour drive, 280 miles away.

 

The Rivian tow test was conducted with a Astro Van on a car trailer. Although someone said that the Astro was "shaped like a brick" the Astro is actually quite aerodynamic.

Those pulling a travel trailer or tall boxy trailer will see an even sharper reduction in range

 

I totally agree. Tempted to keep my 1st Gen in storage instead of selling it when I buy a new truck...

 

BEVs could probably meet most people's needs.

The trouble going forward for ICE vehicles will be if manufacturers stop investing in them, and their legacy power trains fail to comply with future emissions legislation.

I can see manufacturers making ICE vehicles for a while more, but future legislation will kill them.
Be interesting to see how the low end ownership market deals with BEVs, failing battery packs and subscription services when people previously just bought a beater Camry

 

I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat.

 

That thing looks like an RC car.


The Tacoma looks pretty killer, I would prefer a black grille on it but other than that I won't argue with the styling. Of course the EV and hybrid cars always need some flagging to stand out from the gas cars.

 

Upon further thought, I would be very unlikely to get a BEV as a tow rig.

I currently need a truck to haul around a boat.. and the boat uses gas. So, it'd be 2 different types of fuel/energy I'd need to replenish on a trip if I had a BEV truck. Currently very easy to refuel the truck and boat at the gas pump.

 

So just make sure you only tow downhill, duh.

And yes, I am drinking.

 

I got a kick out of this. Akio Toyoda apparently has a good sense of humor

https://www.thedrive.com/tech/43559...d-the-world-during-its-huge-ev-concept-reveal

 

And it's also a franken-vehicle that doesn't fit in any category as expected. It's the size of a midsize truck, the weight of a 3/4 ton, alleges the capabilities of a 1/2 ton, and all while priced like a 1 ton diesel.

Couple that with the fact that you will have to charge before actually hitting zero and you likely won't be able to get to full charge and the overall usable range is probably closer to 80% of what is claimed.

It's clever marketing for sure, but people don't run until empty now and they can't do that with an EV either. If you're ballsy you might be willing to push 300 miles before you charge, but I doubt many people are going to be comfortable when their distance to empty reads less than 20 miles. Most people don't like that in a gasser and there are fuel stations everywhere. The limited availability of charging stations outside urban centers is the single biggest obstacle to electric cars, and the challenges for utility vehicles/trucks is going to be 10 fold.

EV viability at this point in time...

 

Another electric vehicle that doesn't have solar cells on the roof. Yeah, they aren't gonna give the vehicle a full charge anytime soon, but they could at least charge it a little while driving. Maybe enough to run the A/C.

 

I like the idea, but can you imagine the repair costs for hail damage? Just a random thought.

 

I'd be ok if the real world performance could match what I get out of my tundra. I average about 475 miles listed range, and if I am pushing it I'll drive 400 without fueling.

 

Except that video is addressing the premise of strictly solar powered vehicles, isn't it? That's not what is being suggested. The idea would be to have solar panels to supplement non drive technology of the vehicle.

 

Honest question for EV stuff here; how much range would be sapped by defrosting the windows? I know idling to warm up everything and melt the ice, frost, and snow is a big part of why people see fewer miles per tank on an ICE vehicle, and I am wondering how drastically it would effect and EV. I don't know anything about how they heat an EV so I'm curious on this point.

 

A very small amount, a defroster probably uses 500 watts at the most. Assuming a 100kw battery, expect to lose .5% per hour its on.

 

I parsed through a bit and picked up the end. I'm not sitting through a 15 minute technical lecture from the internet when a bullet point presentation of 3-4 minutes can convey the relevant info. I'm sure you could run the calculations for any particular items power consumption and the amount of real estate that would have to be solar panels to power it. That's not the point. The point is that ANY added power generation would help an EV because their single biggest downfall to mass usability is that they cannot carry enough power to remotely compete with anything except urban driving and commuting. Towing, road tripping, hills, and wind all cut the legs of EVs too short to be a feasible replacement at this point.

The point of the video is that the amount of space needed for panels would be ridiculous for major usage, but it's not like panels are super heavy. They could be viable as a supplemental item, couldn't they? Look at the camping solar kits and what they can power. It would turn any daylight hours into charge time. Maybe it could run the DRLs off the solar, or the dash displays. It doesn't have to power the whole car.

I'll even take a page from the EV zealot playbook and use my own anecdotal situation to justify my point as though it applies to the vast vast majority of the population. I have a schedule that sometimes has my vehicle sitting for multiple days at a time without being driven. Generally 2 days at a time, but sometimes up to 5 or 6 days without driving. How much juice could I get with that kind of down time if with some good high elevation sunshine?

 

That's good for the rear defroster, but what about the windshield? It doesn't have the same kind of defroster does it? I genuinely have no idea and I'm curious.

 

Those are going to probably use a heat pump using maybe 1.5kw of power which assuming a 100KW battery and the system running at 100% non-stop it will be 1.5% per hour.

Keep in mind, if you are at home/plugged in you can preheat the cabin while plugged in not using any power from the battery, then once you start driving you would use a lot less power to maintain the temp instead of heating it up.

 

Thank you for the power requirements. It helps visualize the needs of the vehicle.

Now, I don't know how up to date this is as it's all just a quick google search skim, but it looks like a square foot of panel only nets 15 watts. That I think is going to be the barrier to their use in a vehicle, @Baja Mike. So, for practical use of something like the rear defroster using 500w a 3 square foot panel would generate about 9% of the needed power (45w/500w=0.09), but add how much cost to the vehicle? Perhaps if solar panels were about twice as efficient and half as expensive we would see them used?

 

Solar panel math can get pretty confusing, but to simplilfy, if you mount (2) 100watts panels (about as much as you can fit) on a car expect about 700watts a day in good conditions. This would equate to about 2miles in charge, or .7% charge of a battery.

Where panels become more useful is on your home. I know my local area and will use the math for this area.
in San Diego SDGE pays or bills you for electric power based on the time of the day call TOU, with a 2KW system you can get 14k miles a year (charging at midnight to 6am, when power is extra cheap)