Ford did what Tesla won’t
theverge.com
theverge.com
It has been easy to get parts to make radical revisions to American cars (crate engines) for a long time, much more so than other carmakers. Also, American carmakers have long been obsessed with trucks to the point where sometimes I wonder: Will they stop making trucks? Will the people who used to think cars were a problem for the environment (with bicycles, busses, walking being answered) come to see trucks and suvs as the problem and cars the solution?
I'd much rather spend half as much on gas, make much smaller payments and then just pay U-Haul $100 or so for the one or two days a year I might need one (plus you can rent a much larger truck than a Silverado/F-150). So I drive a subcompact hatchback and rent a truck if/when I need one.
It's not even for the environment either. I just don't like sitting up high and I find large vehicles difficult to park and maneuver.
I'm European, but the whole use case for trucks seem overstated to me always.
Most of the people who run a riding barn probably do have a big-ass track to carry a horse trailer around but most of the people who start a riding barn lose money at it. (We've seen three individuals go out of business running a big horse barn down the road... It finally got somebody who is sensible.)
We started out really small (just two) so we never wound up with a large herd of unprofitable animals the way a lot of people do who feel pressured to get 10-15 horses right away.
The usual justification for that horse trailer is to go to and from horse shows which we don't do. When we get a new animal (maybe once every two years) we pay somebody with a truck to haul it for us.
No. They will make electric trucks:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-ford-f-150-lightning-is-no...
I'm guessing we will see something like CAFE standards for EVs when they become a majority of the market. Maybe they'll call it CAKE (Corporate Average Kilowatt-hour Economy). The same people now complaining about carbon emissions from ICE trucks will in the future complain about the appalling electricity consumption of electric trucks.
I really don't see the climate activist people saying "our work here is done, let's pack up and go home!" when the last ICE vehicle rolls off the assembly line. The battle lines will just shift and the Cybertruck/F150 Lightning/Hummer EV/Rivian R1T will become as reviled as their internal combustion counterparts are today.
To convince folks here to purchase an EV truck it will have to tow more and have the same or better total cost of ownership. People here are also quite skeptical of anything that requires subscribing to features in vehicles. Many of them have already been burnt by farm equipment in this realm.