Ford F-150 Electric Truck Revealed

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

1 hour ago, LazyPiranha said:

I don’t know which part of this I find more illogical; that Ford would build a test mule car with a second passenger side steering wheel for no reason at all requiring a ton of needless work and expense, or that they would do all of that extra work and expense just so a president could drive it once for a few minutes.  

Creating that kind of mule is not really possible on any reasonable time scale.  It's not just the work/expense -- it's how long you have to plan in advance to do it.

1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

While I really want to see electric car makers do interesting things with the design of their vehicles, I think Ford probably did the right thing with the Lightning by keeping it in line with the rest of their trucks. It'll help convince a market segment that is probably rather wary of electrification, or at least prevent them from sticking out. Also, being able to leverage the huge scale of F-150 manufacturing as much as possible to keep the price down likely helps.

 

Even if I do want to see more innovation in the shape of vehicles, I think Ford did a great job putting the space to work. The frunk, complete with power lift, 110 outlets, and a drain really seems quite useful. I drove a pickup in high school for a while, and having a real locking trunk space would have been great.

 

With the bevy of outlets, bi-directional charging, and what not, I think Ford did a good job of making a case for the utility of an electric truck. Overall I think they've set down a very solid baseline.

 

I expect this thing to sell really well, but I'm particularly interested in how the commercial side sells. My company runs a small fleet of pickups, but they haul a lot of stone around, so I'm not sure if the range with that weight would be sufficient. Still, I have to imagine there are plenty of commercial use cases where electric makes sense.

Changing sheet metal is very expensive -- the cost for unique dies for the bodysides and front end, and the tear up of the body shop -- you're probably talking ~$4-500 million to do anything different than what they're doing.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

^Because if these costs it should be upon regulators to ensure that cars have adequate LOS and pedestrian safety in the event of impact

[Guest]

Obviously electric changes the design calculus, but are there any examples of trucks now that have safer designs? Or concept art? I can’t really imagine how my truck could be designed much differently given the engine size itself, but maybe you don’t need substantial change?

[TwinIon]

8 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Obviously electric changes the design calculus, but are there any examples of trucks now that have safer designs? Or concept art? I can’t really imagine how my truck could be designed much differently given the engine size itself, but maybe you don’t need substantial change?

Not sure if it actually is safer, but the Canoo truck has a very different design that might be. I would expect better sight lines and looks like it might have a lower bumper height.

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

1 minute ago, sblfilms said:

Obviously electric changes the design calculus, but are there any examples of trucks now that have safer designs? Or concept art? I can’t really imagine how my truck could be designed much differently given the engine size itself, but maybe you don’t need substantial change?

The best solution is to avoid having vehicles hitting people at all.  By putting in features like emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and designing pedestrian areas for better safety.

 

And FWIW, trucks today are getting better and better at pedestrian safety.  

[AbsolutSurgen]

2 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

Not sure if it actually is safer, but the Canoo truck has a very different design that might be. I would expect better sight lines and looks like it might have a lower bumper height.

The best vehicles in pedestrian crash tests have the person's head hitting their head on the hood, where it is designed to crumple to reduce the force of the impact.  If that hits you, your head hits glass.

[mclumber1]

30 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

I mean this reason was a big selling point for Tesla back when it was first getting going.

 

Why buy a whacky EV like the BMW i3 or the Nissan Leaf when you could get something that looks more traditional, yet modern, like the Model S?  EV car designers often seem like they wear their pants on their heads when they dream up some of these designs. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

11 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

 

The best solution is to avoid having vehicles hitting people at all.  By putting in features like emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and designing pedestrian areas for better safety.

 

And FWIW, trucks today are getting better and better at pedestrian safety.  

Close but wrong.

 

Change street engineering to force slower vehicle speeds and reduce vehicle and nonvehicle interaction points, along with generally reducing VMT by developing dense sustainable housing based around transit and other non-car based transportation

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Close but wrong.

 

Change street engineering to force slower vehicle speeds and reduce vehicle and nonvehicle interaction points, along with generally reducing VMT by developing dense sustainable housing based around transit and other non-car based transportation

Not everyone lives in New York.

[Uaarkson]

Just now, AbsolutSurgen said:

Not everyone lives in New York.

The whole country used to be like that bro

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, Uaarkson said:

The whole country used to be like that bro

When?

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Before we cut up our cities with highways

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

4 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Before we cut up our cities with highways

In the 20's the urban population was <50%.  Today it is getting damn near 85%.

Most people lived far less densely than they do today.

[Uaarkson]

6 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Most people lived far less densely than they do today.

I’m not trying to be a dick but this is just straight up false. The share of people living in metropolitan areas and cities have increased, but the density of those cities massively decreased after WWII and most have not recovered. For example, 20,000-40,000 ppsm in the core of a typical Midwestern city in 1940. There are only a handful of places with densities like that now, and they’re all on the coasts.

[Uaarkson]

23 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

developing dense sustainable housing based around transit and other non-car based transportation

 
Until the late 1940s, this was how America built its towns and cities.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Manhattan has 30% fewer people than 1920 as an example. My city has the same number of people as it did in 1950 but with a much greater land area. Urbanization is not urban density.

[Fizzzzle]

I grew up in a town that only had like 30k people when I was born, even it had a dense downtown area from the 1910's/20's and even had its own streetcar/tram system at one point. Then the interstate happened and most of the population started sprawling around that.

 

 

[Kal-El814]

5 hours ago, sblfilms said:

One might call it a pre-order?

One might, Ford doesn’t

 

Kidding aside as someone who ordered a chase vehicle from Ford a few years back, I didn’t have to give them $100 this early!

[DarkStar189]

2 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

 

The best solution is to avoid having vehicles hitting people at all.  By putting in features like emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and designing pedestrian areas for better safety.

 

And FWIW, trucks today are getting better and better at pedestrian safety.  

I read this article a few months back and found it interesting. We need all the safety features we can get in vehicles because with the size and height people are pushing their trucks now, it's a real threat to your safety. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-11/the-dangerous-rise-of-the-supersized-pickup-truck

 

[Jason]

2 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Not everyone lives in New York.

 

Even in metros where it's spread out and you need a car to get around because there isn't good transit, you still have pedestrian areas where it's inappropriate to have the streets engineered to freeway standards.

[SimpleG]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Even in metros where it's spread out and you need a car to get around because there isn't good transit, you still have pedestrian areas where it's inappropriate to have the streets engineered to freeway standards.

 

I assume this is what you are talking about ?

[Guest]

I am a “density for thee, but not for me” kinda person

 

I like rural living, but also like seeing Houston gradually getting taller in the city, with more walkable areas emerging

[Jason]

55 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

 

I assume this is what you are talking about ?

 

Not just stroads, a lot of urban streets aren't really stroads but are still too wide, etc.

[Keyser_Soze]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Not just stroads, a lot of urban streets aren't really stroads but are still too wide, etc.

 

They should just have more pedestrian bridges like they have in Las Vegas.

[Jason]

Just now, Keyser_Soze said:

 

They should just have more pedestrian bridges like they have in Las Vegas.

 

no

[Uaarkson]

21 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

They should just have more pedestrian bridges like they have in Las Vegas.

 Las Vegas is not a city to replicate anywhere, any time.

[silentbob]

They work there because of the climate, but try that in New York or Toronto in the middle of winter. The liability lawsuits the city would have because they weren’t cleared of snow/ice and someone got hurt. I was sort of in that situation when I worked at the theatre. A lady was suing because she slipped on our icy stairs exiting her movie one winter night. We have an assignment sheet each shift for afternoon/evening duties and I was in charge that afternoon taking care of the stairs. I finished that night at 5pm and the accident happened at 9:30ish that evening. No one else was assigned that duty fo4 the evening shift so I was lef5 technically as the at fault guy. I even sat down with a lawyer with our company on what I did that day and I’m the one who noticed the shift assignment problem. Thankfully had my login and sign out timesheet to confirm everything. 

[thewhyteboar]

Cities used to look like this:

 

[johnny]

it’s unfortunate that big as fucking shit trucks are here to stay forever. i guess making them electric is neat. 

[Keyser_Soze]

3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

They should just have more pedestrian bridges like they have in Las Vegas.

 

3 hours ago, Jason said:

no

 

3 hours ago, Uaarkson said:

 Las Vegas is not a city to replicate anywhere, any time.

 

This was just an idea that I had floated to myself some years ago where I used to live. Of course it was a pipe dream because they couldn't be even bothered to build a proper sidewalk there the 20+ years that I lived there. The best they did was  add an asphalt curb to the side of the road to separate the road from the "sidewalk"

 

There as a 2 lane street, followed by railroad tracks followed by highway 101 which was like 4 lanes and then you'd have all the businesses. But you weren't supposed to cross the tracks so if a cop saw you you'd get a fine. So a 2 minute walk would end up being much longer because you'd have to walk to a railroad crossing which were like a mile apart. So in this case I was like a "well if they made it so we could walk over all the traffic we wouldn't be breaking the law and we could travel places faster." type of idea

[Jason]

6 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

 

 

This was just an idea that I had floated to myself some years ago where I used to live. Of course it was a pipe dream because they couldn't be even bothered to build a proper sidewalk there the 20+ years that I lived there. The best they did was  add an asphalt curb to the side of the road to separate the road from the "sidewalk"

 

There as a 2 lane street, followed by railroad tracks followed by highway 101 which was like 4 lanes and then you'd have all the businesses. But you weren't supposed to cross the tracks so if a cop saw you you'd get a fine. So a 2 minute walk would end up being much longer because you'd have to walk to a railroad crossing which were like a mile apart. So in this case I was like a "well if they made it so we could walk over all the traffic we wouldn't be breaking the law and we could travel places faster." type of idea

 

Highway overpasses are terrible for pedestrians, they exist to keep pedestrians out of the way of motorists.