About a decade ago, Tesla rigged the dashboard readouts in its electric cars to provide “rosy” projections of how far owners can drive before needing to recharge, a source told Reuters.
I fall into the “can charge at home/work” and thus can own my tiny ev. What id really like though is a way to tow my small camper/other trailers in the future without having to compromise so much and I think the way I’d like to see that is with a small diesel-electric plug in hybrid. If I can run on battery only during light duty work and have a diesel generator for towing/anything else. Diesels can run on several fuels and are inherently more thermally efficient and the tech to do this already exists. Some manufacturers are using wild engines like a turbine, rotary to accomplish essentially the same thing but both required years of R&D to produce a usable product. Ford could for example grab one of their tiny diesels and mate it to a pre-existing PHEV drivetrain and build a usable eF250…in theory.
I’m optimistic but I hope options like this exist in the future especially for larger applications. Maybe hydrogen will also be an option for situations like this but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Honestly, I see that as a pretty obvious stepping stone between current heavy duty tractor trailer tech and fully electric versions. We’ll get there eventually, but transitionary technology has a very clear place in the near future.
I fall into the “can charge at home/work” and thus can own my tiny ev. What id really like though is a way to tow my small camper/other trailers in the future without having to compromise so much and I think the way I’d like to see that is with a small diesel-electric plug in hybrid. If I can run on battery only during light duty work and have a diesel generator for towing/anything else. Diesels can run on several fuels and are inherently more thermally efficient and the tech to do this already exists. Some manufacturers are using wild engines like a turbine, rotary to accomplish essentially the same thing but both required years of R&D to produce a usable product. Ford could for example grab one of their tiny diesels and mate it to a pre-existing PHEV drivetrain and build a usable eF250…in theory.
I’m optimistic but I hope options like this exist in the future especially for larger applications. Maybe hydrogen will also be an option for situations like this but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
A diesel-electric pick-up truck would be a mini-locomotive. Efficient, relatively simple, and provide tons of torque
Honestly, I see that as a pretty obvious stepping stone between current heavy duty tractor trailer tech and fully electric versions. We’ll get there eventually, but transitionary technology has a very clear place in the near future.