EV Bronco in the FUture?

[duffymahoney]

While I agree that eventually someone will figure it out as far as power needs and power consumption, storage etc. The interim may be quite long until that figured out. Too, most people in the US cannot afford the EV vehicles and if you extrapolate that out to other countries it certainly isn't going to happen as a lot of them barely have power at all. Most people don't realize that vast parts of the US are critically low on electrical power, that includes the midwest states that have previously been flush with electrical power. The most important being critically needed power when the temps go way up or way down and then everyone start cranking their heat or AC.

If you couple that with what the government would like, which is everyone immediately make a jump to EV's only. Well it likely isn't an option as most states would either brown or blackout in short order, with the exceptions with those having nuclear power still available.

What kind of car is your brother charging with a small solar panel?

I have a hard time seeing anyone wanting a smaller power station in their respective town, anymore its a bunch of NIMBY types who just want free power that doesn't impact their lives. They would run on trash? What do you do with the leftover ash? Not to mention the CO2 connection.
Natural gas? Already happening on larger scale but the liberal left doesn't like the CO2 either.
Hydrogen? Maybe but then you have the explosive side to worry about..
Small Nukes? Probably not, to much concern over melt downs and waste.

Wind continues to grow but really doesn't make sense when you factor in upkeep and cost structure, not to mention it needs well wind..
Solar only works when the suns out and frankly is a waste of land IMO.

Currently, I am at a loss to see how this arrives and plays out well for anyone but the truly wealthy.

Cheapest power to make is now solar. So that will continue to grow, and it will continue to get cheaper and better. But it has it's limits, luckily my area is all hydro. So solar during the days, then hydro at night? Each house having solar or cities having solar is my guess for the future, until we figure out cold fusion and or hydrogen. The fact they can stabilize cold fusion is revolutionary, but who knows if we will see that in our life times.

Virtual power stations would fix the grid virtually overnight. But again, the current battery technology sucks and I am not putting it in my house. But every single house having .5 to 1-2 days worth of stored power (from solar or the grid), then buffer they could buffer demand would fix it. At least that's what I read and what makes sense.

Left or right, co2 added to the carbon cycle will affect the planet. The amount and how quickly is the only science that is not fully sound.

I never see news on blackouts for cold days, seems to be the extreme hot days when the news cycle pumps the "black outs". Maybe Texas did during those cold snaps?

Solid idea, make people with EV cars have solar panels to charge them? Tax that panel power highly to help with road taxes? Road taxes disappearing from EV is an absolute problem, we have to fix.

My brother in law has some lame Honda EV car. Nothing fancy like a tesla, just a commuter car for work. He drives like 20 miles each way. Charges it when he gets home and on weekends, that's it. He also gets a credit on his power bill as he dumps power onto the grid.

 

[Yeller]

It's not about electric vehicles being wrong or bad, folks in the midwest don't take kindly to being told what to do. We feel the government has too much over reach and you want to see us show our red necks, come from out of town and tell us what we are going to do, it is just going to make your head hurt. We feel if you want to be told what to do, go live in California, New Jersey, or Canada. Not being ugly or political just expressing the sentiment.

I personally love the technology, but it needs to be practical. Drive 5000 miles/year in town they are great. drive 50,000+ miles per year all over not so much. Heck a lot of the places I drive I have to carry gas or diesel, its not uncommon to have 200+ miles between fuel availability and if you stop and detour or tow a large trailer with a lot of wind and you can't make it to the next available place. I think electric has its place and the technology eventually will get there, but its a long ways away for the masses

 

[bigmuddy]

My wife works part time in a town roughly 8-10 miles away. She drives probably a dozen times a week for work and various things, but I can't justify the expense for her to buy and drive so little. Not to mention I have a company vehicle and she her car is paid off..

I like the idea and they can be fun to drive but I don't see it for me anytime soon.

 

[Rob1962]

I personally love the technology, but it needs to be practical. Drive 5000 miles/year in town they are great. drive 50,000+ miles per year all over not so much. ... I think electric has its place and the technology eventually will get there, but its a long ways away for the masses

This is where I'm at too. But I disagree it's a long ways away for the masses in terms of practicality and range of the vehicle. The masses don't travel more than 100 miles per day but infrequently, so electric vehicles are perfectly capable of handling the commuting needs of the masses. That said, I don't travel long distances too often, but I do travel 250-300 miles every weekend between Los Angeles and San Diego, and I do like to take long distance road trips a few times a year where I travel 700-800 miles per day. While the electric vehicles today are capable of handling my weekend trips, they aren't capable of supporting the long distance trips. And I don't think we should have to have two different kinds of cars to support each travel need. That, and I also don't think the charging stations exist to support the masses, or the electric supply.

 

[MarsChariot]

So the qi\uestion comes back to what the experiences are for those folks running the new EV Lightenings? That would seem to be a baseline for our type of EV needs. Good, bad, issues?

 

[bigmuddy]

So the qi\uestion comes back to what the experiences are for those folks running the new EV Lightenings? That would seem to be a baseline for our type of EV needs. Good, bad, issues?

I don't have first hand experience but from what I have read. You are still restricted on distance, which is also dramatically impacted/reduced by hauling heavy loads and ambient cold temps, combine the two and you are SOL.
However, if you need to power your home while during a power outage it makes an excellent back generator...

 

[duffymahoney]

So the qi\uestion comes back to what the experiences are for those folks running the new EV Lightenings? That would seem to be a baseline for our type of EV needs. Good, bad, issues?

I think it's range and the ev mustangs range is just not enough for most people. I don't think I have seen one yet? Lots of rivian trucks running around my town, but that is a pretty small truck.

 

[BluebroncoNC]

We just need to make sure we grab the tow package, put a carrier and generator on the back for longer backwoods trips. >snickers<

 

[MarsChariot]

Yes, I have seen plenty of Rivians but no EV Mustang, at least not that I recognized. The same thing happened with internal combustion in the earliest days. Lots of people were interested, but they shied away because they didn't have a source for that new fangled gasoline for a long time. If you were out in the boonies forget it. The problem is really coming down to time and build up of the infrastructure.

 

[MarsChariot]

And I just read in Motor Trend that the word is Ford will market a Bronco hybrid in 2024, probably as a 2025 model. Logical baby steps.

 

[1sicbronconut]

Hybrid or Plug in Hybrid is in the works, even though I'm the EV technician at my dealership I'm still not 100% sold on them, they have their place but not out in western South Dakota for the most part. We have a EV Transit van for parts delivery in about a 50 mile radius that's a great application for an EV base vehicle.

 

[sprdv1]

I just wanna get one of the NEW damn Broncos period, but being a cheap A right now LOL CLOSE to retirement

 

[sprdv1]

And I just read in Motor Trend that the word is Ford will market a Bronco hybrid in 2024, probably as a 2025 model. Logical baby steps.

yeah w/ford, def baby steps

 

[duffymahoney]

I just wanna get one of the NEW damn Broncos period, but being a cheap A right now LOL CLOSE to retirement

I think ford did a great job on them, I also would like one, but my TRD 4Runner is paid off and runs flawlessly, it has never had a single issue, like not one. It's boggling to think about.

 

[BRONCOchild2.0]

Every popular model will have an EV version or at least the car companies will have EVs in their line up. The problem is that the charging and power grid is not equipped for a vast majority of us using or charging our vehicles. I mean come on, we still have rolling "brown outs" or asked to conserve energy. Plus, on longer distance road trips, I'm using fuel vehicle.

 

[BluebroncoNC]

Ford's CEO said Ford is 5 years away from making EV's that are inexpensive for the masses. He also said, that holds for the other US original manufacturers, Chevy and Chrysler. How he knows about Chevy and Chrysler, no clue. But according to the NPR, might have been Hear and Now, this morning, this is what he said on their segment on Electrification of our auto industry and the USA. All due to the "inflation bill". Said, they dropped the limit on EV's getting the tax credit, but they have to have a bunch of their components, like battery's mfg'd here in North America, not specifically the USA. Including the mining of Lithium.

 

[ep67bro]

Ford is building a huge battery plant in Kentucky. I believe it will be operational next year.( I have multiple pieces on my equipment being used to build it) I think GM is building one in Ohio. The EV wave has just started. I would be interested in a Hybrid New Bronco. Especially for my wife as she puts lots of miles on her trucks she has over 35,000 miles on it and it is only 1 year and 3 months old. And it only gets 17mpg so a little improvement in MPG would be nice.

The auto makers are spending billions to build plants in the US, Canada, and Mexico after all the overseas supply chain issues caused by covid and the government, society, and EV push to make more in this country again. but it is a good thing in the long run.

 

[Rob1962]

The auto makers are spending billions to build plants in the US, Canada, and Mexico after all the overseas supply chain issues caused by covid and the government, society, and EV push to make more in this country again. but it is a good thing in the long run.

Is it? While it would be nice to once again manufacture, it's going to have negative impacts on prices, which will become much more expensive, much less competitive globally and domestically.

 

[ep67bro]

To respond to you Rob1962, Yes it is. Why should we rely on everything to come from over seas? Yes I agree that prices will increase but maybe we wont be as reliant on overseas producers for our goods. And more of that money will stay in the states. I am in sales and manufacturing of industrial water heaters and chillers. I am still struggling with some suppliers over lead times and supply chain issues that start overseas. Yes over 3 years after covid I am still getting screwed by over seas suppliers, equipment that was typically 8-10 week delivery before covid is now 39-42 weeks and constantly changing. They wont even give me a reason any longer of why the delays, they just say its the supply chain???

I know we live in a world economy and that will never change but if we can build things in North America especially here in the states we should. I do not agree with products made in the states being less competitive I know in my industry and many others in construction, companies will seek out products that are made in the states, typically they are better quality and the suppliers being in the states are easier to work with and if there is an issue they will take care of it, not disappear or stop answering the phone . Some government contracts specify the products and equipment used must be made in the states. I have had this on multiple large scale government funded projects. And if we have more manufacturing in the states again it will force the companies to be more competitive on prices it wont be just for specialized projects.

To bring this back on topic of an Electric Bronco, yes it will come and I am sure Ford is already working on it!

 

[Rob1962]

I think building things domestically would be great, and I hope you're right. The problem is rational economic actors won't pay for those higher prices and higher priced items won't compete price wise, and people will buy the cheaper products imported from around the world, especially consumer items like cars. It's simple economics, and in fact, is exactly how we got to where we are today. Sure, there's a small contingent of people who would prefer to "buy American" but in the much larger picture, people don't care where their toaster comes from, they just care how much it costs. When they look at the toasters on the shelf, most will pick the cheaper one made in China. Sure, there's also folks who have the money to buy a more expensive model, but they are the minority and the numbers game will kill the availability of higher priced toasters in the end.

Americans want high wages, and low cost goods. When you combine those two, it simply makes it impossible to manufacture the goods in the US because as between two cars that are similar, more people will buy the cheaper imported car built by someone paid $5/hr versus an American made care built by someone paid $45/hr. Add to that the increase costs of car components built domestically versus offshore. In the long run, it will put all US automakers out of business.

I'm sure an Electric Bronco is in the works too. No sure I'll ever own an electric vehicle though who knows.