7 ms·

Just don't try to tow anything with it.

Liiiii 5y ago
That is not true. For many people towing their boat to the launch it will work excellently. Towing trailer full of junk to the disposal, same thing. Also pulling the wood chipper to the dump. Heavy, but not going far. Picking up lumber in town, just fine. Excellent for picking up steel for the shop. It would be more accurate to claim it will do poorly in cross country towing. For the towing I do, it would be just fine. 1/3 the range when towing is still a 100 miles.
- donw 5y ago
  Because indicated electric vehicle ranges are never highly optimistic. 100 miles is a very, very short round trip in most of the US.
  - handol 5y ago
    Is that simply your impression, or is there trip length data to support that?
    - gameswithgo 5y ago
      its pretty simple: an electric truck can tow big stuff no problem, but not very far. so whether it is good for towing depends on how far you tow.
  - thebigman433 5y ago
    Do you have data to back that up? 100 miles is pretty significant for a work truck, especially if youre assuming you wont be able to charge it at the turnaround point and get ~200 miles
  - sp332 5y ago
    Most of the land in the US - sure. Most of the people in the US - no.
- bluedino 5y ago
  What about when you want to tow your boat "up north", and are you going to charge at the campground or what?
mdorazio 5y ago
?? It has the same 10,000lb towing capacity as the standard v6 model. Not sure what you're referring to here.
- crazyjncsu 5y ago
  Range. Many people expect towing to severely and adversely affect the range.
  - waiseristy 5y ago
    Uh, your range is cut in half in a gas truck too. Expect to get 10mpg or less, even on flat terrain
    - bluedino 5y ago
      Gas trucks have 30+ gallon tanks. Plus you can still get a diesel truck if you really want to tow.
    - xeromal 5y ago
      And gas stations are easy to find
- ggreer 5y ago
  Range will suffer greatly and non-Teslas have terrible charging infrastructure. Even Tesla owners have horror stories of trying to tow a trailer and not being able to make it no the next charger.[1] MotorTrend tried towing a car with a Rivian R1T. It reduced the maximum range from 314 miles down to 175 miles.[2] Both range and charging infrastructure will improve over time, but it's not quite there today. 1. https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 2. https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with-electric-truck-range/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with...
  - grawp 5y ago
    175 miles seem to be a huge distance for me and I can't imagine not passing by at least one big city with standardized charging infrastructure.
dieortin 5y ago
Actually it can tow 4500kg. Not sure about why you’re commenting this.
- brianwawok 5y ago
  Range is the problem. 100 mile range for a small tow, and with the lack of fast chargers… it’s not enough for a lot of use cases. We need trailers to start having batteries or something :)
  - syshum 5y ago
    For it to be useful the trailer would have to be more than just a battery, it would need to supply power (as in have an electric motor) as well. Which would be an interesting concept,
    - waiseristy 5y ago
      Probably not cost effective. You need a lot more hardware than just a ball and hitch to ensure there is no jackknifing or other weird unpredictable behaviors. A lot of work goes into ensuring trailers almost never push forwards against their hitches (trailer brakes are in a large part a thing to solve just this problem) I bet you could get a fifth wheel hitch to play nice though if the software was tuned correctly
    - sp332 5y ago
      Airstream does have a concept for this. https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-drivetrain-trailer/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-d...
    - stock_toaster 5y ago
      Or put an electrical generator and a small fuel tank in the trailer -- like a train.
    - brianwawok 5y ago
      It does not need to have a motor. Tesla can generate 400-1000+ horsepower, which is more than enough to pull a trailer at 75+ MPH. Would just need the hitch to include a power cable, to send power back to the car.
pengaru 5y ago
... what proportion of american pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country where this wouldn't have practical range? Based on my observations it's a tiny fraction of pickups on the road. Most people seem to be driving pickups empty 99.99% of the time, just so they can move furniture, some 4x8 sheets, or bags of sand/cement when the exceptional need arrives, all locally - which a BEV is perfect for.
- syshum 5y ago
  >>pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country You would not get a ICE F-150 for that anyway... you would get as F-250 or F-350 for that kind of hauling. F-150 is for Utility hauling for small campers, or Utility trailers and general work, not for 5th wheels, and horses *except maybe one of the small single horse trailers.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Plenty of people use half ton trucks like that. Sure it's a little harder on equipment and you have to put up with internet commenters taking cheap swipes at you over safety (the heck is the point of having a tow rating if everything up to that rating isn't fair game?) but the trucks handle the job nicely enough.
    - syshum 5y ago
      A 5th wheel trailer will almost always be over the tow rating of an f150 Many people exceed the tow rating, and rightfully get ridiculed online for it
cialowicz 5y ago
It should be fantastic for towing heavy stuff relatively short distances (less than 150 miles). Electric motors make 100% of their torque from 0 RPM. This is why freight trains are powered by electric motors, with diesel engines merely generating electricity.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  For all practical purposes a motor operating at full load under hundreds of RPM is stalled. Motors let out the smoke (or have to throttle back) if you do that too much. The operating speed range of a motor is not infinite. For really high torque applications that also demand high speed you are going to see 2spd gear boxes for the same reasons your power drill has a 2spd gearbox. While this truck may or may not (I haven't looked at the specs) have a gearbox expect to see trucks with a gearbox (especially as we start seeing electric commercial vehicles). A simple gearbox consisting of two shafts, four gear and a dog clutch or one planetary and a dog clutch is going to be cheaper, lighter and offer less kludgy performance than over-specing the motor.

That is not true. For many people towing their boat to the launch it will work excellently. Towing trailer full of junk to the disposal, same thing. Also pulling the wood chipper to the dump. Heavy, but not going far. Picking up lumber in town, just fine. Excellent for picking up steel for the shop. It would be more accurate to claim it will do poorly in cross country towing. For the towing I do, it would be just fine. 1/3 the range when towing is still a 100 miles.

donw 5y ago
Because indicated electric vehicle ranges are never highly optimistic. 100 miles is a very, very short round trip in most of the US.
- handol 5y ago
  Is that simply your impression, or is there trip length data to support that?
  - gameswithgo 5y ago
    its pretty simple: an electric truck can tow big stuff no problem, but not very far. so whether it is good for towing depends on how far you tow.
- thebigman433 5y ago
  Do you have data to back that up? 100 miles is pretty significant for a work truck, especially if youre assuming you wont be able to charge it at the turnaround point and get ~200 miles
- sp332 5y ago
  Most of the land in the US - sure. Most of the people in the US - no.
bluedino 5y ago
What about when you want to tow your boat "up north", and are you going to charge at the campground or what?

mdorazio 5y ago

?? It has the same 10,000lb towing capacity as the standard v6 model. Not sure what you're referring to here.

crazyjncsu 5y ago
Range. Many people expect towing to severely and adversely affect the range.
- waiseristy 5y ago
  Uh, your range is cut in half in a gas truck too. Expect to get 10mpg or less, even on flat terrain
  - bluedino 5y ago
    Gas trucks have 30+ gallon tanks. Plus you can still get a diesel truck if you really want to tow.
  - xeromal 5y ago
    And gas stations are easy to find
ggreer 5y ago
Range will suffer greatly and non-Teslas have terrible charging infrastructure. Even Tesla owners have horror stories of trying to tow a trailer and not being able to make it no the next charger.[1] MotorTrend tried towing a car with a Rivian R1T. It reduced the maximum range from 314 miles down to 175 miles.[2] Both range and charging infrastructure will improve over time, but it's not quite there today. 1. https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1376947773967372292 2. https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with-electric-truck-range/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/how-far-can-you-tow-with...
- grawp 5y ago
  175 miles seem to be a huge distance for me and I can't imagine not passing by at least one big city with standardized charging infrastructure.

dieortin 5y ago

Actually it can tow 4500kg. Not sure about why you’re commenting this.

brianwawok 5y ago
Range is the problem. 100 mile range for a small tow, and with the lack of fast chargers… it’s not enough for a lot of use cases. We need trailers to start having batteries or something :)
- syshum 5y ago
  For it to be useful the trailer would have to be more than just a battery, it would need to supply power (as in have an electric motor) as well. Which would be an interesting concept,
  - waiseristy 5y ago
    Probably not cost effective. You need a lot more hardware than just a ball and hitch to ensure there is no jackknifing or other weird unpredictable behaviors. A lot of work goes into ensuring trailers almost never push forwards against their hitches (trailer brakes are in a large part a thing to solve just this problem) I bet you could get a fifth wheel hitch to play nice though if the software was tuned correctly
  - sp332 5y ago
    Airstream does have a concept for this. https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-drivetrain-trailer/ https://www.motortrend.com/news/airstream-estream-electric-d...
  - stock_toaster 5y ago
    Or put an electrical generator and a small fuel tank in the trailer -- like a train.
  - brianwawok 5y ago
    It does not need to have a motor. Tesla can generate 400-1000+ horsepower, which is more than enough to pull a trailer at 75+ MPH. Would just need the hitch to include a power cable, to send power back to the car.

pengaru 5y ago

... what proportion of american pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country where this wouldn't have practical range? Based on my observations it's a tiny fraction of pickups on the road. Most people seem to be driving pickups empty 99.99% of the time, just so they can move furniture, some 4x8 sheets, or bags of sand/cement when the exceptional need arrives, all locally - which a BEV is perfect for.

syshum 5y ago
>>pickup truck drivers are hauling a fifth wheel camper or horse trailer across country You would not get a ICE F-150 for that anyway... you would get as F-250 or F-350 for that kind of hauling. F-150 is for Utility hauling for small campers, or Utility trailers and general work, not for 5th wheels, and horses *except maybe one of the small single horse trailers.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Plenty of people use half ton trucks like that. Sure it's a little harder on equipment and you have to put up with internet commenters taking cheap swipes at you over safety (the heck is the point of having a tow rating if everything up to that rating isn't fair game?) but the trucks handle the job nicely enough.
  - syshum 5y ago
    A 5th wheel trailer will almost always be over the tow rating of an f150 Many people exceed the tow rating, and rightfully get ridiculed online for it

cialowicz 5y ago

It should be fantastic for towing heavy stuff relatively short distances (less than 150 miles). Electric motors make 100% of their torque from 0 RPM. This is why freight trains are powered by electric motors, with diesel engines merely generating electricity.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
For all practical purposes a motor operating at full load under hundreds of RPM is stalled. Motors let out the smoke (or have to throttle back) if you do that too much. The operating speed range of a motor is not infinite. For really high torque applications that also demand high speed you are going to see 2spd gear boxes for the same reasons your power drill has a 2spd gearbox. While this truck may or may not (I haven't looked at the specs) have a gearbox expect to see trucks with a gearbox (especially as we start seeing electric commercial vehicles). A simple gearbox consisting of two shafts, four gear and a dog clutch or one planetary and a dog clutch is going to be cheaper, lighter and offer less kludgy performance than over-specing the motor.