This was on CBS news tonight. A Ford e-crate motor kit. They coverted a 78 F-100 to electric.
Would you try one on an F-1 or 53 to 56 F-100 if you had the cash?

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/fords-eluminator-kit-turns-gas-powered-cars-electric/

 

That video didn't talk about price of conversion. I'd be interested if the cost was ideally under $5,000.

I have a '79 F100 without an engine in it at the moment......and would consider switching to electric. At the moment my employer has free charging stations, so I'd have a place to plug it in and use the truck as a daily driver.
But I'd guess the actual cost of switching is more than I'd be willing to pay. Probably no way to keep the cost under 5 grand.
Tom

 

No. EV vehicles make no practical sense economically or environmentally? Just do a little research into how many tons of raw materials have to be mined, transported, and processed to make a single EV battery. Your mind will be opened. Batteries may be able to deliver 300 miles of range when new, but they loose efficiency with every charge. I haven't personally researched this, but some say EV batteries may have a useful life expectancy of only 3 to 5 years in actual real life service. Replacement costs are said to be very high--in the $10,000 plus range--so no I won't be driving around an electric vehicle anytime soon and take great exception to states like California mandating the types of vehicles people may or may not purchase.

Jim

 

I just looked back on the article I was reading earlier today. According to the article, a single EV battery requires 500,000 pounds of the earth's crust to be dug up, transported, and processed. This work is undoubtably done by machinery requiring fossil fuels. Millions of vehicles are produced every year. That number multiplied by 500,000 amounts to a pretty significant environmental impact that is going to be noticed. It seems the very people thinking everyone should be environmentally responsible and drive an electric car, are also the ones who oppose mining in virtually all of its forms. Switching the world to electric vehicles to save the environment is not as clean a cut decision as we have been lead to believe. Achieving zero emissions comes with its own unique environmental costs and challenges. What's going on here is a much bigger deal than the push to add ethanol to gasoline, but there are some similarities.

Jim

 

But, if the mining and refining is done in another country, ie China, then it's apparently OK by the likes of AOC and others. Even though oil drilled in the US burns cleaner with less pollution, environmentalists prefer to buy dirty Saudi or Russian oil. Add in the amount of diesel burned in the supertankers to get it here and ..... well you know.

 

I just looked up the ratio of iron ore to steel. It takes 1.6 tons of ore to produce a ton of steel. I think we can all agree that a single EV battery doesn't weigh anywhere close to 500,000 pounds but a ton of steel goes a long ways toward building a truck. I think it's easy to see from this little comparison that the environmental impact of EV battery production is going to be quite different from anything we are used to once millions of these things are needed every year.

Who do you know that wants an open pit mine in their neighborhood? Oh, and as much as we all like Tom (Pineconeford) and wish him well, who thinks it's okay for his company to up the price on whatever they make so they can charge their employee's electric cars for free? Companies can't give things away and stay in business. They pass along costs to their customers.

Jim

 

I'm in the industrial controls field and every one of my major vendors has one or two charging stations to show they are "Green". One or two employees would be easy to provide for and make your company feel good about themselves but start have 100-500 employees plug in there cars during the day and I'd bet it would be free any more. On top of that who would charge their vehicle on their own dime if the company is going to supply the power for free and also cover the cost of maintenance on the charging equipment.

I watched the article they don't mention the price for the crate electric motor or the cost of the batteries and how long the batteries would last.

No one who is pushing for electric cars seem to take into consideration the needed infrastructure needed. I heard an electrical engineer on the radio who said the average neighborhood is allotted only so much current, if half the homes had charging stations and the owners plugged in their vehicle after work their allotted power supply would be overwhelmed.

 

Yep, that CBS piece doesn't mention the conversion cost. Then on the live newscast, at the end of story, the( in my opinion) woke anchor comes on and says something like "Don't knock it until you try it". But then again, maybe she was talking about driving a 78 F-100? LOL.
You know I could almost see using an electric car or truck for short distance basic transportation. Using one to and from work, errands, getting kids to ball practice etc. But for real traveling anywhere too far outside of town I wouldn't be interested.
The other problem is with electrics is with the high costs of battery replacement. There were reports recently of someone getting a bill north of $25K for replacement batteries for a Chevy Volt or Bolt (can't remember which one for sure). How do lower income folks or kids afford cars when you have that kind of repair cost coming their way at some point.?
And finding charging stations when needed? Remember before cell phones trying to find a working, non vandalized, pay phone was almost impossible. Good Luck!

 

If I were considering an engine swap, then yeah, why not? I don't really drive the truck that far on any given day, and being able to plug it into an outlet at home would be convenient. Those electric motors aren't lacking for power, and I think it would be an interesting project to tackle.

Its not likely to happen though. I love my flathead.

 

One more thing that no one ever seems to consider is the secondary market. Like all great new automotive ideas and designs, they work great for the first 5-8 years, the average time a new car buyer keeps their car. It is also the about the time things starts to go out. Most secondary buyers are in the lower income bracket, that's why they buy used cars. We've all heard stories of people who had to stick a couple of thousand into recently purchased used car but it seems like the current batteries last about as long but are considerably higher cost. If I was in the market to buy a used car I wouldn't personally go near an electric vehicle.

Another thing, most new car designs seem to be designed to be used in sunny, dry climates. New pickups are offered with multiple panels on their boxes to provide additional storage room and easy access to the box. Living in the upper midwest I see perfect opportunities for rust to start. Same with electric vehicles. They would work great in summer time but come winter with cold and snow I see the distance being affecting greatly. Headlights stay on longer, windshield wipers are used more and the heaters are on constantly. Image being stuck on the freeway during a winter snow storm? Add to that the higher probability of car accidents occurring in bad weather and then add to that the electric cars running low on power and adding to the problem with stalled electric cars. I just see a mess happening.

 

Nope never. Electric vehicles need to stay at the golf course.

 

I ran into this real world test of a new Ford Lightning electric pickup and the troubles with towing and battery efficiency. There's a lot of fluff in the story so you might want to skip through it, but bottom line is the charge life is drastically reduced when adding the smallest of loads to it. I can't imagine how this is supposed to work for a contractor and his F350 towing tools and materials to the jobsite, or the family going on vacation with their 35' 5th wheel.

Running out of electricity on the side of the road or stranded in the toolies is not the same as running out of gas where you can grab a can to add enough to get you to a station. How long will it take to charge a dead battery from a portable generator?

You Tube

 

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For all of you guys travelling to Truckstock this week, try this little game, please. Pretend you're driving an electric truck and you need to recharge every 150-200 miles. How many places along your route can you do that, and at what cost? You can give us a report in an update thread next week. Thanks.

 

The whole EV thing is a fiasco. Between the govt and the media, tons of misinformation is out there. One article says the power grid will crash, another says slow charging at home won’t cause any issues. One article says batteries can’t be recycled, another says 95% of the battery can be recycled, but doesn’t mention the cost of recycling.

One guy I know who lives in Wyoming and owns a ranch in Colorado bought a Tesla. On his first trip from the ranch home he almost didn’t make it home, having to drive the last few miles with no AC and lights out at dusk. He doesn’t even try after that.

Personally, my objection is the lack of information we can trust, as well as charging time. It’s a mess.

JMO