This is a kind of EV that I could see me owning.
2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger PHEV
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65k base, so 75k for a mid trim. that's 10k (sticker) higher than a mid trim power boost (only comparable model). 10k/$3.00X20mpg = 67k miles before you make up the difference. not great, not terrible. And that's not taking into account the running cost of the ram. which will be cheap but will cost you some electricity and some fuel.
Seems like with 92KWH battery you could use this as a full time EV if you wanted to optimize your usage this way. Then if you wanted to drive to Alaska, you can use gas.
Of course the salient question is how much will it cost for this level of flexibility?
Of course the salient question is how much will it cost for this level of flexibility?
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not a fan of the half ton "car-truck" look or the "car-truck" capability. A half tons limitations become very apparent..
short bed problems, towing problems, payload problems lololololz can't tell you guys how many times ive seen modern half tons sagging and absolutely struggling to pull a 7k lbs "half ton ready" fifth wheel camper in the mountains.
short bed problems, towing problems, payload problems lololololz can't tell you guys how many times ive seen modern half tons sagging and absolutely struggling to pull a 7k lbs "half ton ready" fifth wheel camper in the mountains.
With one large exception - the Volt has a physical final drive ratio connection.
The prospect of it only coming in the 5'7" bed is annoying to me. I just said the other day, any future truck will have at least a 6' bed. You can close the tailgate on a lot of things with a 6'4" bed.
I know. But most people forget that part.
Few understood the volt and it's too bad - it was brilliant.
This might be the perfect application for a phev - this thing is going to weigh a lot.
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I like the idea, but that price is going to sink it. So much for "saving the environment" eh? Lets build an electric truck that everyone can find attractive, including guys who tow a lot and/or need tons of payload (those specs alone are impressive and almost 2500 territory) and then price it so high nobody can afford it. Absolutely brilliant.
Depending on its architecture and you commute, one could entirely run it on electricity and rarely to never burn gas. Volts routinely get high hundreds of MPG because they simply dont run the gas engine beyond the min purge cycle.
It's going to depend on where you live and what your rate is whether electricity would be cheaper than gasoline.
Best it probably gets is 2mpkwh on flat level ground at a moderate speed. It's going to be a big boy on the scales.
I could care less about how green it is unless the green is in my wallet, but the flexibility to operate with completely parallel and serealizable systems is highly desirable for me.
The dodge boys better sharpen up their code for this.
It's going to depend on where you live and what your rate is whether electricity would be cheaper than gasoline.
Best it probably gets is 2mpkwh on flat level ground at a moderate speed. It's going to be a big boy on the scales.
I could care less about how green it is unless the green is in my wallet, but the flexibility to operate with completely parallel and serealizable systems is highly desirable for me.
The dodge boys better sharpen up their code for this.
That theoretically could long distance tow if needed. Sounds like the best of both worlds. Personally I'd just rather have EV and not deal with a gas powerplant at all, but I've never towed long distance anyway.
The vast majority are under 6' these days. It might be a while before it would get a longer bed if at all.
Me too. If it sells they may offer it in different configurations and with a bigger bed. I wish them well.
130KW generator is just a little on the small side for a 250-300HP 3.6L engine. Possibly the engine is an Atkinson cycle or other lower output, more efficient design?
Otherwise, I like that they are trying the idea while despising that level of complexity and cost. There is a reason this beast will require a Mortgage, an innumerable number of high tech components. Nor am I at all sure that level of complexity does anything what so ever to consume less energy. As it takes a certain amount of energy do do a specific amount of work. We've already run the calculations on how much fuel is consumed at a power plant, to push a Model S a mile down the highway. It's not pretty.
Another point. The best engineers make complex systems as simple as possible. This clearly is not that.
Past examples were in many ways, more cleverly engineered.
Otherwise, I like that they are trying the idea while despising that level of complexity and cost. There is a reason this beast will require a Mortgage, an innumerable number of high tech components. Nor am I at all sure that level of complexity does anything what so ever to consume less energy. As it takes a certain amount of energy do do a specific amount of work. We've already run the calculations on how much fuel is consumed at a power plant, to push a Model S a mile down the highway. It's not pretty.
Another point. The best engineers make complex systems as simple as possible. This clearly is not that.
Past examples were in many ways, more cleverly engineered.
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I expect they will sell each one they build
Possibly torque to turn the generator. If it can produce more power than the vehicle needs to charge while driving it down the road that’s going to be a lot of force to turn the generator under full load. If a lesser powertrain couldn’t do that then you’d have to charge and get fuel to offset the charge on long trips. If I had to do both I’d just take a straight EV or ICE vehicle instead. I’m really not a fan of unnecessary complication in vehicles especially if the payoff of it sucks. This thing has to be stupid heavy considering it’s a full EV with a V6 generator on board. It’ll be far from efficient for either powertrain.
This engine is 260-305 at ~6500 RPM depending on what vehicle it is in, assuming it's the same configuration as what they're currently using.
My thought is that since they're not going to run this thing at 6500 RPM, they may be optimizing a couple of RPM points. One for standard charging and one for hard charging but much lower in the RPM band. Since it'll only run at those RPM points, the load is a constant for the type of charging it will be doing, they can more easily maximize efficiency since they won't have a human playing with the load demand.
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It's a full EV but the battery capacity is much less than other EVs, since it doesn't need to get full range on the battery itself. So the battery weight is far less, but yes they still add the pentastar back in.
My take on this is that this system could work very well as long as they offer it in basic trims (which they don't appear to be doing).
The power levels are nice, it probably tows amazing vs my truck since it adds a lot of power and the increased weight with a very low center of gravity adds towing stability. The gas engine completely eliminates range anxiety. Most of my driving would be EV, and then while towing the gas engine would be my source of power. I can throw some jerry cans in the back of my bed for extra piece of mind on those long remote, cross country trips.
In other words this would fit my needs completely. If one is forced into making EVs, this approach makes the most sense for trucks. The pentastar can be tuned to run at maximum efficiency. It's absolutely the perfect way to introduce EVs into trucks until the battery capacity and charging infrastructure catches up which could be decades away yet.
I'm not a fan of EV trucks in the slightest. But this stuff is beyond our control now, we're getting EVs, it's simply a fact though it will take longer than 2035. So if I'm forced into an EV, this would be my truck.
As long as simple big v8's are available, that will be my truck though.
It’s not though. 92kwh is a big battery. It may be on the smaller end for an EV truck battery. This thing must weigh twice what my Tesla does and nearly 3 times my VW.
It’s getting really dangerous to drive what used to be a normal sized vehicle on the roads today. People shouldn’t be able to privately purchase 7,000lb+ vehicles for road use.
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