Ford will begin making electric trucks again on March 13
Highlights from the Specialty Equipment Market Association Las Vegas 2013: EV Concepts and Trends in Drone Response and Autonomous Vehicles
The Specialty Equipment Market Association held a conference in Las Vegas this week. Billed as one of the biggest car shows in the world, the event typically brings together more than 135,000 attendees in the automotive aftermarket industry to see the newest trends in vehicle repairs and modifications.
And this year, EVs were a particular focus. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it was 740 percent bigger than it was when it first opened, and that’s because of the dedicated electric vehicle space. Several major automakers showed up with a bunch of unique EV concepts in tow. Here are some of the ones that stood out the most.
The first one is a built by Dom Tucci Design and Kay automotive Graphics. The vehicle has a custom lift-gate spoiler, fender arches, and a 3D-printed front lip.
Up next is the Ford F-150 Lightning Race Support built by Real Truck and Motor City Solutions. Ford says that it is similar to home on the road and a Baja race as a support vehicle because it has an air compressor, leveling kit, off-road recovery boards, and Recaro seats.
The personalization business of Ford has seen a 40 percent increase over the last year, with the most popular vehicle being the Bronco.
VW was given the first-ever electric vehicle of the year prize. Show exhibitors selected the ID.4 for its potential for customization, its ability to handle a variety of terrain, and as a leading example of the possibilities in the electric vehicle market.
The Mobile Drone Response Vehicle is designed to carry and launch large drones and was one of two ID.4 based concepts the automaker brought out. The drone response vehicle will be put to use by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which has the goal of operating a 100 percent electric fleet by the year 2030. The modified id.4 has a portable power station, a custom storage unit for drones and other field equipment.
The ID.4 accessories concept has a hitch mounted bike rack and a Thule canyon basket. Splash guards protect the 18-inch wheels with H&R Trak Plus wheel spacers and 245/60R18 all-terrain tires.
The JK Wrangler, Ariya Surfboards, and a Transformed Sunny Restod at SEMA: An Electromod for the Jeep CJ Surge
The Japanese automaker didn’t come to play. There are two striking concepts at SEMA: a 1987 Sunny restod that runs a Leaf engine and a Ariya surfboards on the roof.
The California-style wagon was created by South Carolina-based Tommy Pike Customs. The Surfwagon is made with a vinyl wrap and chrome trim, 20-inch wheels, a roof rack, and a lowered suspension.
The truck will make you smile. The truck was converted to run on a Leaf battery. The Leaf’s power and Torque is twice the power and three times the Torque of the four-cylinder engine used in the Sunny.
One of the ideas brought to the show was the Jeep CJ Surge, which is meant to showcase the possibility of EV conversion kits for vintage Jeeps. The electromod is meant to give the automaker’s engineers a better understanding of EV parts kit applications, which could lead to a future product lineup for enthusiasts to convert their vintage vehicles to EVs.
The Jeep CJ Surge is powered by a custom propulsion system. The frame has a 200kW motor mounted to it. Battery modules, of which there are 24, are enclosed in a custom shell mounted in the rear of the passenger cabin. The Jeep has a two-inch lift kit and 35 inch all-terrain tires.
Jeep also fits a custom roll cage and bikini top, while the center console comes from a JK Wrangler (built from 2007 to 2017) and features a rotary shift knob in place of the stock lever.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2015: A Roadmap for a US-based Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Experiment at Ford Model e
Meanwhile, production of the F-150 Lightning is on track to triple this year, with Ford targeting an annual production run rate of 150,000 by the end of 2023. The company is investing $2 billion across three plants in Michigan to boost production for the electric truck.
Congress passed the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) legislation in August to restructure how EV tax credits are allowed. Consumers who purchase an electric vehicle will be able to get tax credits of varying amounts depending on whether the batteries and battery components were manufactured in the US or not.
She said that the IRA was important to them and that it did what it was intended to do. It allowed the United States to capture 2,500 fantastic technical jobs and all the indirect jobs that go with it, plus the future growth.
The plant will make lithium iron phosphate batteries, better known as LFP (lithium ferro-phosphate), batteries. This is a type of battery that uses no nickel orcoben, elements that can be hard to extract from the earth.
The NCM batteries charge more slowly than the LFP batteries, and last longer when charged to their full capacity. The NCM batteries are good for pulling heavier loads if they have more power for similar weight.
Most of today’s EVs use lithium-ion batteries whose cathodes use NCM chemistries. NCM has a lot of baggage due to the fact that it is the source of the blood diamond of batteries, cobalt, which has been called the “blood diamond of batteries” because of its treatment of child laborers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“They are exceptionally durable and they tolerate more frequent and faster DC fast charging,” Lisa Drake, vice president of EV industrialization at Ford model e, the company’s EV division, said during a briefing with reporters Monday. “And they actually perform best when they’re being charged from zero to 100 percent regularly. And that is ideal for customers who want to drive all the way to empty and then charge quickly back to 100 percent.”
Drake emphasized that the decision to add LFP batteries to its mix of EVs was partly inspired by a desire to reduce costs. “This is how we look at the recipe to create one of the lowest-cost US-produced batteries when this plant comes on line in 2026,” she said.
The automaker had a rough quarter this year and is looking at ways to reduce costs. Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company left $2 billion in profits on the table, blaming poor execution and “deeply entrenched issues in our industrial system.”
Rumors of the new factory have been swirling for months. One of the areas that Ford considered to build it in was one of the most impoverished parts of Virginia. Up to 2,500 jobs would have been created by the project. Youngkin, the state’s Republican governor, rejected the project due to his opposition to China’s communist government.
It needs to get a handle on the quality issues that have slowed down its EV push. Ford recently recalled over a dozen F-150 Lightnings over concerns about a battery problem. In America, Ford issued more recalls than any other company.
Currently the best-seller in the category, the Lightning will face intense competition. GM is getting ready to start production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and the new Sierra EV by early next year.
A number of delays have caused the production of the Cybertruck to be delayed. Stellantis is also supposed to begin production of the Ram 1500 Rev electric truck later next year, as well.
An electric Explorer is in the works. The company has said it plans to launch an Explorer EV for North America, which will be built at Ford’s factory in Oakville, Ontario, by the end of 2024 (after a previous plan to produce it alongside the Mustang Mach-E in Cuautitlan, Mexico, was scrapped). The Oakville facility, where the gas-powered Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus are built, is in the process of being converted to an EV-only plant.
The most noticeable feature in the new electric Explorer is a moveable 15-inch center touchscreen that the company says should be better for dealing with outside glare. There is a built-in storage space for valuables hidden in the screen. Here’s a GIF of the movable screen:
Prospects for Future Product Development of a High-Revised Multi-Stationary General Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider
Those products include three new passenger vehicles, including a sport crossover with a range of 500km (311 miles) and an electric version of the company’s Ford Puma, a compact crossover that will go into production at the company’s plant in Craiova, Romania, in 2024.
The so-called BlueOval City campus won’t come online until 2025, but when it does, Ford has said it will be a “mega campus” that houses a vehicle-production facility for Ford’s F-series pickup trucks and a battery assembly division. The next electric truck will be made at the company’s main production line.
Longer range is likely to result from improved efficiency. The F-150 Project T3 has a driving range of as far as 400 miles on a single charge, and lightning has a driving range of up to 320 miles.
PJ O’Rourke once said American pickup cars were a back porch with an engine attached. Well, this new truck is going to be like the Millennium Falcon — with a back porch attached,” Farley said in a press release this week.
