Four years after Ford bravely electrified its best-selling vehicle, the F-150 Lightning pickup, it seemed ready to drop the model owing to slowing demand. Now, it turns out the company's got other plans. It's reengineering the flagship truck for 2026 as an extended range EV (EREV), with a gas…
I feel this article is more informative than the last article I posted. Credit to noride@lemmy.zip for the link.
Its a fully electric drivetrain with a gas generator. When the battery runs low you can recharge it (even while driving) using the generator.
So you don’t have the complexity of a combined hybrid drivetrain, but instead a normal BEV one plus a power generator, both of which are very well understood problems.
Another benefit is that the generator can always run at its most efficient rpm/power point and is decoupled from the speed of the wheels.
Interestingly Wankel engines have been making a bit of a comeback for this purpose since they can be built more compactly for the same output power.
A drawback compared to hybrid drivetrains is that both components need to be built for “full” load, whilst a hybrid drivetrain can combine powers to reach maximum performance, meaning each of the motors only has to carry half (or part) of the total load.
Thanks for the explanation, thats pretty cool! I drive a hybrid and love it, I can get between 4.6-6.0 L/100km depending on the season. It flip flops between EV and engine modes, I can go well over 800 km on a tank. That system is fascinating.
Its a fully electric drivetrain with a gas generator. When the battery runs low you can recharge it (even while driving) using the generator.
So you don’t have the complexity of a combined hybrid drivetrain, but instead a normal BEV one plus a power generator, both of which are very well understood problems.
Another benefit is that the generator can always run at its most efficient rpm/power point and is decoupled from the speed of the wheels.
Interestingly Wankel engines have been making a bit of a comeback for this purpose since they can be built more compactly for the same output power.
A drawback compared to hybrid drivetrains is that both components need to be built for “full” load, whilst a hybrid drivetrain can combine powers to reach maximum performance, meaning each of the motors only has to carry half (or part) of the total load.
Thanks for the explanation, thats pretty cool! I drive a hybrid and love it, I can get between 4.6-6.0 L/100km depending on the season. It flip flops between EV and engine modes, I can go well over 800 km on a tank. That system is fascinating.