Ford, Not Tesla, Is Making the Electric Truck That Will Change the EV Industry

Discussed previously:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27234039" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27234039</a>

Electric truck to get rural-centric areas on electric vehicles? Sounds great.<p>Touchscreens at the helm? Bad plan. I&#x27;m very happy with physical buttons that with distinct tactile feedback for hands only use. Distractions in the cab should be eliminated, not increased.

Lifetime Ford guy here, currently 7.3 Excursion. I&#x27;m pretty disappointed in the Lightning. Sure more utility, plugs, fancy lights and classic looks..... but the range, oooof. Can&#x27;t do it. Very excited for my CyberTruck tri-motor with 500+ mile range.

&gt; The base version with 230 miles of range starts at $39,974, while the 300-mile version begins at $90,000.<p>This is a shocker to me. It costs an extra $50k for a further 70 mile range? More than double the base price to get 30% more mileage.<p>Is it using a totally different type of battery?

The frunk is the game-changer here. A fair amount of easy-to-load, secure, waterproof storage, in the exact same external package as the gas version. But only possible with an EV. This, more than anything else, is what will pull people to the electric version. Maybe not today, but give it a few years, as people talk to their electric F-150 owning friends.

Something doesn&#x27;t fully add up. Ford&#x27;s $40k truck is allegedly based on a 125 kWh battery. Tesla&#x27;s numbers are similar. The only cars anywhere close to such a huge battery all cost close to double.<p>If we look at the car models with both EV and ICE versions, the EV markup tends to be huge. Hyundai Kona EV is 23k€ more than the ICE version, for 64kWh battery. Peugeot e208 is 16k€ more, for 50kWh battery. Volvo 20k€ more, for 75kWh.<p>And it&#x27;s not just automakers. Tesla Powerwall is $8k for 13kWh. LG battery is $7k for 9kWh. Just for the battery pack, it doesn&#x27;t include installation or any other equipment necessary.<p>So, one of these must be true:<p>* Ford&#x2F;Tesla are overly optimistic about the battery price trajectory and the base version(s) will be a paper launch<p>* the public&#x2F;journalists&#x2F;policy makers are overly pessimistic about the battery prices and there&#x27;s a huge price drop imminent<p>* Ford&#x2F;Tesla will sell these truck at a large loss. But why?<p>* Consumers are being price-gouged. But why would trucks be an exemption to this?<p>Also, both the truck and Ford Mustang Mach-E are huge energy hogs - where are they going to source the batteries from?

I&#x27;m getting a strong sense of deja vu from the early days of the iPhone.

That will be a city truck to go for groceries. Rural areas have very sparse infrastructure and 150mi on one charge means wasting half a day every two days recharging it.

Funny how we compare massive century old companies to a startup and they still fight to stay relevant.

Is it bullet proof though?

Bold statement. Why not just wait and see who manages to deliver.

Isn&#x27;t that the point of Tesla? Make a luxury electric car so people actually want to have one, then everyone switches to electric?

Ford squarely put the emphasis on utility while Tesla focused on beauty.<p>To a certain extent the world still focuses on beauty first.<p>I mean, you can turn up on the construction site with a cyber truck or a F150 electric...<p>I’m talking about marketing - not the virtues of one or the other. Just marketing.

They will both sell like hotcakes. Its just a nobrainer for many applications. Ford doesn&#x27;t have the battery supply to transition its fleet of 700k trucks. My bet would be that Tesla considerably outsells Ford in EV pickups for quite few years and maybe never catches up.

People buy trucks for emotional reasons. The utility is there to help rationalize the decision.<p>If you&#x27;re a two car family you can now make the case that you should buy an F-150 as a commuter.<p>Throw in the $7,500 tax credit and these things are going to sell like crazy even if the before rebate sticker price is $50,000