Echoing what others have said, I like the design of the red truck the best of these designs, but electric trucks don’t need to scream “look at me, I’m an electric truck!” Ram has long been a design leader; let them do their thing.
Echoing Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, electric vehicles are being pushed by politicians, not automakers or consumers. Hybrids make sense. All electric vehicles do not, and may never make sense.
Ford could make 87 F-150 Hybrids for every one Lightning, based on battery capacity (1.5 kWh vs 131 kWh). Taking the EPA numbers at face value, assuming 12,000 annual miles, and comparing the hybrid to 3.5 Ecoboost, 87 hybrids F-150s save 8,700 gallons of gas a year. One Lightning would save 600 gallons. Even if the electricity to recharge the Lightning was 100% carbon free, that’s still a drastically lower reduction.
Why do I make such a comparison? Because battery capacity is THE major limiting factor in the number of BEVs that can be produced each year. The batteries are the biggest contributor to the cost of BEVs, putting them out of reach of many customers.
If reduced carbon emissions is the goal, we’d be far better off making many hybrids and no electric vehicles.
In short, BEVs are not good for the environment. Far more gas savings could be achieved by making every vehicle a hybrid (mild to PHEV) than making a few electric vehicles for relatively few, relatively wealthy families.
