Ram Could Build An Electrified Ram, If Customers Request It:

[patfromigh]

I have no idea what Ram has in store for the future, but someone wants the heavy-duty commercial vehicle version of the ZF eight speed. ZF will be producing their PowerLine 8-speed in the same US facility where V8 Rams now get their transmissions from.

Source: https://www.greencarcongress.com/2021/02/20210210-zf.html

ZF lands several-billion-euro orders from NA OEMs for new PowerLine commercial vehicle transmission

"ZF Powerline is suitable for engines with up to 1200 N·m. In terms of segment-related weight, PowerLine sets few limits for manufacturers: Vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of up to 26 tons can be equipped with the transmission system."

"With its modular design featuring different launch elements, PowerLine is suited for the medium-duty truck segment of up to 26 tons, buses and coaches as well as pickup trucks—particularly popular in the US. The future will also see an electric version of the transmission as a mild or plug-in hybrid."

How about a Ram 3500 dually PHEV ?

 

[DivingOtter]

I can see market for gas engines to stay especially for rural owners or the long haul folks who drive long distances with not a lot in between. The breakover will be when you can tow 400 or 500 miles on a charge. For that group "Move faster, We're burning daylight." is the real issue. It's a time/ distance thing between charges or fuel fills...

 

[SpeedyV]

I can see market for gas engines to stay especially for rural owners or the long haul folks who drive long distances with not a lot in between. The breakover will be when you can tow 400 or 500 miles on a charge. For that group "Move faster, We're burning daylight." is the real issue. It's a time/ distance thing between charges or fuel fills...

With the new Hummer EV touting up to 400 miles range, it won't be long. I realize that's NOT towing. But shoot...I could see accommodating lots of extra battery capacity on a specialized trailer.

 

[DevinB]

Mmmm, I wonder what range, towing, and payload would be on a 1/2 ton electric truck today I'm sure we'll get there if we're determined; we're not there yet.

 

[Nukegm426]

All the weather this week here in the south has shown that our infrastructure isn’t capable of handling the large load of everyone switching to electric cars. Besides the thought of electric cars being cleaner ignores the massive pollution of the mining of the materials to make them and the pollution of the plants to make the power.

 

[NorthStar]

An electrified Ram? After the week I just had with no electricity - in my house - I can easily envision getting stranded in my electric Ram. I have a large portable generator that I had to utilize during this outage and the thought of hauling it every where I go just to ensure my Ram will run is not that appealing to me! Talk about payload reduction and led hauling capacity...

Screw Biden, the environmentalists and anyone else who thinks electrified automobiles are a brilliant idea - until they have the infrastructure built that ensures we have sufficient AC for homes, businesses - and electric automobiles. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a highly efficient Ram that get 90 MPG but we need to be certain the US infrastructure is built for it.

And battery capacity doesn’t matter a bit if you can’t charge the damned things or charge them quick enough.

Thanks for indulging me while I vent as all I could think about this week was my five neighbors with their Tesla’s in the garage and no way to charge them while freezing their asses off in the house.

 

[saylor]

aahahahahahahahahaahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaaaaa


ahahahahahahahaahaahahahahaahahahahahahaha





ahaahahahahaahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

aahahahaahahahahahahaahahahaahaahaha

 

[patfromigh]

The new Ford F-150 hybrid can generate electricity and has the ability to power tools and appliances. I think it would be nice if Ram had a truck which could do the same thing. That power outage in Texas stops 200 miles away from where I live in Minnesota, because the grid is interconnected. Gas pumps run on electricity, think about that. The grid needs fixing, but the regulators want things to be green more than being reliable. The wind generators frozen in place and motionless create quite a picture.

BTW, the price of gas rose 40 Cents per gallon overnight where I live. Fortunately we have electricity in our vicinity so the pumps work and I can fill up.

 

[Checkairspeed]

The new Ford F-150 hybrid can generate electricity and has the ability to power tools and appliances. I think it would be nice if Ram had a truck which could do the same thing. That power outage in Texas stops 200 miles away from where I live in Minnesota, because the grid is interconnected. Gas pumps run on electricity, think about that. The grid needs fixing, but the regulators want things to be green more than being reliable. The wind generators frozen in place and motionless create quite a picture.

BTW, the price of gas rose 40 Cents per gallon overnight where I live. Fortunately we have electricity in our vicinity so the pumps work and I can fill up.

Definitely agree. Ram will ultimately follow because they will have to. Ultimately the infrastructure will have to support “green” energy. I just don’t see a massive acceleration towards it until investors see money to be made. The govt can only print so much and subsidize green before the dollar blows up.

 

[patfromigh]

My guess is that there will be some fully electric Ram vans and trucks marketed to fleets. I imagine we will also see Ram pickups and chassis-cabs with a hybrid system similar to the Jeep Wrangler 4Xe. Down the road there will also be some next generation mild hybrid designs as well.

The problem with "Green Energy" isn't environmental, it is a lack of redundancy. What do we do when 73% of the lower 48 is covered with snow? (According to one major news source.) Solar energy panels are covered up with snow and wind turbines are frozen in place by arctic temperatures. Is there a backup plan?

The green energy agenda advocates only see battery electric vehicles and a power grid using hydro, solar, and wind generated electricity. Any fixes to grid are strictly to add EV charging stations. It is a myopic vision created to line somebody's pockets.

As I have stated in other forums, the solutions to our nation's energy and environmental problems will be a mosaic. Many small separate pieces put together to create a large picture. We could begin by stop funding inefficient housing patterns and the inefficient road designs that accompany such development. Battery electric vehicles will have a part in this, but not exclusively. Environmental concerns should not be separate from our energy security reality. The key to both challenges is conservation. Regulatory solutions from centralized planning don't work. Lawyers and bureaucrats cite science, but they are not scientists or engineers. One size fits all solutions such as the CAFE standards can be worse than doing nothing.

 

[stevestrike]

I have to admit that I had some F-150 envy when I read this story. A truck that kept my fridge and modem on? I don't mind siting in without power, but not having to throw away a fridge full of food would be great. Gas is already in the tank so you don't need to worry about containers, etc..

This is seriously cool!

Texans Are Using Ford F-150 Hybrids to Power Their Frigid Homes During Winter Storm

The pickups' onboard power supplies are keeping Texans warm.

www.motortrend.com

 

[NorthStar]

I have to admit that I had some F-150 envy when I read this story. A truck that kept my fridge and modem on? I don't mind siting in without power, but not having to throw away a fridge full of food would be great. Gas is already in the tank so you don't need to worry about containers, etc..

This is seriously cool!

Texans Are Using Ford F-150 Hybrids to Power Their Frigid Homes During Winter Storm

The pickups' onboard power supplies are keeping Texans warm.

www.motortrend.com

The problem we found was finding fuel as the stations had no electricity thus no pumps. I was glad I had a generator that sipped the stuff and was curious how many hours the F-150 owners were able to get on a tank of fuel. My eight gallon generator tank ran for 12 hours powering the entire house before fill up. Can’t imagine the F-150 was able to do more than that (the article said two power tools for 85 hours but that is squat compared to a house) for eight gallons fo fuel but I could be wrong. And the Tesla guys were simply hitchhiking!

 

[DivingOtter]

And the Tesla guys were simply hitchhiking!

LOL!!!!!

 

[Drewster]

My guess is that there will be some fully electric Ram vans and trucks marketed to fleets. I imagine we will also see Ram pickups and chassis-cabs with a hybrid system similar to the Jeep Wrangler 4Xe. Down the road there will also be some next generation mild hybrid designs as well.

The problem with "Green Energy" isn't environmental, it is a lack of redundancy. What do we do when 73% of the lower 48 is covered with snow? (According to one major news source.) Solar energy panels are covered up with snow and wind turbines are frozen in place by arctic temperatures. Is there a backup plan?

The green energy agenda advocates only see battery electric vehicles and a power grid using hydro, solar, and wind generated electricity. Any fixes to grid are strictly to add EV charging stations. It is a myopic vision created to line somebody's pockets.

As I have stated in other forums, the solutions to our nation's energy and environmental problems will be a mosaic. Many small separate pieces put together to create a large picture. We could begin by stop funding inefficient housing patterns and the inefficient road designs that accompany such development. Battery electric vehicles will have a part in this, but not exclusively. Environmental concerns should not be separate from our energy security reality. The key to both challenges is conservation. Regulatory solutions from centralized planning don't work. Lawyers and bureaucrats cite science, but they are not scientists or engineers. One size fits all solutions such as the CAFE standards can be worse than doing nothing.

Texas' problem is that there are no regulations telling them to winterize, because ERCOT is not connected to federal grids. Wind turbines run in the arctic all the time.. because they have the winterization to do so https://mashable.com/article/wind-turbines-texas/

No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages

Lost wind power was expected to be a fraction of winter generation. All sources — from natural gas, to nuclear, to coal, to solar — have struggled to generate power during the storm that has left millions of Texans in the dark.

www.texastribune.org

That being said, a mix and match of fuel sources and storage types are definitely the future - Hydrogen fuel cells with small batteries, generators spun by turbines burning ethanol, you name it, there are loads of greener options we can create that mosaic out of.. but your picture of the green energy "agenda" isn't 100% accurate

 

[SpeedyV]

Texas' problem is that there are no regulations telling them to winterize, because ERCOT is not connected to federal grids. Wind turbines run in the arctic all the time.. because they have the winterization to do so https://mashable.com/article/wind-turbines-texas/

No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages

Lost wind power was expected to be a fraction of winter generation. All sources — from natural gas, to nuclear, to coal, to solar — have struggled to generate power during the storm that has left millions of Texans in the dark.

www.texastribune.org

That being said, a mix and match of fuel sources and storage types are definitely the future - Hydrogen fuel cells with small batteries, generators spun by turbines burning ethanol, you name it, there are loads of greener options we can create that mosaic out of.. but your picture of the green energy "agenda" isn't 100% accurate

Keep in mind that wind turbines had little/nothing to do with this, as we don’t rely on our wind farms much here in a typical winter. Texas electricity providers failed to winterize our coal and natural gas power plants, so their equipment froze up. The real kicker is that winterization is fairly cheap and easy to do. There are no good excuses.

 

[Nukegm426]

Y’all do realize this power problem extended outside texas right? Yes we had the majority of the coverage but several other surrounding states were effected. I would tend to theorist that the biggest problem was scheduled maintenance. Most of our regions power use is during the summer so during the winter things like power plants tend to shut down parts of the facility for maintenance. It’s not something that can be reversed easily so I’m guessing we also were fighting a lower capacity problem as well as freeze damage.

 

[SpeedyV]

Y’all do realize this power problem extended outside texas right? Yes we had the majority of the coverage but several other surrounding states were effected. I would tend to theorist that the biggest problem was scheduled maintenance. Most of our regions power use is during the summer so during the winter things like power plants tend to shut down parts of the facility for maintenance. It’s not something that can be reversed easily so I’m guessing we also were fighting a lower capacity problem as well as freeze damage.

At least 13 other states. I guess they’re Texas suburbs

 

[Frozenwater]

I'll buy when it fits me. Almkst got a cyberpunk of my 2020 ram.
But I plan to replace the ram in 3 to 4 years. Hopefully electric.

As for range. This is based on where you live and do.
A solid 500 mile range would be enough for me.

Stop for 20 minutes. Get another 200 or 300 miles and that's good for a day

 

[Fatherof3]

Texas' problem is that there are no regulations telling them to winterize, because ERCOT is not connected to federal grids. Wind turbines run in the arctic all the time.. because they have the winterization to do so https://mashable.com/article/wind-turbines-texas/

No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages

Lost wind power was expected to be a fraction of winter generation. All sources — from natural gas, to nuclear, to coal, to solar — have struggled to generate power during the storm that has left millions of Texans in the dark.

www.texastribune.org

That being said, a mix and match of fuel sources and storage types are definitely the future - Hydrogen fuel cells with small batteries, generators spun by turbines burning ethanol, you name it, there are loads of greener options we can create that mosaic out of.. but your picture of the green energy "agenda" isn't 100% accurate

I think this fits the thought process at CDJR

 

[Tones1975]

I'd personally be more than happy with a better hybrid setup. I really hope FCA puts together a hybrid for 2022 that is more useful than the etorque system.