Ford F150 Lightning

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TSD
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Re: Ford F150 Lightning

Post by TSD » Sun May 23, 2021 4:52 am

dnslater wrote:
Sun May 23, 2021 4:16 am
Ryeguy wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 12:38 pm
There is an old Top Gear episode where the guys build a diesel/ electric hybrid. The diesel was purely used to run a generator which recharged the batteries for the drive motors. The mechanism is how some trains operate as well as some ships.

I think it makes a ton of sense if you could tune the diesel (probably just need a very small one) to run as efficiently and cleanly as possible. It would never really have to leave idle. All it does is spin the generator. If you could also add in some regenerative charging from braking (as some hybrids already offer) you could probably have a pretty clean burning vehicle with a fairly extensive mileage.
I believe this is essentially how the BMW i3 with the range extender operated. Small gas generator on board that could run at optimal rpm to charge the battery when needed.
Exactly. It’s a BMW motorcycle engine with a fuel tank about the size of a 2 liter bottle. When the battery range gets low enough, the motor kicks on and only serves as a generator to partially power the battery, but it’s enough juice to get to highway speed. You can drive another 70 miles or so on a tank of fuel.

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Torrid
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Re: Ford F150 Lightning

Post by Torrid » Sun May 23, 2021 1:03 pm

Ryeguy wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 12:38 pm
There is an old Top Gear episode where the guys build a diesel/ electric hybrid. The diesel was purely used to run a generator which recharged the batteries for the drive motors. The mechanism is how some trains operate as well as some ships.

I think it makes a ton of sense if you could tune the diesel (probably just need a very small one) to run as efficiently and cleanly as possible. It would never really have to leave idle. All it does is spin the generator. If you could also add in some regenerative charging from braking (as some hybrids already offer) you could probably have a pretty clean burning vehicle with a fairly extensive mileage.
Like you said it’s worked well for the railroad industry. We have engines dating back to 1967 and most are 1970-1979 builds.

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Ryeguy
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Re: Ford F150 Lightning

Post by Ryeguy » Mon May 24, 2021 3:31 am

Torrid wrote:
Sun May 23, 2021 1:03 pm
Ryeguy wrote:
Sat May 22, 2021 12:38 pm
There is an old Top Gear episode where the guys build a diesel/ electric hybrid. The diesel was purely used to run a generator which recharged the batteries for the drive motors. The mechanism is how some trains operate as well as some ships.

I think it makes a ton of sense if you could tune the diesel (probably just need a very small one) to run as efficiently and cleanly as possible. It would never really have to leave idle. All it does is spin the generator. If you could also add in some regenerative charging from braking (as some hybrids already offer) you could probably have a pretty clean burning vehicle with a fairly extensive mileage.
Like you said it’s worked well for the railroad industry. We have engines dating back to 1967 and most are 1970-1979 builds.
It make a lot of sense those 50 year old engines are still in service.

If you design the diesel to never rev, never get stressed, and just run at an optimal speed for the generator load, it ought to run just about forever.

I prefer diesel over gas simply due to the fuel economy and the lack of risk of explosion (especially when you have a bunch of batteries in close proximity), but a small gas engine is probably much less expensive, lighter, and quieter for a small passenger car.

Getting back to the Ford Lightning, I’m guessing it might handle a bit better than a traditional pickup given it seems all the batteries are placed along the floor, keeping the weight as low as possible. Obviously, no truck will ever handle as well as a car, but this weight distribution (as I think it is laid out) might be the best.

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