Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The problem with electric vehicles....

Cash, you're looking at marketing materials created by graphic design majors who probably don't understand the numbers they are given.

The measure for battery capacity is KWH, Kilo-Watt hours. One KW is about 1.34 HP. One KWH is one KW for one hour. 100 KWH is one KW for 100 hours, or 100 KW for one hour, or 1,000 KW for 1/10th of an hour, and so on. All that is limited by the KW limitation that the battery can put out, of course. Similar to the HP capacity of an engine. You can only get out so many HP (KW) at one time. The more HP (KW) you draw, the faster you empty your tank (battery).

The capacity of the standard range battery is 90 kWH, the extended range is 131 kWH (and that sucker weighs over 1,800 lbs!).

Now, the RATE at which these charge is the second number in the ad. The higher the charging rate, the faster you can load up the battery. More amps means more KW going in (think of amps as the size of the nozzle). Like going from a standard diesel nozzle at the pickup fuel isle to a high-flow nozzle at the semi truck isle.

The 19.6 number they are quoting is the MAXIMUM KWH rating of the Ford designed 80 amp circuit for home installation. It'll charge that 131 KWH extended range battery in 131/19.6 = 6.4 hrs. It'll cost a few bucks to put into most houses, because it probably means installing an additional panel.

The range is about 3KW per mile...... so at 80 amps you get about 50 miles per charging hour. That works for almost all people to charge either at work or at home.

The kicker is that a standard 110 outlet to charge this thing will give you about 15 amps.... at most, and that whittles it down to about 2 miles per hour..... better have that beast plugged in all the time!

At a standard 240 circuit (like for your washer / dryer), you get about 200 miles overnight, which also works for a lot of people. Few people run more than 200 miles a day on a regular basis, so the truck would be almost always full when you grab it in the morning. No more stopping for fuel on your way to work.

Fast chargers are a whole 'nother level of charging, and draw 200 amps or more. This thing's battery is so big that the current "fast charge" networks will still mean you need to take a nap while filling it up. Not so fast chargers, really.

And in case you are curious, 131 KW for 300 mile range at $0.10 per KW (retail electric price) is $13.1 for a fill up. If you get discounted night rates, you could fill up the truck for under $10.