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Old 08-19-2018, 11:56 AM   #1
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W-15 pickup

https://workhorse.com/pickup/


Designed with input from fleets, the W-15 is powered by a Panasonic Li-ion battery pack, delivering 80 miles of all-electric range. The gasoline Range Extender offers additional range of high-efficiency driving. The W-15 comes equipped with an external 7.2 kw power outlet providing up to 30 amps directly from the vehicle battery pack.


The future perhaps?


Another article I read said 6000# + tow capacity
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Old 08-19-2018, 12:37 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by James Gang View Post
https://workhorse.com/pickup/


Designed with input from fleets, the W-15 is powered by a Panasonic Li-ion battery pack, delivering 80 miles of all-electric range. The gasoline Range Extender offers additional range of high-efficiency driving. The W-15 comes equipped with an external 7.2 kw power outlet providing up to 30 amps directly from the vehicle battery pack.


The future perhaps?


Another article I read said 6000# + tow capacity
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing!
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Old 08-19-2018, 07:58 PM   #3
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It is an interesting vehicle. My favourite feature is that it is not based on any existing production truck, but instead is designed to suit the powertrain design. It's a hybrid pickup truck; when GM built state-of-the-art hybrid pickups (2009-2013 model years) they couldn't make any money on them (production cost exceeded the selling price) and even with the subsidized price they didn't sell a lot. The Workhorse is different because it is a purely series hybrid and a plug-in, but I still don't think you'll see many, except in fleets of companies looking for a "green" image boost.

One forum member has a 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, which is the same hybrid truck as those pickups, but as an SUV.

I note that the price is not shown, but has been widely reported as "targeted to be" (which means it will likely be higher than) US$52,500... for a short-box work truck with only 2,200 pound payload and 5,000 pound towing capacity.

While the Workhorse site says
Quote:
7.2 kw power export that allows tools to be plugged directly into the battery power source without the truck running
... this isn't literally true - the DC power from the battery powers an inverter which produces the AC power which goes the outlets, just like an Escape with an inverter (just with a much bigger and higher-voltage battery). In this case, it's a 240-volt split-phase inverter, so it's like the power supply to a typical residential electric dryer outlet. Of course the engine doesn't need to be running for this. I think the availability of power for tools without running an engine is a nice feature, although I don't know how much it would actually be used.
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Old 08-19-2018, 08:41 PM   #4
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It will be interesting to see where this goes. Let's say in another 5 years if they have an all electric that can tow 6K lbs hundreds of miles on a single charge? I'd consider it.
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Old 08-19-2018, 10:44 PM   #5
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It will be interesting to see where this goes. Let's say in another 5 years if they have an all electric that can tow 6K lbs hundreds of miles on a single charge? I'd consider it.
You can do that now. You just need a huge and thus wildly expensive battery. If you don't mind a regular truck format (rather than typical pickup), you can buy a BYD truck today that can carry or tow 8 tons for 155 miles, so you could pile on tens of thousands of dollars worth of battery and tow three tons for hundreds of miles. The same company sells bigger trucks, and other manufacturers will build similar trucks as well if they get enough orders. You might be able to customize a Mitsubishi eCanter with enough battery to meet these criteria.

For a numeric illustration of the problem, consider that towing a trailer like that will take two to three time the energy per distance travelled of driving a large car, so roughly 700 to 1,000 watt-hours per mile. 300 miles at that rate is 210,000 to 300,00 watt-hours, or 210 to 300 kWh. That's double to triple the capacity of the highest-capacity of a Tesla Model S or X (the highest-capacity and most expensive battery-electric car in regular production). Got US$200,000 for a pickup the weight of an F-350 with the carrying and towing capacity of the least capable F-150?

There isn't a lot of complex or cutting-edge technology here. For a battery-electric truck (which the W-15 is not), it's just a matter of buying enough battery... the motors and electronics and even the battery technology have been around for quite a few years. Some people will pay that (for a variety of reasons which make sense to them), but not enough people will pay enough to make the vehicle profitable to make, in current conditions.
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Old 08-19-2018, 11:47 PM   #6
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It will also be interesting to what happens with Via Motors. ( https://www.viamotors.com )
With Bob Lutz (father of the Chevy Volt) as its founder I thought they'd be farther along.
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Old 08-20-2018, 12:20 AM   #7
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Waiting for NASCARs first all electric race.
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Old 08-20-2018, 08:03 AM   #8
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🤔Seems like Tesla is having a few problems of late and this is by far the most advanced producer of battery powered vehicles. Electric vehicles are probably the mainstream mode of transportation of the future. Just not in my lifetime.🙁
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Old 08-20-2018, 08:32 AM   #9
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You can do that now. You just need a huge and thus wildly expensive battery.
Well yes, but therein lies the problem. Right now it's not practical or affordable. Perhaps in the future it will be.
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Old 08-20-2018, 02:02 PM   #10
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It will also be interesting to what happens with Via Motors. ( https://www.viamotors.com )
With Bob Lutz (father of the Chevy Volt) as its founder I thought they'd be farther along.
As John Delorean proved, long personal experience and success in the automotive industry does not ensure the success of a new venture. This crowd put together a prototype fleet years ago, and had more extensive information on their website in 2014, so they're likely in "bleed money until the venture capitalists and government funding give up" mode. On the other hand, it was reported earlier this year that Lutz made a deal with Geely (the Chinese company which owns Volvo and others), essentially to become an assembly operation for Volvo... using who know what for rolling chassis (Volvo powertrain in Chevrolet truck?)

VIA Motors is (or was) just adapting GM light trucks; various companies have tried this approach (with various brands of vehicles) and all have failed to thrive, although some continue to stumble along.

In this case, fitting in enough battery (along with all of the components of an engine-driven vehicle) seems to have been a challenge, since it has only 23 kWh of energy storage. That's not exceptionally large compared to plug-in hybrid cars, so the electric-only range is not great... and so while the claimed range of "Up to 40 miles" is supposedly based on fleet experience, it will likely be possible only in low-speed operation. The Workhorse W-15 layout allows for more battery.

The VIA specs on the linked page suspiciously omit the electric motor power rating, providing only the torque. I suspect that the power (150 kW or 200 hp) would not be impressive to potential buyers. Workhorse has gone the other way, putting in two big motors and listing their peak output to impress people accustomed to seeing Tesla Motor's specs.

The "4.3 V8" engine spec is a typo, intended to list the EcoTec 4.3 V6 engine (the Suburban-based SUV had the 5.3L V8 spec'd); that's a pretty blatant error for what is supposed to be a serious automotive manufacturer. Even at the correct description (4.3L V6) it is a huge and massive engine to carry around for 100 kW of output, but at least it will be (presumably) running in an efficient state (of speed and load).
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Old 08-20-2018, 02:10 PM   #11
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Well yes, but therein lies the problem. Right now it's not practical or affordable. Perhaps in the future it will be.
Yes, it likely will, but five years would be very optimistic, based on the last decade of progress in affordability.

Both the Workhorse W-15 and the whatever VIA might actually sell are hybrids, which are the logical technology for quite a few years to come for many applications, rather than pure battery-electric.
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Old 08-20-2018, 04:20 PM   #12
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Yes, it likely will, but five years would be very optimistic, based on the last decade of progress in affordability.
OK, ten or fifteen then. In all likelihood they won't be an affordable alternative for a tow vehicle that gives me the same range and capacity, until I'm so old I won't care. [emoji23]
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Old 08-20-2018, 06:26 PM   #13
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Well, you could always get one these to tow your Escape!


https://www.tesla.com/semi
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Old 08-20-2018, 06:41 PM   #14
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Well, you could always get one these to tow your Escape!


https://www.tesla.com/semi
Sure... in a few years. Tesla Motors is one of several companies with battery-electric long-haul heavy truck prototypes running around, and Tesla doesn't have a firm date or price yet. You can actually buy one from BYD, although it isn't as flashy or trendy.

Of course these heavy trucks are not suitable Escape tugs, but here's an amusing bit of trivia: the Tesla Semi will use motors (four of them) from the Tesla Model 3 car. Any sufficiently well-funded and skilled do-it-yourselfer can build a truck or SUV for towing with salvaged electric car components... and quite few do convert vehicles this way, but usually not intended for towing.
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