Yee-hah! Ford demos electric pick-up truck
US vehicle based on British motor tech
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'Leccy Tech Grab your shotgun, a six-pack and smell-hound because a 400+ bhp electric version of Ford's F-150 pick-up has been unveiled at the 2008 Speciality Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas.
The project is a collaboration between Ford and British company PML-Flightlink and is powered by PML's Hi-Pa Drive system, which puts a 100+ bhp electric motor in each wheel. The whole thing is driven by a 40kWh battery pack that sits under the chassis, and includes a generator to recapture and convert kinetic energy during braking.
Ford's F-150: American pick-up, British motor tech
Each 30kg motor also delivers 150lb-ft of torque from idle making it more powerful than the planet-bashing 320bhp 5.4l V8 version of the pick-up it's based on. Yee-hah.
Driver options include the ability to control each wheel motor independently or to synchronise all four wheel-drives together - if effect an electric crawler gear.
According to PML, the Hi-Pa 150 will have a range of 100 miles on a full charge. Of course, by fitting the motors on the wheels, the 'leccy 150 dispenses with the engine, fuel tank and entire drive-train of the original vehicle so fitting a larger battery pack shouldn't be a major issue.
This isn't the Ford group's first dalliance with Hi-Pa Drive. The system appeared on the Volvo ReCharge - a hybrid version of the C30 – which was shown as the 2008 Paris Motor Show last month. If the electric 150 ever sees the light of day as a production model, we suspect it will be as a ReCharge-like hybrid rather than the pure 'leccy vehicle shown in Vegas.
Craig Knight, PML's CEO, said: “This revolutionary truck proves that a vehicle does not have to be small, unprofitable or underpowered to be green.” Amen to that.
COMMENTS
Unspring weight
Granted on the unsprung weight.... and the emergency braking. I already assumed this thing had conventional brakes as well, as sometimes stopping might need to be carried out a little more quickly than regenerative braking would allow.
In regards to unsprung weight, how about putting the motors on the frame right next to the wheels, then attach them with conventional CV joints? That is a little more complexity and a little more weight, but still less than in a conventional auto.
Finally, it is pushing it, but I could see a wheel assembly on a truck like this weighing 30kg. Maybe not on your typical Mini, but on a Ford F-250? Yeah, I could see that.
@ac - sony batteries
Just don´t let Sony make the batteries, or your car/bike might melt and burn or blow up.
Yeah, then your crotch rocket will turn into a firecrotch.
Paris, because....
@Wannabe BSc Winkers
"Braking would not be just regenerative (how quaint!) but active, i.e., running the wheel torque in reverse. " <etc>
Wtf r u on abt? U seen 2 mch Clarkson?
Basic school physics (sounds like you failed either physics or english): you can in principle convert the car's kinetic energy back into chemical energy in the battery but in real life there will be losses along the way, same as there were when the energy was converted from chemical energy to kinetic energy. Therefore whatever energy goes back into the battery from braking WILL be less (typically a lot less) than came out of it for acceleration. If this wasn't the case, perpetual motion would have put the oil companies out of business long ago (oh yeah, I remember, they're suppressing it, like they're suppressing the water-powered cars).
Get a clue, or STFU.
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