
Meeting the W-15 Electric Pickup Truck - prostoalex
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/08/15/workhorse-w-15-surefly-electric-vehicles-take-new-york-city-by-storm/
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Shivetya
I am more impressed with the amount of carbon fiber they are suggesting makes
up this truck at the price they listed. As an owner of a 2017 Volt the range
extender option is one of my favorite ideas for hybrids. The weight savings
over trying to go full battery cannot be dismissed. The trade off is
complexity which usually is in the transmission or such. Future REX solutions
could involve hydrogen fuel cells or even natural gas.

On a side note, I do have a Model 3 LR on order to replace the Volt as it is
now capable of doing the two long trips I take each year. The reason I bring
this up is because the battery pack on the LR is a little over 1000 pounds
which should show the reason why a REX solution is viable because you have to
get into heavy duty trucks with full fuel loads to even approach that much
weight.

*edit: changed 17 Volt to 2017 Volt

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cmrdporcupine
I'm a Volt owner, too, and I often hear the 'complexity' argument from pure
BEV advocates. In reality the range-extended model of the Volt is still a
little less complex and fail prone than most pure ICE cars as its transmission
is mechanically simpler, and the ICE is rarely used. So it's an improvement
over the status quo and not having to haul around an expensive 60kwh battery
pack that I mostly only ever use 10-20% of is a serious $$ bonus (and weight
as you say)

For me the Volt has enough that I can do my 105km a day commute without ever
using gas. (I charge at work and at home).

If this truck ever actual goes on sale for consumers, I will buy one assuming
the Canadian pricing isn't ridiculous. While I don't enjoy driving trucks, I
live on a hobby farm and we need a hauler.

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dsfyu404ed
I really like the range extender. The Electric vehicle crowd likes to poo-poo
them but a pickup that can't take a several hour trip to pick up or deliver
something then turn around and come back isn't very useful to most people who
have a use case for a pickup.

It'll be interesting to see how the carbon fiber body survives. It will
probably depend mostly on whether the trucks wind up supporting maintenance
work or putting around to check out faulty equipment reports.

~~~
ovi256
For electric pickups, I'm sure we'll see range extenders packs that you carry
around in your truck bed.

They could even implement what that Israeli EV startup wanted to do, quick
charge by physically swapping the pack.

If enough contractors use electric pickups, I could see a contractor supply
shop also renting these range extender packs and swapping them for charged
packs. A construction supply shop is a good place to do this, as it already
has storage, loading bays, weight carrying equipment and people used to heavy
loads.

~~~
phkahler
>> For electric pickups, I'm sure we'll see range extenders packs that you
carry around in your truck bed.

That kind of defeats the purpose of having the truck to in the first place.

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NotQuantum
> Photos by the author except where noted. The author owns shares in
> Workhorse.

Maybe they should disclose this at the top of the article, not the bottom.

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lolsal
I found it interesting that they revealed an electric truck in Manhattan, I
would have thought that would not be a great place for using trucks. I suppose
I would not really know though.

I really like the fact that the creators investigated and addressed the issue
that all-electric trucks will always have - they are used fundamentally
different from sedans and coupes. You will not get very far on a 100 mile
charge if you are trying to tow 15,000lbs.

It was also interesting to read that the company targeted a company like UPS
as their customer instead of everyday folks. Neat!

~~~
rdl
The truck has been announced for about 18 months and shown repeatedly. NYC has
a lot of press, and one of their target markets for the truck is utilities.

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liaukovv
It's a hybrid though. It can run completely on the gasoline engine.

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grecy
That's not how I read it. The gasoline engine can't turn the wheels, it can
only charge the batteries.

~~~
liaukovv
That's how all hybrids work. This allows to make combustion engine smaller and
less powerful while still providing high-power bursts by buffering energy in a
battery.

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jacquesm
> That's how all hybrids work.

No it isn't. There are series hybrids and parallel hybrids.

[https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-
vehicles/seri...](https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-
vehicles/series-vs-parallel-drivetrains)

~~~
liaukovv
Alright, W-15 is still a hybrid.

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jaclaz
>I am skittish about flying in tiny aircraft that have the word Experimental
plastered all over their sides, but as my bus back from New York was slogging
along Route 95 at 5 miles an hour while ensnared in a massive traffic jam that
stretched from horizon to horizon, I began to understand the appeal of the
SureFly. I would have been happy to fly above the clouds at 70 mph instead of
being trapped in the gridlock below.

...BUT as soon as the thingy will be FAA approved, a new Law will - rightly -
prohibit using it in New York (or in any city, for that matters).

It will be a long time before self-driving multicopters will be allowed
anywhere near densely inhabited areas.

It is years that everyone dreams about these "flying cars", but set aside the
cost, if they work and become common, they won't be usable in cities because
of traffic.

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DenisM
Specs: [https://workhorse.com/pickup/](https://workhorse.com/pickup/)

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RickJWagner
I live in a hilly area, and we have hard rains some times of the year. When
this happens there are often deep puddles on the road.

When confronted with such a puddle, the driver (in an ICE vehicle) usually
does some mental calculations and sometimes forges ahead. I've never been
stuck (yet).

I wonder what happens with an EV? Anybody got real world experience?

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RickJWagner
Oops, just found my own answer via Google.

It seems you _can_ drive safely through deep water, there are actually tests
for this.

I'd still be nervous about it!

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martythemaniak
You can use an EV as a boat!

[https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/06/tesla-model-s-floats-
bo...](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/06/tesla-model-s-floats-boat-video/)

But don't.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>While it might seem a little incongruous for an electric car to become a
boat, it makes some sense if you think about it. Most conventional ICE cars
have an exhaust pipe that's low to the ground and quickly becomes flooded if
you drive through deep water. Battery-powered vehicles, on the other hand,
don't have an exhaust pipe. (I wonder if fuel-cell vehicles, which do have an
exhaust, can be used as a boat.)

>Updated: As mentioned in the comments below, another issue with ICEs is
water—which is incompressible—getting into the engine via the air intake.

It's kind of sad and funny that the author had to be told by the commenters
that the intake is the issue and not the exhaust.

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michaelt
The advice I've heard for driving cars through water includes "Rev the engine
fast, do not change gear, do not stop the engine, if you stall do not restart
the engine" and explains that advice as stopping water getting into the engine
from the exhaust pipe.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Nothing is gonna flow backwards up the exhaust enough to get in the engine.
Boats actually dump water right into the exhaust manifolds (at a point that's
uphill of the cylinder heads no less). That advice is mostly to prevent the
chance of stalling out when you meet some obstacle you couldn't see because of
the water. Restarting the engine is definitely worth trying. The starter isn't
strong enough to break things if it's hydro-locked and if it hydro-locked when
running then it already broke (hopefully just the head gasket). maybe at worst
you'd damage a catalyic converter but unless your state has asinine laws that
restrict you to buying overpriced parts it'll less than the tow bill you'd get
from leaving your car on the side of the road.

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jefurii
Love the headline of the article. Hard to imagine a pickup truck taking New
York City by storm tho.

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rdl
I’ve had a deposit in for this since CES, so I think I’m one of the first non
fleet customers. Seems like a perfect vehicle for Puerto Rico, my only concern
being maintenance of the custom components. (It gets around the 40% import
duty..)

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supGrill
That it has _WORKHORSE_ in giant letters, out front, between the headlights,
is kind of unsightly.

I really hope it’s optional, because that sort of thing only appeals to people
who customize the style of their vehicle, by decorating it with aftermarket
accessories.

Also, that low hanging front bumper is very city and highway oriented.
Decorative, and not durable. A curb might rip it off, and a fender bender’s
going to turn it into flotsam on the median. The downward stretched
proportions feel almost lowrider-ish.

I suppose the expectation is that they’ll only expect serious buyers, as early
adopters, from that segment anyway?

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Reason077
The low front bumper presumably reduces the drag coefficient, improving
efficiency and highway range.

