I don’t ever want to go back to a gas car
At a fucking minimum, new gas vehicles should be hybrids. Compare the MPG of vehicles that have a regular gas and hybrid version. It’s like a 30% reduction in fuel consumption. It doesn’t require a lot of batteries to do this either.
Batteries are already so recycled at an industrial scale that the best “ore” for new lead acid batteries, and lithium ion batteries is literally recycling the batteries. We already have close to a 99% capture rate on lead acid batteries because of industrial recycling and economic incentives. We can do the same with any other type of battery that exists, since the raw materials don’t change at the atomic level, unlike fossile fuels that do, so they can only be burned once.
It’s cynically amusingly ironically pretty much exactly the old cliche about the advent of the automobile putting buggy whip manufacturers out of business.
We’re exactly at that point, and official US policy, under Trump, is to discourage automobiles and subsidize buggy whips. And even a moderately bright child can see how that’s going to work out.
But children have the advantage of not being blinkered by a lifetime of compromises, betrayals, excuses and lies in pursuit of wealth and power.
All trucks and SUV should be forced to be sold with a proper trailer hitch setup, to be considered a truck or SUV. This would encourage people to use utility trailers.
Looking forward to the next “big three automaker” bailout after this strategy fails.
“We need a bailout or we’re going to have to lay off lots of people.”
“Alright, here’s a lot of taxpayer money.”
“Thanks for the cash. Oh, by the way, we’re laying off a lot of people.”
“Efficiency! It proves we were right to give you all that taxpayer money!”
But they’re releasing smaller trucks too, which is great. I don’t need to compensate for anything, I just want to be able to easily haul lumber occasionally. It’s nice being able to do that while still getting 35+mpg highway.
Aye. I have a 4×4 for a specific job. It pretty much only gets used for that. It is exactly the dimensions and capacity it needs to be. If it were larger or more powerful, it would lose its purpose.
It baffles me that in the US, people use them as dailies, don’t put them to work, and almost treat them as a status symbol, despite what they really represent.
Some of it comes down to the way so many of us are underpaid.
I’d get a hell of a lot of use out of a pickup truck if I had one. Not enough to want to daily drive it, but enough that it would be worth having.
But for most of my daily driving, I could just about get away with an electric golf cart (the way laws are in some states I probably could use something like a golf cart, but my own states implementation of NEVs and such are a little stricter)
In an ideal world I’d have some little electric sedan for most of my daily commuting and errands, and then a truck (though probably a small one) for when I need one.
But I don’t have the budget for 2 vehicles, nor the parking space for them.
Personally my compromise is a mid-sized SUV that fits most of my needs well enough. Others may decide that the best compromise for them is to daily drive the truck. I don’t think most of those people have actually thought too deeply about whether that’s actually a good choice, but I’m sure that for some people it does actually make sense.
Mine is a daily driver, but it’s basically a smaller SUV that they put a bed on instead of a trunk. It has AWD and 3500lb towing capacity which is all I really need.
I love small trucks. My parents have a '93 ranger, it gets pretty good mileage with that little 4 cylinder engine, and has a 7ft bed, and it’s hauled all of the lumber and furniture we’ve ever needed it to.
It’s only rwd, so it’s kind of shit in any kind of weather, and it’s 0-60 time is probably best stated as “eventually” but that’s realistically all I need from a truck.
I like the maverick, but I’m not a fan of the short bed. I’m crossing my fingers that maybe they manage to finagle a midgate into it somewhere down the line.
Otherwise I’d really love for them to bring back something like the 90s style rangers (or Tacoma, S10, Dakota, etc.) as a hybrid or electric, or hell even a decent modern 4 cylinder turbo could probably give a nice mpg and performance boost. The modern versions of those small trucks are significantly bigger than I need them to be, and in at least some cases you can’t even get them in a long bed configuration anymore.
Why not buy a sedan and use a utility trailer?
Parking is an issue in a lot of places. I have 2 parking spaces I can use, and they’re needed for my car and my wife’s. I don’t have anywhere convenient that I could park a trailer.
And I could rent a trailer, but that can be a pain, the handful of times I’ve done it the places nearest me didn’t have the trailer needed in stock on the days I needed it, and if you need it frequently enough it can get pricey
And, frankly, towing a trailer is a skill that some people just don’t have. They might do just fine in truck, but throw a trailer into the mix and things can get weird quick.
You can and I’ve looked into them
Fact of the matter is still that I live in a townhome with no parking besides my 2 assigned parking spaces, an HOA that definitely wouldn’t like me leaving it on the front lawn, and to put in in the back of my home I’d have to get it over a curb and drag it through about 5 neighbors’ back yards to get it under my deck (and the HOA might still have something to say about that)
So to have a trailer of my own, I’d have to find somewhere to store it, and since I don’t have any friends with extra space in their driveways who will let me leave it there, that would mean more ongoing expenses.
Because I occasionally haul stuff that a sedan can’t.
I’m also tall, so entering/exiting a sedan is difficult if I can even fit.
Are there any viable EV alternatives for 3/4 and 1-ton trucks yet? Seems like the last time I checked, that was the last logical use case for ICEs remaining the default. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve looked into the EV ecosystem because I Iove my ancient AWD station wagon too much to ever replace it until it dies a natural death. And I’m not in the market for a truck, either.
Not true alternatives and I don’t think this is that shortsighted for big truck manufacturers as the issue here is battery capacity and recharge time which won’t be addressed by building more EV trucks using current tech. All the components needed already exist outside of the batteries and once that tech develops further it should be relatively trivial to build these drivetrains. These companies are still building EV cars, which gives them the R&D needed for trucks too since they all use the same components just with different ratings.
You might want to look into the work trim level of the Silverado EV, that thing has a massive battery/range.
The most eco-friendly car is the one you have now. Using it to it’s rusty end before getting a new one (new or second hand) is the best eco choice you can make.
For 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks I haven’t seen anything yet. I’m keeping my eye on the new EREV trucks. Ram and Scout have models coming out supposedly this year or next. They’re basically EVs that come with a generator to recharge and extend your range. The Ram is advertised to get 150 miles pure electric and up to 750 before running out of fuel. Should solve the range anxiety problem. I think if they sell well, then we might see some larger trucks. I don’t have any hope that they won’t be super expensive though.
