Range extender in works for Ford F-150 electric pickup | Car News

Above the up coming couple of months and yrs, the initial electric powered pickups in heritage will get started earning their entrance on the current market. Among the buyers, while, a person problem lords it more than all other, and that has to with array. And they are not necessarily seduced by figures given on paper. What will array be like in actual-entire world scenarios, for instance when towing significant weights?  

Ford, which is creating an electric powered variant of its F-a hundred and fifty design, may possibly have a alternative for to tackle those concerns: a modular array extender that matches inside of the truck bed.

The web site The Travel spotted the patent demonstrating just this kind of a array extender, submitted in April 2018, but printed on September fifteen. The illustrations referring to it show a removable extension that is placed in the bed, comparable to a toolbox built-in to it. The technique consists of a compact motor, gasoline tank, exhaust technique and the electronics necessary to join it to the vehicle’s electrical technique.

Here’s what the patent specifies:

“This disclosure specifics electrified vehicles that are geared up with removable turbines for rising the electric powered array of the vehicles. An exemplary electrified car or truck incorporates a cargo room, this kind of as a truck bed, and a generator removably positioned in the cargo room. The generator is adapted to selectively provide electricity for possibly charging a battery pack of the electrified car or truck or for propelling a person or far more car or truck drive wheels. In some embodiments, the generator is formed like, and consequently disguised as, a toolbox.”

The technique would get the job done in the very same way as the extension cord located in the BMW i3. A compact motor functions as a generator to recharge the vehicle’s battery, limiting the will need for charging at a station. It would also retain the car or truck on the street by way of a easy cease at the fuel station if will need be, whilst ready for the up coming recharge prospect.

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Brevet pour prolongeur d’autonomie pour le Ford F-a hundred and fifty , fig. two

The technique would be notably beneficial in places in which the electrical grid is much less created. The actuality that it’s removable suggests that when it is not in use, the proprietor can reclaim the cargo room. Of system, it would make far more perception to provide an electric powered truck with an built-in array extender underneath the hood rather of asking buyers to sacrifice some of their cargo room. It is feasible Ford is searching at this technique in buy to give individuals far more alternatives, specifically in phrases of cost.

As The Travel points out, the compact motor necessary for this sort of technique is not presently readily available at Ford. BMW uses a 650cc two-cylinder motor for its compact i3. For Ford’s extension to be actually modular, it would have to be gentle more than enough for two folks to quickly clear away it. Ford will possibly have to use an additional manufacturer’s motor or create its very own.

A patent does not necessarily necessarily mean that we’ll see it produced readily available commercially. But at least it demonstrates like Ford is thinking about how it can woo prospective electric powered truck buyers involved with array problems when it comes to the foreseeable future electric powered F-a hundred and fifty.