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posted by martyb on Friday May 05 2017, @02:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the drives-like-a-big-tall-Tesla dept.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/workhorse-w15-4wd-plug-electric-work-truck-prototype-first-drive-review

Workhorse isn't the first company to attempt to put an electric pickup on the road, but it is the first to build one from the ground up rather than convert an existing truck. Phoenix Motorcars has been converting Ford E-Series vans to electric drivetrains for years and attempted, briefly, to do the same to a SsangYong pickup imported from South Korea. Via Motors has been converting Chevrolet Silverados and Express vans into plug-in hybrids for a few years now, but both graft electric motors onto the existing powertrain.

Workhorse has taken the idea a step further and is poised to beat the much-hyped Tesla EV pickup to market by several years. Like Tesla, Workhorse builds its own battery pack with Panasonic 18650 lithium-ion cells and mounts it fully under the vehicle, where it doubles as the truck's frame. Front and rear subframes, each with an electric motor, single-speed reduction gearbox, and a fully independent coil-spring suspension, are mounted to the frame. Up front, a BMW-sourced three-cylinder gasoline engine acts a generator producing 50 kW of electricity to charge the battery or drive the electric motors. (It never powers the wheels mechanically.)

Further down the detailed article:

It's obvious at first glance the W-15 is designed for work. A light bar with yellow hazard lights is integrated into the roof, and a sprayed-in bedliner is standard. A power export module is mounted behind a door on the passenger's side of the bed and puts out 7.2 kW-hrs, enough to easily power a job site. The export pulls power off the battery, and if you manage to drain it, the generator will kick on. Workhorse is working on a 14-kW-hr module that'll allow the truck to power a whole house in the event of a power outage.

The Workhorse company already makes hybrid trucks -- last paragraph from the article:

It's easy to be pessimistic about the W-15's future, given how many automakers have tried and failed to sell a hybrid pickup in the past. Even General Motors couldn't get the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra hybrids to catch on. Workhorse, though, isn't just a startup. It's been in the business for years. Noticed any UPS trucks with the word hybrid on the side in your neighborhood? Workhorse builds those, as well as trucks for FedEx, Penske, Ryder, DHL, and more. The company knows vehicle production, and it knows fleets. Moreover, it's the first company to build a dedicated hybrid truck rather than cram batteries into an existing vehicle never designed for them, and the advantages show in the truck's capabilities.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @03:01PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @03:01PM (#504909)

    The only thing that worries me for a farm truck is what they said about clearance. A foot isn't much when you're on a rough, muddy field.

    But other than that? Just about everything I want. They just need to come out with an 8 foot bed.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:00PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:00PM (#504944)

    Just needs a small, mis-tuned diesel engine to dump black smoke on cyclists and electric cars.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:42PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:42PM (#505030)

      Not a lot of cyclists nor electric cars on the farm.

      And if there are, black diesel smoke would be way more benign than what I'd dump on them if they didn't move real slow and lie down until the deputies got there to ziptie and haul them off.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @06:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @06:40PM (#505070)

        So how do you find the time to work on a farm AND work for United?

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday May 05 2017, @04:37PM (3 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday May 05 2017, @04:37PM (#504982)

    This truck isn't for farms or for consumers, it's specifically designed for fleets. It says so right in the article. It's meant for utility companies and others like that who need a light pickup truck for driving around town. That's why it has 4-wheel independent suspension. They aren't even selling it to consumers, just corporate customers, though they said they might offer it to consumers if there's enough demand.

    Hopefully it'll be really successful and then they can make other versions for other uses. But this seems like a perfectly sensible way to get started in the market.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 05 2017, @05:36PM (1 child)

      by frojack (1554) on Friday May 05 2017, @05:36PM (#505026) Journal

      Except fleets are usually built around Vans, because you can lock up the stuff you have to carry or work.

      Small construction contractors are the only guys that regularly use pickups. And also those are one of the few jobs where you can live within the range limitations because you usually go to the jobsite and stay there all day.

      As such, the W-15 has an electric-only range of 80 miles. Once the battery is drained, the gasoline engine kicks on and gives the truck another 310 miles of gas-powered range from its 11-gallon tank.

      Those companies that do have larger fleets of trucks, (think Comcast, phone, in-home service, Orkin, etc, want a closed cargo area. They want vans.

      The largest fleets composed of pickups (in my area) seems to be local government, and yard care companies, but these guys run around all day, Not sure the range would satisfy.

      So this company seems like they "talk" fleet, but it appears they are really counting on consumer market, who use their pickup to run a few errands, but mostly just drive around with an empty back end because driving a pickup is a Guy thing.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aclarke on Friday May 05 2017, @08:40PM

        by aclarke (2049) on Friday May 05 2017, @08:40PM (#505146) Homepage

        Given that they've built their entire company around fleet sales, I'd imagine they've done a lot of market research before bringing this vehicle out. They already have a solid name in the market, and a lot of fleet sales connections. FTA: "Workhorse has more than 5,000 preorders, mostly from electrical utilities looking to replace their gas-powered pickups for in-town duty."

        It sounds to me like they've identified a market opportunity. Remember, they already provide step vans for those who want a closed cargo van.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:45PM (#505031)

      Large farms buy fleets.

      Small farms buy old fleet vehicles at auction.

      Farmers really don't need five hundred pounds of wizzy tech to extend their genitalia.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday May 05 2017, @05:18PM (4 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 05 2017, @05:18PM (#505017)

    I constantly see jacked-up pickups with extra-long suspension, giant wheels ... and less than a foot of actual clearance because of the differential in the middle of the rear axle.
    Always cracks me up.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 05 2017, @05:46PM (1 child)

      by frojack (1554) on Friday May 05 2017, @05:46PM (#505033) Journal

      Those guys also often have air lift systems.

      True the axle is going to sit at half the wheel diameter, but you quickly learn to put the wheels on the object in the path, and not straddle large rocks , (you straddle the ruts). I think you will find a foot of actual clearance gets you most places you would actually want to take a pickup even for sport.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 05 2017, @05:53PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 05 2017, @05:53PM (#505042)

        I know that, but it's still a major constraint. Many diffs take another 6 inches down from wheel center.
        When people are ready to drop well over 20k on various mods, why isn't anyone selling a compelling solution to replace the fixed axle? 4WD/AWD with independent suspension isn't exactly a novel concept...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @05:47PM (#505034)

      It isn't completely insane. You have to watch where your wheels go, but you're less likely to hang up on your undercarriage.

      As the old saying goes: horses for courses.

      Your low-slung 2WD truck is basically a city driver, or gravel roads at most.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 05 2017, @06:06PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Friday May 05 2017, @06:06PM (#505050)

      They do look rather ridiculous, don't they?

      But in reality, clearance isn't just about the height of the obstacle you can pass the axle over on a level surface - you can very often drive at least one wheels over such an obstacle to get past it. The tricky part is not getting high-centered afterward, once the obstacle is completely underneath you.

      For the simplest example, consider driving over something like a ridiculously huge speed bump. The wheels all pass over the bump, so it doesn't really matter if the axle is only inches above the ground. But once the front wheels have completely cleared it you're likely to grind to a halt as because your undercarriage hits it, unable even to back up because your weight is now carried mostly by the undercarriage rather than your wheels, so you have no traction.

      You run into that sort of scenario a lot when driving across creeks or rocky terrain.