New Ranger EV Owner

[Bird76Mojo]

Why did ford try to crush them all?

Because Ford likes to try to crush all of our dreams? They've certainly crushed mine more than once.


No SVT 2.3 turbo Ranger being produced..
No all wheel drive street-oriented supercharged Ranger being produced..
The 2.9 (nuff said)
The 4.0sohc and it's 23 miles of timing chains..
No Thunderbolt Ranger in production..
Removing large V6 options for standard cab trucks unless special ordered..
Not wanting to produce standard cab trucks..

The sad thing is, they had all of the parts laying around to produce any version of these trucks they wanted, and they have experimented with it in the past. But NOTHING cool ever gets produced for the public. Mopar is the only cool car company left on the planet that likes to build wild stuff just for the heck of it, and the public eats it up and buys them.

The list goes on and on really.

 

[ajbessinger]

Ford came out with the EV Ranger in 1998 because Chevy came out with the EV S-10 in late 1996

Chevy only made about 500 of these, and it was FRONT WHEEL DRIVE
Very few are still around

The Ranger and S-10 electrics were just tests which is why most were crushed after the test period

The testing showed the problems with electric vehicles and environmental conditions, which are still the same problems today
In hot weather batteries lose a bit of range but also won't recharge until they cool down a bit after being used, so no fast recharging in hot climates
And in cold weather you can lose as much as 40% of the expected range, and it could even be a bit more because of heated seats and heating the cabin of the vehicle during the cold weather.

They were hardly tests, they were publicly available for lease or purchase (though the vast majority were leased). The NiMH trucks were actually pretty successful, and I’d say a pretty large percentage of the trucks that are still around still have the original NiMH batteries.
The whole reason they were made available in the first place was because of the California Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, not necessarily to compete with the S-10 EV (which used the same drivetrain as the GM EV1, hence its oddball FWD layout). Automakers complied with the mandate for a short period of time, and then sued CARB. The mandate was struck down, and then for whatever reason, the automakers recalled all the vehicles when the leases were up to crush them, even though the lessees offered to buy the vehicles out (even for outrageously high amounts). If you want to know more about that whole ordeal, there’s a pretty good documentary about it all called “who killed the electric car”. Some were saved and bought out, but only after most of them had already been destroyed. Other vehicles weren’t so lucky, like the GM EV1, Honda EV Plus, Etc., those were all destroyed, save for very few that were deactivated and put in museums (with the explicit requirements that they were never to be made roadworthy again).

 

[ajbessinger]

Why did ford try to crush them all?

It’s a long story (see my other comment reply), but I’d highly encourage you to check out the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car”. It’s a pretty good overview of this not very well known period of EV history. It doesn’t really focus much on the Ranger, but it’s definitely very interesting. I think you can watch it free if you have Amazon Prime. You can probably find it on YouTube too if you look for it...

 

[Oxxon]

Wicked ride, congrats!

 

[Lord Corn]

In hot weather batteries lose a bit of range but also won't recharge until they cool down a bit after being used, so no fast recharging in hot climates
And in cold weather you can lose as much as 40% of the expected range, and it could even be a bit more because of heated seats and heating the cabin of the vehicle during the cold weather.

So either it's to hot to recharge, or it's so cold you gotta charge often. Guess I'd drive it to LA and never go on vacation!

 

[ajbessinger]

So either it's to hot to recharge, or it's so cold you gotta charge often. Guess I'd drive it to LA and never go on vacation!

Not really so much the case with most modern batteries, as they have active thermal management. If properly designed, they shouldn't have any problems. My job is actually designing aftermarket DC fast charging kits for cars that didn't originally come equipped. Depending on what specific chemistry I go with for the truck, and whether or not I do add liquid cooling, I might try to add DC fast charging capability, but it's kind of a cost vs. benefit situation. My main usage will be commuting to and from work (about 8 mi each way) and maybe the occasional trip to the city about 35 mi away. So even without DC fast charging, 100mi of range will be more than enough for 95% of my driving.

 

[ajbessinger]

Just got the battery pack dropped today. The 100 LiFePO4 cells that comprise the pack are pretty much in as bad of shape as I had expected. Here's some photos.

 

[kunar]

It's really cool to see what went into these trucks, I'm glad youre taking the time to share and document everything, It's a little facet of ranger history that most people wouldn't ever know about, and personally i think it's really interesting.

 

[ajbessinger]

It's really cool to see what went into these trucks, I'm glad youre taking the time to share and document everything, It's a little facet of ranger history that most people wouldn't ever know about, and personally i think it's really interesting.

I’m actually going to try and document it all on YouTube as well, so if you want to see some of the stuff up close in detail. I should hopefully have something up by tomorrow, if not by the end of the day today. I think if you look up “EV Builds” on YouTube you should be able to find me...

 

[ajbessinger]

Video tour of the truck I uploaded to YouTube yesterday:

 

[ajbessinger]

Dropping the battery pack