A new report from Bloomberg spells doom and gloom for Ford EVs. The Blue Oval continues to struggle with sales and profitability for its two consumer-facing EVs: the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. Ford appears ready to make a shift in its electrification strategy, and it’s considering introducing extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) into its product portfolio as a stepping stone between ICE and BEV.
An EREV, for all intents and purposes, is the same thing as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The distinction is that an EREV’s gas engine operates as a generator for the vehicle’s battery pack. The engine is incapable of directly powering the wheels in an EREV. However, as far as the driver is concerned, an EREV is a car that’s fueled by both gas and electrons. The idea is to get all of the benefits of an EV without the range anxiety.
Ford CEO Jim Farley praised the virtues of EREVs at a conference last summer, saying, “Partial electrification is becoming more a bigger part of the solution.” Now, according to Bloomberg’s sources familiar with the matter, Ford is planning on offering EREV powertrains in SUVs, crossovers, and the Super Duty line.
Curiously, the Bloomberg piece does not mention any plans to bring an EREV powertrain to the F-150. Although there’s a lot of room for variety in the ICE offerings under the F-150’s hood, Ford must not see room for ICE, HEV, BEV, and EREV versions of its most popular truck.
However, since EREV is the way to go for towing with an electrified pickup, it makes sense to offer such a powertrain in a workhorse like the Ford Super Duty. A Super Duty EREV could provide the towing and payload capacity expected of an HD pickup while maintaining a long range when the battery and gas tank are both full.
When the Ram 1500 Ramcharger EREV comes out, the sales figures will tell the auto industry whether there’s a market for an electrified pickup truck that can tow without range anxiety. It could be the secret sauce that gets more efficient pickup trucks on American roads without asking the drivers to compromise.
Meanwhile, we heard last year that work was underway on PHEV versions of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra. GM’s official position is that it’s still assessing which segments are right for plug-in hybrids, but if Ram and Ford both have EREV trucks on the market, it could force GM’s hand to keep up with the competition. Regardless, the soonest we’ll see new PHEV GM models in North America is 2027.
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Good to see GM is promoting Ford. Ford much better than GM. At least Ford is still committed to give the best all round quality and satisfaction in performance and reliability. Plus remaining in all motorsport events around the world. Ford leading the way.
Bandit You must not be following much in the auto industry….because Ford is rated way below in quantity among all manufacturers. Nobody has more quality issues than Ford. Oh sorry I guess you ment to say that Ford is leading the way with poor quality!
GEV Generator Electric Vehicle. ICE gas or diesel powered Generator to Electric motors. 70 year old freight train technology. It works.
It works, but not particularly fuel efficient in light vehicles or cost effective, and still burns dead dinosaurs.
I’m sorry did I step on some GM fan’s toes in my last comment. Well tough. If you don’t like it maybe take it up with scary Mary and ask her why she’s backing away from motorsport. And ask her how’s her insider trading going.
Plug in hybrids and extended range EV’s make a lot of sense. The infrastructure, and long charge times of electrics is just not there yet. Even though most driving is done on short trips, occasionally people make long drives and don’t want to find and then wait for their EV to charge. It seems like the manufacturers could have understood this sooner.
Years ago, when the Chevy Volt first came out, we were told that it was what is now called an EREV…. that the very small gasoline engine’s sole purpose was to generate electricity so that the electric motor could continue moving the vehicle. Later it was revealed that perhaps that wasn’t the case; it was more of a hybrid than we were told. (Anyone know for sure which is true??) The distinction is important because the drivetrain is significantly more complex if the wheels can be driven by BOTH an electric motor or a gasoline engine. You have to somehow redirect the power “input” from one to the other “on the fly”. Talk about a system looking for trouble! Horsepower and torque are significantly different between a small gas engine and an electric motor. I might be interested in an EREV… but never for a hybrid where either motor powers the wheels. That’s ASKING for reliability problems, imo…
The VOLT is effectively driven by the electric motor rather than an engine coupled through a conventional drive-line. The generator is there to power the motor when either the battery is depleted or the driver selects “Hold” mode to save the battery for later, in-town, driving. The driver can use the gas engine to generate electricity to power the electric motor for the highway. The VOLT is an “extended-range electric vehicle” otherwise termed a “series-drive” configuration. This is rated as giving 52 electric miles range and about 370 gasoline miles range. Our 2018 Generation2 VOLT has used 264 gallons of gas over 44,444 miles ( 168 mpg) \ 69.9 MPG equivalent).
Our Toyota RAV4 Prime is an “extended-range, hybrid-electric vehicle” or essentially a Hybrid-electric drive with a bigger battery that can be recharged by plugging-in. This is a “parallel-drive” configuration. There is no equivalent “Hold” mode so the driver has less control of when the gas engine starts powering the drive wheels. Over 40,291 miles it has used 431.8 gallons of gas (93.3 mpg) and an estimated 55 MPG equivalent ( The RAV4 Prime mileage computer doesn’t report Lifetime MPG equivalent.)
Both a “Series-drive” and the “Parallel-drive” configurations are considered PHEV’s. Both have their advantages. For mostly in-town use, the EREV (Extended-range EV) has a lower cost of operation while the Extended-range Plug-in Hybrid is better suited for mostly highway and occasional in-town use.
MPG equivalent, (MPGe), just means that one gallon of gasoline is considered equivalent to 33.7 kilowatt hours of electricity.
The EREV concept has to be simpler and cheaper than a PHEV. The ICE engine paired to a generator should be very fuel efficient, as it would be optimized to operate at a single RPM, producing only the HP needed for the generator. I would assume that it could still be charged like a BEV to make up for lower charging capacity of the ICE engine/generator.
By far the best solution for ‘electric’ trucks.
All the benefits of an EV, plug in at home to charge over night and run on battery for short trips (Generator not running). Regenerative braking, EV torque… Use the generator for heat, power export…
BEST OF ALL, towing range is preserved.
I’d love to see a hybrid 2500HD. Edison motors design of diesel electric drive like a locomotive is brilliant, or a simple hybrid like toyota uses. The old 2mode hybrid tahoe was surprisingly good in the city.