If the Ramcharger were available when you bought your lightning...

[ZeusDriver]

Like you I had a Volt, which served me very well. If there would have been an EREV truck circa 2015-2019 or so, I would have absolutely jumped on that. The US auto industry screwed up hardcore by not coming out with a single first party EREV truck. Going through this intermediate development step when batteries were weaker and more expensive a dozen years ago made a ton of sense, and they all missed it.

Yes! Agree completely.

Honestly I'd rather have a strong (~100kW maybe, the combustion guts and MGB from a Volt, for example) generator and a small battery buffer on a "drop axle" between the truck and trailer, with a way to hook that DC direct to the BEV truck. That way I'm only carting the combustion stuff for the few trips that might need the extra range pulling a trailer. And the generator can be left elsewhere for backup power the rest of the time.

Great idea. The generator in my microcar, the Zing, was exactly the same as the drive motor, and charged up the battery via DC whenever required. For most use cases, everything worked well, the vehicle was electric-only most of the time, and for long trips the engine would run. I was aware that if i wanted to climb the Rockies, I'd have to slow down substantially... the generator ICE being only 8 HP, but the drive motor being 20 (30 peak). However, the Zing was not intended to be mainly a cross-country car. It was intended to be very high efficiency without range anxiety, and mainly for commuting.

The Ramcharger, however, is intended for long range towing, and I know from my 1990 Ford f150 days, that the 4.9 six, with about the HP likely from the 3.0 liter v6 in the Ramcharger would not be considered adequate for today's expectations. Even in the east, my Ford did not have enough HP to go fast up mountains when towing 6000 lb of streamlined boat. For me, that performance was fine then, and would be fine now, but many people would be disappointed, I think.

Stellantis products? Ugh, no thanks.

I agree here too, despite having had several. I had a Citroen SM (from decades before Stellantis) , which combined the shockingly awful electrics of a French car with the oil-burning (and occasional fires) of an Italian engine. Sure was nicely streamlined, though, and actually great fun to drive. I had an Alfa that was faultlessly reliable (mechanical fuel injection!), but don't think that the modern ones are. But the whole idea of a bunch of unrelated car brands grouped together does not appeal to me... especially since part of the idea is to find all the cheapest stuff from across brands to put into expensive vehicles.

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[ZeusDriver]

There are also stories of people who had previous gen PHEVs where they'd religiously plug in and stay on EV power, ICE component would not have to kick in, and that also caused issues due to lack of use.

That would only have happened with poorly-designed ones. My first generation Volt periodically started itself for that reason -- you'd get a message on the driver's screen "starting engine for maintenance"). I did less than one oil change per year, and never replaced the air filter, because it never got dirty. I never paid for any maintenance, other than the oil changes (and some tires... and a 12 v battery after 6 or 7 years).

 

[whynotdairy]

I would buy an F150 EREV in a heartbeat

 

[John Becker]

Over, maybe, a 10 year period, I've moved from hell no on BEV to hell no on ICE. That said, I'm a believer in having the right tool for the job. If I were towing a heavy camper across country, I'd get a diesel.
People routinely ask me what the range is on my Lightning. I tell them "all day long." Range is a consideration only on road trips.

 

[electricpig]

Still would have gone Lightning. In a Lightning because I wanted to get away from gas. Second, Dodge has a poor rep for reliability, and are generally greatly over priced. Had to drive a ICE RAM when my truck was in a body shop. OMG did that thing suck!!!! One of the worst I've ever driven.

 

[Henry Ford]

In exchange for my frunk I have to do engine maintenance and stop at gas stations between tows to the dealership? If they pay me $2k/month and unlimited Ubers I'd consider it.

 

[ZheWiz]

No. Worst of both. Most likely to catch fire, oil changes, transmission, transmission oil changes, coolant, radiator, filling with gas in below zero weather. All the yuck stuff from ICE carries over.

No thank you. Gas sucks.

 

[Maineiac12]

I’m looking forward to the new Ram and hope Ford comes out with something similar. I LOVE my Lightning, but I live in the Midwest and tow a 7000 lb camper around in the summer.

Right now, we mostly stay within 100 miles of home so I can charge up at the site before coming back. However, I’d love to take longer road trips with the camper and stopping every 100 miles on a long trip just isn’t practical (or possible depending on destination) so I’d consider the EREV for that reason alone.

But I’d also want to wait for reviews, pricing, etc before making any decisions.

 

[Rice_classic]

That’s a lot of money for a Stellantis product that excludes Carplay.

I like the concept as I do tow heavy loads and it would also be great with a slide in camper.

 

[EV Engineer]

Honestly looking at the Ram Charger I feel like all the specs are just bizarre.

70+kWh battery? Why? If you're going to give it an EREV why not give it a 30kWH battery for around town or daily driver? Seems VERY costly.

"Can power your house for 30 days at 10kWH / day".

Again kind of a bizarre number. If you go 30 days without power you have a bigger problem in your community than electricity. And 10kwH/Day is a laughably low metric.


It just seems to me they are building a tool that is overly engineered in a lot of ways. And I'm not even counting EREV as overengineering it. The specs just seem all wrong. I suppose it has to do with keeping the towing in line.


I think this thing is going to be very expensive, and even more of a niche use case than Truck BEV's which is already proving to be more niche than automakers hoped.

 

[Maineiac12]

That’s a lot of money for a Stellantis product that excludes Carplay.

I like the concept as I do tow heavy loads and it would also be great with a slide in camper.

Did they announce they were removing CarPlay? I know GM is, but I hadn’t heard of stellantis doing it too.

 

[Joe.....Montana]

Even if Ram Charger was available I would have purchased the Lightning. Did extensive research before purchasing and knew it would fit our use scenario. Ford, Fed and Dealership were all offering incredible discounts/tax breaks/incentives that resulted in an incredible OTD price. Ram Charger is still owned by Stelantis...no way in hell I'm ever owning a Stelantis product.

 

[Rice_classic]

Did they announce they were removing CarPlay? I know GM is, but I hadn’t heard of stellantis doing it too.

Looks like a mistake on my part. Good to see Ram hasn’t ditched it.

 

[Altivec]

That would only have happened with poorly-designed ones. My first generation Volt periodically started itself for that reason -- you'd get a message on the driver's screen "starting engine for maintenance"). I did less than one oil change per year, and never replaced the air filter, because it never got dirty. I never paid for any maintenance, other than the oil changes (and some tires... and a 12 v battery after 6 or 7 years).

I have a Cadillac ELR which essentially uses the volt system. Do you still have your Volt or did you get rid of it after 7 years. I ask because that is when problems started showing up for me. Mainly, using the small battery all of the time chewed up its life cycles fast. I can no longer drive it in winter as the check engine light goes on...

 

[ZeusDriver]

I have a Cadillac ELR which essentially uses the volt system. Do you still have your Volt or did you get rid of it after 7 years. I ask because that is when problems started showing up for me. Mainly, using the small battery all of the time chewed up its life cycles fast. I can no longer drive it in winter as the check engine light goes on...

Mine was a 2014, which I bought in maybe 2016. I replaced the 12V battery in 2020, maybe 2021. (Easy job, and the battery was available from one of the chains) I try to avoid dealers, but the car was acting really weird, and wouldn't move. I thought the dealer, which was only a mile away, could show up with a battery and install it, so I could get on my way. No such luck. They didn't have a battery in stock!!?? Said I could bring it in in 2 weeks?? So a Lyft to an Autozone, (where I also bought a cheap wrench), then back to the car, and 15 minutes later, I was back on the road. Would have been nice to have some warning... even if was only based on calendar time: "Hey, your 12 volt battery is getting old. Better replace it soon." (It would have been extremely simple to just automatically monitor the battery's condition by keeping track of its charge-discharge responses.... but no such luck.

But that is the only time the Volt let me down. I sold it when it was 10 years old, with 75,000 miles on it. Still was getting 42 miles on electricity, the same as when I bought it. I was no fan of the center stack, (with too few real buttons and knobs) but at least it worked much better than the controls on my subsequent Tesla, which I only kept for a year -- it just had too many safety issues that Tesla could not or would not fix.

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