Trade in Tacoma for an EV Truck?

One other point about charging stations is they are now being placed at common sites where you’re gonna walk around and bullshit for over 30 minutes anyways. So not just your work but places like Walmart the zoo and various other spots where your vehicle sits in a parking spot all day doing nothing. You could theoretically just plug that shit in and kill two birds with one stone , recharge and parking. I’ve never seen gas pumps at Walmart in the parking spots.


All I’m saying is the inconvenience of stopping to charge on road trips or searching for chargers is worth it when you consider that you never have to visit a gas station and 99% of the time your garage is where you’re going to be refueling. Last time I checked most people don’t have a gasoline fuel pump in their garage that they can just fill up when they come home from work and wake up in the morning and go right away…

 

The only thing that currently holds me back from EV is the range and the limited charging unless you take pre determined or highly traveled routes. An EV that could get 400miles would be ideal. But also adding charging all over would be important or IDK solar panels on roof to charge or something else that charges itself. Also, very important is that I don't want to sit for 30min for its to fully charge at a fast charger, esp If i am traveling long distance.

 

Can’t wait for the day of not having to go to the gas station. Of course the convenience stores aren’t going to like it.

We did have gas and diesel pumps at our shop years ago, though we weren’t like most people.

 

they certainly won’t be for everyone, at least for quite some time. There is nothing being talked about that could come close to replacing a 3/4 ton or larger truck that pulls regularly.

you do need to look at what your “daily” is and what your other drives look like. The average person in no way puts on 250 miles per day. In fact most folks won’t put on 250 miles per day but once, maybe twice, a year. And 250 miles is what? 3.5 hours of driving. So is stopping for 45 minutes once every 3.5 hours the twice a year one drives it that terrible? Especially considering they now DONT need to stop every week for 5-10 minutes.

Route planning is something there are great apps and websites for. You can use www.abetterrouteplanner.com to map out various routes. Now yes, you do need to generally stay around paved roads but you certainly don’t need to stick to the 6+ lane highway paths. I have mapped some odd ball routes for fun and even looking at places in the middle of red neck country there are lots of chargers around.

 

Not sure where you live, but in 2020 in California, the Tesla Model 3 alone sold just 1000 units less than the Tacoma. Total Tesla sales across all models were about 2x Tacoma sales. And Tacoma’s are VERY popular here. And the EV Chevy Bolt was the top seller in the sub-compact category. Sales ranking below:

1. Honda Civic - 59,335
2. Toyota RAV4 - 57,449
3. Toyota Camry - 56,301
4. Ford F-Series - 50,751
5. Chevrolet Silverado - 44,141
6. Toyota Corolla - 43,467
7. Honda Accord - 42,653
8. Toyota Tacoma - 39,572
9. Ram Pickup - 38,636
10. Tesla Model 3 - 38,580
11. Honda CR-V - 33,948

 

I totally get it and all your points are valid and correct. For myself I have a truck to do truck things and a car to do car things. The truck I utilize def is not for towing etc. I know we are nowhere near capable of having a reliable EV towing rig. Their performance is dismal at best and cuts the mileage in half from what the manufacturer states.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/R9wk-FJe89M?feature=share

 

EV towing performance is actually fantastic, world's better than any non-electric powered vehicle. The downside is the large reduction in range due to power required while towing. I'm reality it's not much different than towing with a gas powered truck. My mileage drops over 30% from ~18mpg to ~12mpg when towing.

 

Performance, yes. Range not even close. The ev gets less than 200miles range towing a large trailer. An f150 with the 35 gallon tank can go double the range. To me that matters.

Edit I don't tow with the tacoma as I don't enjoy it

 

It's the same reduction in range for gas and electric, it simply requires more power to two regardless of what is generating that power. A 3.5EB F150 is rated at 24mpg highway and that drops to about 16mpg when towing. It's easier to top of quickly but the large reduction in range is still there.

 

towing really is a rough area for EVs to compete in right now.

if you look at energy usage for the Tesla vehicles they use about 1/4 the amount of energy per mile when compared to a gas vehicle. A model 3 uses between 200 and 250 watts per mile, a 34mpg car uses around one Kilowatt (1000 watts). The SUV holds about the same and I expect the truck will as well.
Go tow however and now a BIG chunk of the energy is lost to the trailer. If a gas truck goes from 20mpg to 16mpg when towing the trailer sucked up those 4mpg. In an EV it’s going to take those same 4 “mpg” but it’s against a much more efficient vehicle, that vehicle takes a commensurately bigger hit to range.

let’s say a 20mph truck (1.7Kw used per mile) drops to 10mpg, it’s now using 3.4Kw per mile, the truck using 1.7 and the trailer using 1.7 or TWICE the amount of energy per mile. An electric truck is more efficient, but the trailer still takes the same amount of energy. Now the trailer isn’t doubling the energy used per mile (50% drop in range) its much much higher percentage wise. say the electric was twice as efficient as a gas truck (they are more then twice) so it uses only .85Kw, but that trailer still uses 1.7 Kw. That means truck and trailer are now using THREE times the amount of energy per mile, or a 66% drop in range for the electric.

At least I think my math is correct here.

 

Talk about an about face from Toyota -


https://www.yahoo.com/news/toyota-revealed-electric-truck-compete-154542202.html


https://autos.yahoo.com/toyota-previews-baby-land-cruiser-145000916.html

 

That Tacoma looks amazing

 

I'm all in, for a Fast Taco!

 

I would never trade mine in but I do plan on getting a separate EV truck for commuting and keeping the tacoma for adventures

 

EV's are great on paper. Instant torque. Torque vectoring. I think battery technology or infrastructure needs to develop to make them worth while.

 

New tech is evolving every day.

 

Everyday is unrealistic, unless you mean the canned expression.

 

Okay once a month. New tech as in EV batteries, BMS, charging, motors, driveline...

 

Usually takes years to develop.

Current EVs really need solid state batteries to have better power density.

Thats not coming out next month.

Took years for Tesla to get where they are now