Ford CEO Admits Electric Pickup Trucks, SUVs Aren't Good for Towing - Related to be, an, work, suvs, won't

Ford CEO Admits Electric Pickup Trucks, SUVs Aren't Good for Towing

Ford debuted its all-electric F-150 Lightning to considerable fanfare a few years ago, and it's sold reasonably well since then. The automaker billed it as a proper full-size truck that could do truck things, including towing big trailers. Technically, that's correct. But it's no secret that several factors work against EVs as tow vehicles.

Speaking to the media during Ford's 2024 financial conference call, CEO Jim Farley conceded that full-size battery-electric or range-extended electric vehicles are not great platforms for towing.

"It’s not perfect," he stated. "If you tow, it’s not a good technology. The batteries have to be too big."

Simply being big isn't the problem. While battery costs are coming down, Farley believes the massive batteries required for big vehicles are still cost-prohibitive at this point.

"For larger retail electric [vehicles], the economics are unresolvable," he noted. "These consumers have very demanding use cases for an electric vehicle. They tow, they go off-road, they take long road trips. These vehicles have worse aerodynamics and they’re very heavy, which means very large and expensive batteries. Retail consumers have shown that they will not pay any premium for these large EVs."

To that end, Ford has already canceled plans for a large, three-row electric SUV. In the world of pickup trucks, the enterprise teased a full-size electric truck that was "something different" from the F-150 Lightning back in 2022. Little has been heard of this next-gen EV since, and at this point, it's unclear whether it will reach production. However, Ford is moving ahead with plans for extended-range EVs (EREVs) that utilize a combustion engine to charge smaller battery packs.

"Ford will be developing flexible, body-on-frame and unibody platforms that will be designed for these multi-energy powertrains that are needed, given the realities of customer affordability and range requirements," showcased Farley. "We’ve learned, actually, when it wasn’t popular to invest in hybrids, it turns out it was a good move. And therefore, we want to lean into EREVS and other powertrains to make sure that we go with the flow of the people."

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IIHS: Bigger Cars Won't Keep You Safer in a Crash

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crunched the numbers. It turns out bigger, heavier vehicles don't always keep you safer in a crash. They can, however, make you more deadly to other drivers on the road. It all depends on whether a vehicle is heavier or lighter than the average car.

In the IIHS study, researchers averaged the weight of their sample 2017-2022 vehicles, which came out to 4,000 pounds. For every additional 500 pounds of curb weight above that, crashes between an SUV or truck and a car resulted in one fewer death per million registered vehicle years in heavier models—or, hardly any change. However, the extra weight accounted for up to seven additional deaths in cars.

The study also found that cars and SUVs weighing less than 4,000 pounds would benefit from some extra poundage. Getting as close as possible to the average weight can result in 17 fewer deaths in car-to-car crashes and 13 fewer in SUV-to-car crashes. But for anything over 4,000 pounds, there's "hardly any" decrease in risk for occupants, . So basically: the closer to the average weight, the improved.

“There’s nothing magical about 4,000 pounds except that it’s the average weight,” Sam Monfort, lead author of the study, noted in a statement. “Vehicles that are heavier than average are more likely to crash into vehicles lighter than themselves, while the reverse is true for vehicles that are lighter than average. What this analysis reveals is that choosing an extra-heavy vehicle doesn’t make you any safer, but it makes you a bigger danger to other people.”.

The death disparity between cars, trucks, and SUVs is falling. In 2011-2016, occupants in a car were 90 percent more likely to die in a crash with an SUV weighing more than 5,000 pounds. That dropped to 20 percent from 2017-2022 after the IIHS and automakers worked together to align the crash structures of larger trucks, SUVs, and smaller coupes and sedans.

"For American drivers, the conventional wisdom is that if bigger is safer, even bigger must be safer still," IIHS President David Harkey unveiled in a statement. "These results show that isn't true today. Not for people in other cars. And—this is critical—not for the occupants of the large vehicles themselves."

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The Mercedes eSprinter Proves How Good An Electric Work Van Can Be

Mercedes-Benz has been in the van business since 1896, just a few years after the first gas car was born. The organization bills itself as the creator of the “world's first work van,” and for nearly 130 years, people have used those vans to haul products, people and their entire lives. Now, for the first time, Mercedes’ van arm has a fully electric option: the eSprinter.

I drove the eSprinter in recent times. I had a 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat loaner before it, and I drove the Hellcat to a video shoot with a huge production crew I was meeting for the first time. Once I unloaded the Hellcat, the fleet that switches out my review cars pulled up in a massive, tan Mercedes eSprinter. The Hellcat’s earth-shaking engine rumble had been replaced by a silent electric van the size of a house. Everyone was deeply confused.

Thus began my week with the eSprinter, a van that starts at about $60,000 in America. I got the “cargo van” version, meaning it has two seats up front and an empty rear compartment for hauling. When I opened the back of the eSprinter, I saw a giant wooden crate and freaked out a little, thinking someone forgot an crucial item. I pried it open with tools, hoping the contents would be legal and safe, and found that it was just a box of rocks.

Mercedes (or someone) put the rocks in the eSprinter so it handled appropriately—not like it was empty—while I drove it. No one warned me. I laughed out loud.

The eSprinter has “standard output” and “high output” versions, with the standard one offering 134 horsepower and the high output offering 201. The van has 295 pound-feet of torque, and the power goes to the rear wheels.

I drove the car hundreds of miles in my time with it, and my two main takeaways were: Public charging is too expensive for how constricted the range is (I paid $64 for a 90 percent charge and 172 miles of range), but for people who work in the city and can charge the van privately, it’s almost perfect. It has all the functions of a regular work van with all the benefits of an electric one, like regenerative braking and the ability to sit in the air conditioning (or heat) without spitting exhaust fumes in the air. The only big issues are that visibility isn’t great, and even with regenerative braking, I couldn’t get the car to engage in true one-pedal driving.

The Mercedes-Benz eSprinter reveals how efficient and convenient electric work vans can be in the city. If you want to learn more about the van and take it on a drive with me, check out the video at the top of this story.

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