In this 14-minute interview, RVtravel.com’s RV electricity expert Mike Sokol talks with Eric Foellmer of XLfleet.com, who discusses the operation of the new Ford F-150 pickup plug-in hybrid conversion.
Foellmer’s company created a plug-in aftermarket technology that converts a standard Ford F-150 pickup truck into a hybrid electric version of the vehicle, increasing the mileage by up to 50 percent and not affecting the towing capacity. He and Mike also talk about whether the new technology could lead to an all-electric RV.
Sign up for Mike’s RV Electricity Newsletter at https://www.rvtravel.com/subscribe.
The comment was made that this system did not effect the towing capacity of the vehicle, How about the GVWR it surely must be altered because of the weight of the extra batteries and the drive motor that is installed.
Roughly how much does the upgrade cost? (If it was mentioned, I missed it.)
Interesting comment by Larry, that campgrounds are posting “No EV Charging”
i’ve been to several campgrounds this year that do not ev charging
Interestingly, there’s a new Super Walmart 2 miles from my house that has an entire EV charging section in their parking lot. It would be interesting to find out just how many Walmarts across the USA have EV charging stations and how much it costs to use them.
It obviously will impact towing capacity. Simple math. The weight of the added pack and drive will reduce combined weight rating and vehicle payload. So many people run tight now and this would just put them over the safe weight threshold.
Of course, any weight of the battery and motor system will reduce towing capacity somewhat. But the upside is the additional torque allowing you to use a smaller gasoline (or diesel) engine to improve acceleration. Interestingly I’ve been in contact with Ford about supplying me with an F-150 that XL would upfit with their plug-in hybrid pack. What I’m looking for is a small RV trailer such as an Airstream Bambi that would be well within the towing limits of an F-150 truck with the XL upgrade. While an F-150 isn’t considered to be a towing machine and it would NEVER pull a heavy trailer or any sort of 5th wheel, I know it would do just fine with a 3,000 lb Airstream and another 1,000 lbs of payload. I know this because I’ve towed something very similar across the country with a GMC-1500 pickup truck perhaps 10 years ago. And interestingly, the MPG of the truck didn’t go down with the Airstream in tow, largely due to the fact that an Airstream trailer is built like an airplane, and airplanes are built to slip through the air as efficiently as possible. If I can borrow this combination of TV and RV it would be interesting to take it across the country for some of my 2019 seminars, documenting fuel usage, etc… XL has said they’ll provide the upgrade if Ford will provide the truck. And if that happens I’ll pitch Airstream for a loaner trailer. Or do any of you have a single-axle Airstream sitting around I could borrow for this tour?