Current EV owners: are you sticking with full-EV or switching to EREV Harvester Scout?

[mcnels1]

Ideally Scout would give drivers control over when the Harvester runs. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume that the Harvester version's battery is large enough to give 200 miles of range, the Harvester engages to keep the battery charge at 25% when it is below 25%, and the Harvester produces under 200 horsepower:

• My battery is at 25%, but I only have 10 miles left to get home: I want to lower the target percent so the Harvester doesn't turn on, since I know I can charge very soon and I'd rather not use gasoline.
• I am towing a 5000 pound trailer up I-70 west of Denver across the continental divide, gaining over 6000 feet of elevation in 45 miles with a 65mph speed limit: I want to set the Harvester's target to 80% of battery charge so I have as much energy as possible in the battery since the Harvester will not be able to keep up with the power demand.

I have a BMW i3 with a range extender, which produces 34 HP. The car's EPA electric range is 81 miles. As delivered, the range extender had a 7% target charge. Once every two weeks I used to drive 110 miles round trip to work, mostly on I-25 with a 75 MPH speed limit. The range extender would engage when I was about half way home, it isn't powerful enough to maintain the charge when going 75 on level ground, and I still had around 15 miles left to go on I-25. To avoid running out of charge I would get behind a tractor trailer in the right lane (usually going about 65) and set the adaptive cruise control to the minimum following distance. Between the slower speed and the decreased wind resistance from drafting the range extender could just keep up.

 

[Nikoli]

Ideally Scout would give drivers control over when the Harvester runs. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume that the Harvester version's battery is large enough to give 200 miles of range, the Harvester engages to keep the battery charge at 25% when it is below 25%, and the Harvester produces under 200 horsepower:

• My battery is at 25%, but I only have 10 miles left to get home: I want to lower the target percent so the Harvester doesn't turn on, since I know I can charge very soon and I'd rather not use gasoline.
• I am towing a 5000 pound trailer up I-70 west of Denver across the continental divide, gaining over 6000 feet of elevation in 45 miles with a 65mph speed limit: I want to set the Harvester's target to 80% of battery charge so I have as much energy as possible in the battery since the Harvester will not be able to keep up with the power demand.

I have a BMW i3 with a range extender, which produces 34 HP. The car's EPA electric range is 81 miles. As delivered, the range extender had a 7% target charge. Once every two weeks I used to drive 110 miles round trip to work, mostly on I-25 with a 75 MPH speed limit. The range extender would engage when I was about half way home, it isn't powerful enough to maintain the charge when going 75 on level ground, and I still had around 15 miles left to go on I-25. To avoid running out of charge I would get behind a tractor trailer in the right lane (usually going about 65) and set the adaptive cruise control to the minimum following distance. Between the slower speed and the decreased wind resistance from drafting the range extender could just keep up.

Current 2012 Model S and 2003 Tundra owner. Looking to replace the Tundra for off roading and towing an off road tear drop camper, most likely up 285 because I-70 is a nightmare. Can't wait to have Regen braking for those white knuckle descends down the mountains. Coming down the mountains in the Tesla is awesome, literally never have to touch the brakes. In the Tundra with a camper that's a whole different experience. Currently have the EREV reserved due the massive reduction in range when towing.

 

[Lakesinai]

Except it's not true, depending on how you parse the English. The battery in the Harvester Vehicle does not have 350 miles of range. Its more like 200mi, TBD.

 

[TwoJacks]

Except it's not true, depending on how you parse the English. The battery in the Harvester Vehicle does not have 350 miles of range. Its more like 200mi, TBD.

The Harvester will kick in at 150 miles according to previous info. Assuming that’s at the 20% battery level (which is where the ram charger kicks in) the harvester version battery would have a 187 mile total capacity.

 

[justinjas]

Current 2012 Model S and 2003 Tundra owner. Looking to replace the Tundra for off roading and towing an off road tear drop camper, most likely up 285 because I-70 is a nightmare. Can't wait to have Regen braking for those white knuckle descends down the mountains. Coming down the mountains in the Tesla is awesome, literally never have to touch the brakes. In the Tundra with a camper that's a whole different experience. Currently have the EREV reserved due the massive reduction in range when towing.

I’m currently towing a small 2000 lb camper with RAV4 Prime plugin hybrid, regen braking coming down from mountains is great. Really removes the need to get on the brakes all the way down. Plus you get back a lot of the range used on the way up.

 

[Lakesinai]

The Harvester will kick in at 150 miles according to previous info. Assuming that’s at the 20% battery level (which is where the ram charger kicks in) the harvester version battery would have a 187 mile total capacity.

Nice math! I'll love to see the real numbers in a couple of years . . . And if the pickup ends up different than the suv

 

[TwoJacks]

And extrapolating further, if the Harvester kicks in at 50% in towing mode (like the charger) it would kick in after 90 miles but since towing cuts everything in half, it might kick in after as little as 45 miles.

 

[fernandor211]

Full EV or Harvester will depend on the specs closer to the time of manufacturer ... I have attended a number web casts with the DOE, EV researchers, EV designers, etc. and know that motor or no motor is not a simple question, and the design choice is more complex than "let's get rid of 60% of the batteries, add a 60 HP Volkswagen engine and generator, oh and 10 gallons of gasoline."

The engine choice adds 3-4 hundred pounds, which is partially or wholly offset by the battery reduction, but the reduce battery is worked harder, but due to its size and the dead weight of the Harvester hardware when not running. This proportionally higher duty cycle will be harder on the batteries that are left, and the remaining batteries may not be "capacity wise" large enough to absorb all the regenerative breaking.

With the Harvester "add" you now have all the complexity and maintenance of two drive systems, plus the system that integrates the two. Part of the Tesla success is not having to provide thousands of service centers to perform regular oil changes and all the other "stuff" required for an internal combustion engine.

We have almost two years for all the Scout designs to be complete and I am really hoping for the best in battery technology, so I am convinced to go all in on the EV model Traveler.

I'm pretty sure the partnership with VW will have their centers performing maintainence as needed. They already have that support structure in place. That really should not be a concern.

 

[M3_R2]

Better battery technology is definitely on the horizon within the VW Group.

https://electrek.co/2024/12/05/quantumscape-higher-sample-volumes-commercial-solid-state-battery/

 

[NukeDukem]

Better battery technology is definitely on the horizon within the VW Group.

https://electrek.co/2024/12/05/quantumscape-higher-sample-volumes-commercial-solid-state-battery/

Interesting; Seems like a well run company.

 

[timmyhil]

Interesting; Seems like a well run company.

Quantum is owned by Bill Gates so obviously its run well.

 

[M3_R2]

QuantumScape was originally backed by Bill Gates and VW but went public in 2020.

PowerCo (owned by VW Group) will likely be the supplier of batteries for Scout. They have also signed an agreement to be licensed to produce QuantumScape solid-state batteries. electrek article

So it's conceivable these batteries could work their way into the Scouts though I'm not sure they will be ready for launch. Other EV MFG's may have competing solutions before or by then as well.

Claims of 10% more range, better charging curve and better cold weather performance. Will only improve from there.

Hopefully the extra cost for this option won't be prohibitive.

 

[timmyhil]

QuantumScape was originally backed by Bill Gates and VW but went public in 2020.

PowerCo (owned by VW Group) will likely be the supplier of batteries for Scout. They have also signed an agreement to be licensed to produce QuantumScape solid-state batteries. electrek article

So it's conceivable these batteries could work their way into the Scouts though I'm not sure they will be ready for launch. Other EV MFG's may have competing solutions before or by then as well.

Claims of 10% more range, better charging curve and better cold weather performance. Will only improve from there.

Hopefully the extra cost for this option won't be prohibitive.

I have a whole tread on PowerCo if you want to check it out and updates provided by an employee at scout.