Article: Why More People Are Ordering The Hybrid Scout Harvester (EREV) Than The Electric One

[fuhseeshuss]

Batteries are very expensive, very heavy and take up a lot of space that they need to fit the Harvester. I think 100-150 miles is reasonable for my minimum expectations and trade offs.

I don't know what impact solid state batteries will have on that when they are production ready.

I'd love the full 350 mi battery pack and Harvester, especially if the Harvester ends up relatively weak. But I also wouldn't buy a $100k, 8k lb truck that was two foot longer.

You'd assume the BEV would weigh in around the R1 weight (7100 or so). I'm full EV at this point so the battery range would be quite important. The less gas I'd have to deal with the better. Will likely be the BEV version for me.

 

[Newsoundnoise]

In my situation I drive 75 miles to work once a week. There are occasions where I will have to do that drive up to 3 times in a week. Given that I do not have charging access at work or at my current residence I am not guaranteed access to charging on a daily basis. Throw in that I live in the midwest and cold weather performance I would feel much better with the range extension.

 

[Dankness_Himself]

Honestly the Harvester works out perfectly for me. I drive 154 miles one way to work, driving 75 MPH speed limit (let's be realistic 80+ with Texas traffic flow.), without reliable charging at the small regional airport I fly out of. But I'm obviously one of the outliers.

 

[Bkenyon53]

I know this is coming out of left field but why hasn't Hydrogen taken off? To me, that's the next logical step. Batteries are what they are and I know that tech is always improving but the resources to make these batteries are finite. What happens when these batteries are at the end of their life?

Obviously hydrogen has it's own issues as well but it just seems that "environmentally speaking" it's a much better option whereas electric seemed like the easiest next step to get to market.

 

[Goose]

I know this is coming out of left field but why hasn't Hydrogen taken off? To me, that's the next logical step. Batteries are what they are and I know that tech is always improving but the resources to make these batteries are finite. What happens when these batteries are at the end of their life?

Obviously hydrogen has it's own issues as well but it just seems that "environmentally speaking" it's a much better option whereas electric seemed like the easiest next step to get to market.

Watch any video from Engineering Explained about the problems with Hydrogen. Boils down to energy density and storage. Plus, the only way to make Hydrogen that is really "clean" is with Nuclear or Hydro power. Requires too much energy to isolate the molecules.

 

[TigerEyeJazz]

Ive mentioned it once but ill have to once more…. Bad Journalism by fake car people who have zero clue about anything Automotive related.

Agreed!

 

[timmyhil]

I know this is coming out of left field but why hasn't Hydrogen taken off? To me, that's the next logical step. Batteries are what they are and I know that tech is always improving but the resources to make these batteries are finite. What happens when these batteries are at the end of their life?

Obviously hydrogen has it's own issues as well but it just seems that "environmentally speaking" it's a much better option whereas electric seemed like the easiest next step to get to market.

The batteries at the end of their lifecycle will go to a recycling company that strictly does batteries, it will be contracted by Scout. Then those materials will become new batteries.

 

[TigerEyeJazz]

here is an HD look of the Generator from the reveal

 

[Deuce]

I think I have too much of a prepper mindset to ever just do a battery only EV. It just makes so much sense to throw a generator in there too. I like to do road trips and I like that I can go to any gas station or charging station. The more options the better. (unpopular opinion: All this battery stuff is just a stop gap before hydrogen makes a couple more tech jumps)

 

[TigerEyeJazz]

I choose the EREV because of the Range Extender. I’ve never been into getting just a Fully Electric vehicle till they made an affordable model that can go 500 miles of range. Nobody offers that or at least if they do it’s 6 figures. Scout doing EREV was the smartest decision they made.

 

[Goose]

I think I have too much of a prepper mindset to ever just do a battery only EV. It just makes so much sense to throw a generator in there too. I like to do road trips and I like that I can go to any gas station or charging station. The more options the better. (unpopular opinion: All this battery stuff is just a stop gap before hydrogen makes a couple more tech jumps)

As I mentioned above, watch any video from Engineering Explain on hydrogen as a fuel source. Hydrogen fuel cells would work very well for truckers, but that's it. You can store the hydrogen as stupid high pressure, but the volume required for that would take up the entire bed of a truck and you wouldn't get much range due to the energy density. You could store it as a solid, but that would require super cooling and/or super pressures. The main problem there is hydrogen would boil off as it sublimates. I don't know about you, but I would be PISSED if I go out to the garage and lost half a tank of fuel.

Batteries are going to be the future, it makes way too much sense. The batteries we have now of "fine". Solid State Batteries or Graphene batteries have "potential" (grain of salt there) to have enough energy storage to match gasoline. An EV truck with 500+ miles of range would be badass.

I am way more excited about synthetic fuels, especially since Nuclear is taking back off with these new full size and mini reactors. They still burn hydrocarbons, but they scrub more from the air to make it. Plus, we can keep our V8's! I love my Mercury V8 ProXS on my boat.

 

[Deuce]

As I mentioned above, watch any video from Engineering Explain on hydrogen as a fuel source. Hydrogen fuel cells would work very well for truckers, but that's it. You can store the hydrogen as stupid high pressure, but the volume required for that would take up the entire bed of a truck and you wouldn't get much range due to the energy density. You could store it as a solid, but that would require super cooling and/or super pressures. The main problem there is hydrogen would boil off as it sublimates. I don't know about you, but I would be PISSED if I go out to the garage and lost half a tank of fuel.

Batteries are going to be the future, it makes way too much sense. The batteries we have now of "fine". Solid State Batteries or Graphene batteries have "potential" (grain of salt there) to have enough energy storage to match gasoline. An EV truck with 500+ miles of range would be badass.

I am way more excited about synthetic fuels, especially since Nuclear is taking back off with these new full size and mini reactors. They still burn hydrocarbons, but they scrub more from the air to make it. Plus, we can keep our V8's! I love my Mercury V8 ProXS on my boat.

I do watch Engineering Explained and I realize that's where we are now, but there's still a lot of upside and possibility for some tech that's really interesting, namely it's so plentiful in the universe. I think EE doesn't have the full picture of what's being worked on. Toyota and others wouldn't keep trying to make breakthroughs otherwise. It never works until it does! We'll see though, and as you can tell I don't think it's THAT soon to happen since I'm still planning on buying the Terra with the range extender and I like to keep cars for 7-10 years.

I'm also interested in keeping my 04 Supercharged V8 Mercedes SL55 going for as long as possible, even though I just went through the pain of changing 16 spark plugs the other day, so I've got my fingers crossed on the synthetic fuels. In reality we need a few of these technologies going to support everyone. If everything was batteries we'd kill the earth probably faster than oil is mining the elements needed.

 

[Goose]

I do watch Engineering Explained and I realize that's where we are now, but there's still a lot of upside and possibility for some tech that's really interesting, namely it's so plentiful in the universe. I think EE doesn't have the full picture of what's being worked on. Toyota and others wouldn't keep trying to make breakthroughs otherwise. It never works until it does! We'll see though, and as you can tell I don't think it's THAT soon to happen since I'm still planning on buying the Terra with the range extender and I like to keep cars for 7-10 years.

I'm also interested in keeping my 04 Supercharged V8 Mercedes SL55 going for as long as possible, even though I just went through the pain of changing 16 spark plugs the other day, so I've got my fingers crossed on the synthetic fuels. In reality we need a few of these technologies going to support everyone. If everything was batteries we'd kill the earth probably faster than oil is mining the elements needed.

I hear you. I've been monitoring Toyota's progress on Solid State and Hydrogen tech as well. I'm not quite a Toyota fanboy but not far off, I've owned 3 of them over the years. While I believe a lot of the masses want hydrogen to work, I just can't see if from the chemical/physics standpoint. I hope I'm proved wrong though!

If sodium battery tech can progress enough to give passenger cars the typical 300 miles of range that would be a big lift on the element mining we have now. You're spot on though, there will have to be alternatives to only BEV.

 

[AlanL]

We have no confirmed evidence from Scout to base that statement on. Though I am worried it is a possibility, and it would mean I don't fulfill my reservation.

I've done the calculation to figure out what KWh rating the Harvester needs to maintain towing approximately that amount on flat ground with a depleted battery.

EREVs absolutely can do this if appropriately speced. In fact the coming Ram Charger is designed for this and I would consider it as an alternative if the Scout Harvester isn't big enough. Though Ram is using a very simple 3.6 L Pentastar V6, which is an EREV and not a parallel hybrid, versus what we think Scout may use of a 3 or 4 cylinder turbocharged VW group engine.

And it isn't just 'willing' to stop to charge. Where i go at least twice a year they simply don't exist, or maybe there is one, barely within range, that if it was broken I would be screwed for multiple days charging at 110v or doing a long distance tow of my truck leaving my trailer behind.

I agree with as much as you've said. I think the generator can be smaller than many seem to think though. (Not referring to you since you did not mention a size.) The Ramcharger has a 130kW generator which strikes me as significantly oversized unless you're towing really heavy. I've seen a post on a Rivian reddit forum of a guy pulling a 20' Basecamp with an R1T from Cupertino to Yellowstone/Tetons and back averaging 1.3 mi/kWh out and 1.25 back. Say you get 2 mi/kWh towing on flat ground at 60 mph. That is 30 kWh to go 60 miles, so a 30 kW load over an hour. Seems to me a 50-ish kW generator might be tolerable for travel trailer needs with the Scout's limits. 50 kW is 68 hp, so the ICE doesn't have to be too big to deliver 100 hp even detuned for longevity.

 

[AlanL]

Yes there are tradeoffs, but I think it goes too far to call EREVs a distraction. We did almost 8000 towing miles with our travel trailer in 2024, would have done over 12,000 if some plans had not fallen through. Almost 100 nights on the road. I suspect it will take a lot more than 5 years for charging infrastructure to reach enough into remote areas, state and national parks, etc. EREVs won't be mainstream, but are a real boon for some of us. In the meantime I think they will be a big comfort factor driving sales for Scout. Maybe most folks won't "need" it, but might not buy any EV without it.