Will harvester models be "maintenance free" like their EV siblings?

[Mousehunter]

I think the real question will be how fast you put hours on the engine. I seriously doubt it will go over 200hrs between services, and honestly since it will always be running at load 100hrs is probably more likely. But if you are plugging it in every night, you could probably easily get a year on that 100hrs (so an annual service). At 160 miles of battery range, you could easily get about 3hrs of driving a day without needing to run the engine. Even with running the range extender, you would have an "extended" range of 5k or so miles per year. Other than extended road trips with only overnight charging - that would stretch a long way.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The maintenance schedule will be similar to every other hybrid. The closest examples will be the BMW i3 REX or the BYD Shark, which have 7.5k/6 mo to 10k/12 mo intervals. The two 4-cylinder engines built by VW in their Silao, Mexico plant, one of which may the source for the Harvester have 10k/12mo maintenance intervals.

 

[geekswrath]

Honestly, the maintenance might actually be a reason for me to get the Harvester. I like to tinker and wrench, it's why I'll still have an ICE car to play with. For my daily, I would prefer something that requires less maintenance, 0 would be great but I live in the real world where everything breaks eventually. Besides, doing some maintenance connects me to the vehicle and gives confidence that it will perform properly. Tires, brakes and fluids will still need to be checked. A yearly checkup to the engine should be a a low cost and schedulable event. Maybe one day we can get to the point of home DIYers swapping out batteries and changing contactors and that will be the new maintenance, but that is a looong way off.

 

[cyure]

Honestly, the maintenance might actually be a reason for me to get the Harvester. I like to tinker and wrench, it's why I'll still have an ICE car to play with. For my daily, I would prefer something that requires less maintenance, 0 would be great but I live in the real world where everything breaks eventually. Besides, doing some maintenance connects me to the vehicle and gives confidence that it will perform properly. Tires, brakes and fluids will still need to be checked. A yearly checkup to the engine should be a a low cost and schedulable event. Maybe one day we can get to the point of home DIYers swapping out batteries and changing contactors and that will be the new maintenance, but that is a looong way off.

Okay I have a question. With this being an EREV the Harvester engine is going to be underneath not in the hood/frunk. Has that info been considered in your calculation? And do you mean the big battery or the 12v battery?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Honestly, the maintenance might actually be a reason for me to get the Harvester. I like to tinker and wrench, it's why I'll still have an ICE car to play with. For my daily, I would prefer something that requires less maintenance, 0 would be great but I live in the real world where everything breaks eventually. Besides, doing some maintenance connects me to the vehicle and gives confidence that it will perform properly. Tires, brakes and fluids will still need to be checked. A yearly checkup to the engine should be a a low cost and schedulable event. Maybe one day we can get to the point of home DIYers swapping out batteries and changing contactors and that will be the new maintenance, but that is a looong way off.

There are already home DIYers doing a battery swap from standard range to extended range on the Lightning.

 

[geekswrath]

Totally, but everything is subject to what we finally get. My current understanding is that the Harvester module, unit, pack, whatever it ends up being will be under the bed of the truck, which is what I am interested in and have been looking at. It could have terrible access in which case I will rethink things (a different company more than likely as it will say more about what Scout is than this one thing). And yes, I mean the big battery. 12v batteries generally last about 5 years these days and the last time I had to replace one, I told the Autozone guy to just let me handle it please. He seemed nice enough but didn't exude confidence.

 

[cyure]

There are already home DIYers doing a battery swap from standard range to extended range on the Lightning.

Wow

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Wow

Yeah. I haven’t been following everyone's progress. An extended range battery from a Lightning on eBay can run between $2500 to $8500. A Mustang extended range battery can be as little as $1200.

 

[Chaz26]

Yeah. I haven’t been following everyone's progress. An extended range battery from a Lightning on eBay can run between $2500 to $8500. A Mustang extended range battery can be as little as $1200.

Is anything else needed in the Lightning to do that conversion in terms of the additional weight/size of the extended range or is it just take out the one and replace with the other?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Is anything else needed in the Lightning to do that conversion in terms of the additional weight/size of the extended range or is it just take out the one and replace with the other?

The hardware is basically the same across the board. I would probably try to acquire the battery management module that came with the donor battery if possible, but not having that isn’t impossible to overcome.

There’s definitely some reprogramming required. That can be done by acquiring firmware from an otherwise identical truck and flashing it onto the recipient truck’s module(s).

 

[cyure]

The hardware is basically the same across the board. I would probably try to acquire the battery management module that came with the donor battery if possible, but not having that isn’t impossible to overcome.

There’s definitely some reprogramming required. That can be done by acquiring firmware from an otherwise identical truck and flashing it onto the recipient truck’s module(s).

How much more range are people getting switching to a new battery?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

How much more range are people getting switching to a new battery?

I haven’t seen completion reports yet. The standard range from the factory is 230 to 240 miles. The ER is 300-320 miles, depending on trim. So, assuming the conversion gives a similar range to what it would get from the factory, that’s up to 40% increase in range.

 

[Abrust]

Has anyone heard anything about this:

Scout Reportedly To Delay EV For Hybrid As VW Runs Low On Cash - The Autopian

Volkswagen subbrand Scout Motors will launch an electric truck and SUV in 2027, and one report indicates the first versions will be EREVs.

www.theautopian.com

 

[geekswrath]

Reading that article sounds a bit distressing but I hope it's just a little bit of sensationalism. The market is what it is and companies have to build to what the market wants. Sometimes figuring that out is a bit like reading tea leaves. I hope VW, and Scout by extension, have some good intelligence and can make the appropriate decisions.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

@cyure posted that over in the news thread.

I think it’s speculation without evidence on the part of the author. We don’t have any information about what Scout Motors might decide w.r.t. releasing one before the other.

The author is mostly basing their speculation on what Stellantis did, but Stellantis has a disastrous C-Suite right now and is making wrong decision after wrong decision. They’re reactive to last year’s news and seem to have no forward-looking team members. I believe Scout is much more forward-looking. And while the uncertainty in the world right now is likely causing them some heartburn, they’re far more even keeled than Stellantis.

 

[R1TVT]

Autopian writing opinion pieces without citing the executive sources - Hmmmm, smells fishy!

 

[Abrust]

@cyure posted that over in the news thread.

I think it’s speculation without evidence on the part of the author. We don’t have any information about what Scout Motors might decide w.r.t. releasing one before the other.

The author is mostly basing their speculation on what Stellantis did, but Stellantis has a disastrous C-Suite right now and is making wrong decision after wrong decision. They’re reactive to last year’s news and seem to have no forward-looking team members. I believe Scout is much more forward-looking. And while the uncertainty in the world right now is likely causing them some heartburn, they’re far more even keeled than Stellantis.

I’m very much hoping this is the case, and I totally understand producing what the market demands, so given reservations seem to overwhelmingly favor harvester it makes sense they would focus initial production there. I’m just really excited about my BEV Terra and as a day one reservation holder, I would feel very let down if they didn’t have at least some initial BEV production capacity, especially since that was the original design intent.

 

[cyure]

Has anyone heard anything about this:

Scout Reportedly To Delay EV For Hybrid As VW Runs Low On Cash - The Autopian

Volkswagen subbrand Scout Motors will launch an electric truck and SUV in 2027, and one report indicates the first versions will be EREVs.

www.theautopian.com

There’s a big discussion going on over in the Extra Extra thread and Jamie basically said lots of variables, nothing final yet. So I’m back to faith and patience.

 

[J Alynn]

Has anyone heard anything about this:

Scout Reportedly To Delay EV For Hybrid As VW Runs Low On Cash - The Autopian

Volkswagen subbrand Scout Motors will launch an electric truck and SUV in 2027, and one report indicates the first versions will be EREVs.

www.theautopian.com

Another thread has been discussing it-under the Extra, extra thread where most new-news articles get posted. No problem listing here but most the members land new articles there since we all look for them there. But thanks for posting it