Though all-electric vehicle sales continue to grow, consumer demand for those models has recently lagged behind expected levels, which has prompted most automakers to switch gears in terms of their electrification strategies. This includes Ford, which is now focused on ramping up its hybrid offerings and building cheaper EVs to compete with Chinese rivals. However, following the recent debut of the 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger, it seems as if extended range EVs may be in the works at Ford as well.
“There’s another thing that’s happening in China. Well, everywhere really. It’s actually happening everywhere where partial electrification is becoming more a bigger part of the solution,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the recent AllianceBernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. “I don’t know if regulators, we’re going to have to talk to all the regulators because they really bet on pure EVs, but EREVs in China are really the growing part of the EV market. And when you see reported new energy vehicles, they include EREVs.”
“EREVs in the U.S. could be 120 miles of all electric and they drive like EVs. They don’t drive like combustion vehicles. You get an EV and you have several hundred miles of range, you have no range anxiety for a long trip. You don’t have to rely on any chargers. And those vehicles have half the batteries, so they’re very profitable. And they’re different than PHEVs which are traditional combustion vehicles.”
As Farley points out there, extended range EVs are basically just hybrids, albeit ones that utilize far larger battery packs mated to an electric motor and paired with a gas engine. The Ramcharger, for example, utilizes a 70.8 kWh battery pack that provides an impressive 145 miles of pure EV driving range, and when that runs dry, it can also operate on gas power alone.
With Ford adamant that it will offer a wide array of powertrain choices for the foreseeable future, it certainly seems feasible that the automaker would explore the idea of extended range EVs as well. With production of the next-generation Ford F-150 EV and the North American three-row Ford Explorer EV pushed back amid high battery costs and the automaker scrapping its 2030 goal of transitioning its entire European passenger vehicle lineup to EVs, EREVs could also provide it with another stop-gap solution, too.
We’ll have more on Ford’s electrification strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
Just make reliable cheap gas vehicles. End of problem! Have the balls to say the truth, there is no man made climate change.
I don’t understand why people are so opposed to EV’s when electricity literally powers everything else in their lives. Homes, phones, etc. Why wouldn’t we want to just simplify life and use the same fuel for everything? Unless you’ve given it a proper try, I don’t think you know what you are talking about. A lot of people claim to have “their truth.” There is more future upside in technological development with electricity than gas. If you wouldn’t want a gas powered phone, you shouldn’t want a gas powered car either.
EV’s are fine. Just not $100k trucks that cannot do what trucks need to do..
*Far too pricey and no resale value.
The CEO didn’t even like the hasles and range issues with their own lightning.
This new RAM is going to be successful if it is reasonably priced and, I suspect, this is the direction the automotive market will go from here. I have said this many times before…the automotive industry needs to produce a better and more capable product if they want people to spend a little more. This RAM can get plugged in, but it doesn’t need to be plugged in. You can run it off charged batteries or its onboard generator powered by ubiquitous gasoline. No range anxiety. Easy to re-fuel quickly on the go. Since it is electrified, you can plug in your tools, or RV, your house, or whatever you want. It is a mobile power generation station. This is the solution people will buy–a vehicle that can do more than any other vehicle out there.
It just won’t be efficient working/running with depleted batteries. It’s workable into a luxury trim 1/2 ton, or a 3/4 ton option if it had a diesel. Big battery packs have to be expensive still.
The way many homeowners use their trucks anymore, I do think it’s probably time someone tries a unibody fullsize crewcab with a gm voltec type hybrid powertrain. A transverse engine with a physically driven front axle would retain strong mpg, even after plug-in miles are spent. Auto designers are also more capable than before of pulling off the right look.
I also still think trucks used for truck jobs will be best with mostly conventional powertrains up to mild plug-ins. So, I’m saying it’s essentially 3 ideas below the 1 tons.