2019 Ram 1500 only available as a hybrid.
 

I'm surprised this hasn't hit this thread yet. Until the new Ecodiesel comes out on the 2019, there will be just 2 engine choices both with electric assist and a "air-cooled 330 watt-hour lithium-ion Nickel Manganese Cobalt battery." Seems Ram sort of beat Volvo to the all hybrid or electric punch at least on the 1500. Lots of other MPG focus on this truck as well.
https://www.allpar.com/trucks/ram/2018-1500.html

Oh I just read there will be some fleet v8 trucks made without the hybrid.

It's a bit underwhelming considering the small battery and low EV power. Would be more exciting if they put a smaller engine in and more powerful electric motor and battery.

I think this would be a hoot to retrofit onto an old Honda or Geo. It provides around 4x more torque than Honda's IMA, which already feels pretty significant.

On a very tangent thought, what if the bulk of braking was accomplished via electric instead of friction?

The battery would absorb what it could from regeneration, and any excess electricity could be sent to a resistive load, cooled by the engine coolant. Each wheel could have its own motor so that regenerative braking could be precisely controlled, and ABS could be accomplished by reducing regen instantly on the wheel that stopped turning. Stability control would also use regen to slow individual wheels to regain control. Naturally the vehicle would be all-wheel-drive. Small friction brakes would activate at slow/stopped speeds and in emergency.

Heck, this design lends itself to a series hybrid configuration with elimination of the traditional transmission/drivetrain. Run a genset at peak efficiency to supply electricity, with a battery/supercap bank acting to smooth the power input/output.

This would allow a truck and enormous load to be safely slowed on very steep and long grades, with no fear of brake fade or wear. Furthermore efficiency would improve since every braking event would recapture some of the energy. Finally, the nearly instant response of electricity would allow more precise control of the vehicle compared with mechanical systems.

A naturally aspirated 2wd 6.2 diesel with a stick and this device would be a real hoot.

Per GM the 6.2 diesel only cost $350 more to make than the 350 gas engine.

30+ mpg all day

and only $15,000 more to maintain

330 watt-hour? That's quarter what my electric bike has. Pretty sad.

Guess its good for avoiding idling and...that's about it. Might be more efficient than having an alternator, assuming it doesn't use one.

I guess...
My last one only went 438,000 miles before I drove it to the junkyard due to a rusted out everything

I did have to replace the starter about 5 times but that issue was solved on newer trucks.

Key was that it was a c-code 6.2 and the harmonic never went

Most folks blow the crank after the harmonic breaks

Fair enough, I'm probably thinking of the 6.5's which also may not be as bad as once thought. There had to be some reason you could pick them up for 1/2 the price of a 350 gas powered Chevy all day and night.

I think this new Ram with a 3.6 may replace my Cummins. It will need to have about 1600 pounds of payload in a 4x4 crew cab version and at least 7500# tow rating. I had been eyeing the current version once they started using the 8 speed with the 3.6 but the 2019 seems to have upped it's game. Of course I will probably wait 3 years for some depreciation as well as for it to prove reliable. Adding the Pacifica's plug in hybrid system would move me to get one new but I haven't heard any rumors about that possibility.

Looks like it will be 1740# payload (actually similar to my 2500 Cummins) and 7320# towing which is 1/2 my Cummins but my camper is 6000 GVWR max so it would be within specs. About 700# on the hitch leaves 1000# for gear and passengers in the truck.

I do notice the etorque thing actually reduces the 5.7's tow rating by almost 200 pounds, that doesn't give me confidence.

https://www.allpar.com/forums/attach...327-jpg.13405/

330Wh???

My first gen Insight has (had, it's lost a lot of capacity) a 936Wh battery, and filling that braking downhill was far from impossible.

But.

A 5500lb truck at 30mph has about 62Wh of energy available.

A 5500lb truck at 60 mph has about 249Wh.

You're lucky to get maybe 50% of this back from regen braking. My guess is they're not expecting to get even this, since the weight of the truck will necessitate the friction brakes on most cases. Still, for trucks with such a high base price (we're not talking a Nissan versa here), you would think they would have at least double that.

I was thinking about that battery. I'm not great on conversions but isn't that less capacity than a standard car battery? I assume it has the ability to discharge faster but still. I also don't think it has a standard battery just that one. I wonder if that will be a possibility to upgrade even as a aftermarket addon. The electric motor may not be able to handle much more than brief bursts of power as well. One cool thing is there will be a million or more of them in the junkyard at some point. They will be useful in a bunch of other applications as well. Probably just right for an electric conversion on my old Honda Trail 90, or make a sick electric go cart for your kid.

In theory a fully size truck battery has about 1.2 kwhr,
However due to peukert at high discharge rates you get maybe 1/10 of that “usable “ and lifespan would be very poor.

At the end of the day this isn’t a real hybrid but just a start stop system
You would get the initial feel of more horsepower but it would quickly taper away

My hope is this system allows the truck to EOC at any speed when in neutral, if it can’t keep the fuel off at all times during deceleration it won’t improve fuel economy much by itself

Ah well, baby steps.

It might do a good pulse and glide then as well. They did say the 8 speed will now DFCO in all gears where before it would only in 1st and 2nd. It would be really cool if they could program the cruise control to do a simple 10 mph spread pulse and glide best using the engines peak efficiency to accelerate, and then cut fuel and use the Etorque to extend the glide. They also said it will help the 8 cylinder stay in 4 cylinder mode longer and more often. I had a 5.7 Hemi with deactivation and the slightest increase in throttle would drop it back into 8 cylinder mode. I ended up basically letting it lose a little speed to stay in 4 cylinder mode, then go with a moderate throttle to get back up to top speed. I think it did better than just running the cruise but not enough to put up with the trouble. If it would do it for you, that would be great.

The articles I've read say it still has a standard 12V battery; the extra battery and hybrid system are 48V.

Yes, it's basically a glorified stop-start system that can also add up to 130 ft-lbs to the engine's output, but it's a start (pun intended). Adding wheel motors and capacitors gets really expensive, really quickly, in an already-expensive vehicle, and I don't see a market ready for that in trucks yet anyway. I don't think even this mild system will be embraced universally.

I actually believe there are reasonable marketing perspectives for full-hybrid trucks. Providing power outlets for electric tools and implements, which may eventually also be lighter than their hydraulic or mechanically-actuated counterparts, would make some sense instead of having to resort to transmission-mounted or crankshaft-mounted PTOs.


Even though a full-hybrid system similar to the HSD is in fact more promising in a longer term, this mild-hybrid system doesn't seem so bad at all and might eventually make its way into lower-end vehicles in a way pretty much similar to how 12-volt electrics replaced their old 6-volt counterparts.

I've read that it still has a 12v starter for the first early morning cold startup but that all the 12v system including that starter is powered through a 48 to 12v converter from the 48v battery.

I think they already have the system they need in the Pacifica minivan. That is the same 3.6, I suppose the transverse mounting is wrong. What about sone of those Fiat small unibody pickups other countries get? Sort of like the Honda Ridgeland. What is it called a Toro maybe?
That would be pretty cool as a 4wd plug in hybrid.

Yes, that's the Toro.

IIRC the 9-speed ZF 9HP transmission used on the Diesel variants and the flexfuel ones fitted with the 2.4L Tigershark engine is already suitable to hybrid applications.

They will if the OEMs have anything to say about it. When you hear about automakers "electrifying" their entire range this is mostly what they are talking about.

A good review of the tech:
https://jalopnik.com/everything-you-...olt-1790364465

I hope it's better than the Silverado hybrid.

Well I still keep looking for the epa numbers but they still are not out. They have the ratings for the v8 non etorque and it's disappointingly exactly the same as the outgoing Ram despite lower weight and better aerodynamics. The rumor on the streets is the v6 really gets an improvement from the system, maybe over 20mpg city. With parking lots full of built trucks you would think they know, I just wonder why it hasn't been released.

"eTorque adds torque to the crankshaft during gear changes to reduce noise and vibrations "

That might help the automatic transmissions last longer.