The Via VTRUX is a Range Extended Electric Truck
Added 2024-05-25 00:57:13 +0000 UTCDirect Link: https://youtu.be/XEMQ0LxowhY
The repair took long enough that the owner had to leave the truck with me for an extended period of time. Which meant I had time to make a proper video about it! As the video titles suggests, I was disappointed in this truck. I can't believe how pathetic the battery is. Surely it hasn't always been this way, right? It's still a very interesting and cool pickup, but the whole battery situation makes me sad. Despite what I said in the video, and what logic dictates, I am actually considering getting one to modify the battery. This is a terrible idea, but if a cheap one presents itself...
Comments
Of course I did! Will I execute those ideas? Probably not. But I definitely did some brainstorming
Aging Wheels
2024-06-11 02:22:57 +0000 UTCJust joined the patreon couple weeks ago because I found myself watching all your videos in a span of like 2 months. I was wondering between this and the battery pack video did you start to come up with ideas on how to make this better as a project?
John Jenson
2024-06-11 01:10:55 +0000 UTCYAY! Finally an EV that is worse than my 2015 Nissan Leaf!
Chris K
2024-05-26 19:16:21 +0000 UTCAlso, fleets don't really pay the full price even before incentives. They just pay for wear and depreciation and even that is deductable.
Misha Dellinger
2024-05-26 07:17:28 +0000 UTCDid you just microwave your siracha mayo dip by accident?!
Misha Dellinger
2024-05-26 06:29:25 +0000 UTCWhat was the price of the standard Silverado? That might be a good thing to add when comparing what the via sold for
Evan Hartmann
2024-05-25 20:18:33 +0000 UTCJust as they are. The execution wasn't as good as the idea, but I left it anyway
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 12:36:35 +0000 UTCAt around 1:23 are the colored boxes meant to be on top of a diagram of some sort or just as they are?
Simon Pain
2024-05-25 11:07:18 +0000 UTCDuring the 0-60 test at time-code 9:29 you say that "[it is] noticeably less peppy than it was just a few minutes ago", and later around 11:29 "the battery seems to only be able to put out full power in short bursts, if you try to I don't know climb a Long Hill you can watch the Power needle drop". I'm sure you are correct in that the battery was always undersized from the original retrofit, especially given the weight of this vehicle it's often going to be cycling between discharge and regenerative charging near it's full current handling capacity. But I wonder how much effect the failure of the battery climate control module has on this? After watching this video I did some poking at the AI chat, and skimming some papers I only half understood, but it seems that LiFePO4 batteries are rather sensitive to operating outside of their preferred temperature range. Charging them while they are too cold can cause damage due to lithium plating on the surface of the anode, and charging or discharging them while too hot causes accelerated capacity loss due to increased formation of surface films, and loss of active lithium ions as they become trapped in the solid electrolyte materials. (citation needed) It's possible that due to running without cooling for an extended period of time the battery has much more quickly degraded that it would have otherwise. It is also possible that the control system VIA installed has some sort of power limiting in place to try and protect the battery as its temperature rises, this could explain why over time during driving the power output decreases, perhaps the computer is artificially reducing the current draw from the battery due to internal heating. I had thought that perhaps the batteries ability to supply current was rolling off over time due to the heating having some effect on its ability to supply current, but I could find not information that indicated this. Perhaps I just missed it. Some other strange observations I found during my reading; Some groups refer to lithium ion and other battery chemistries that involve the movement of metal ions across an insulating membrane as “rocking chair batteries”, apparently due to the way the ions “rock” back and forth between the electrodes. Strange. Also it seems the chemical reaction that happens while charging LiFePO4 batteries is endothermic, but the heat absorbed by the chemical reaction during charging and produced by the counter reaction during discharging is only a small percentage of the heat produced due to resistive effects within the battery from current flow. So the battery still heats during charging up but the heating during discharge is higher than during charging because of this “reversible reaction heat“.
Robert Yates
2024-05-25 09:15:56 +0000 UTCHave you been following the Edison Motors guys up in Canada gearing up to do diesel electric conversions on semi/logging trucks
JackFrost
2024-05-25 09:04:24 +0000 UTCI’m pretty sure I saw one of the suburbans in person, but who knows if it still exists. Also I really want one of these for some reason, but I value my marriage haha.
Josh Bernstein
2024-05-25 06:19:33 +0000 UTCI hate that you're right. I just don't like that something like this gets conflated with something like a Prius that has a completely different operating principle just because they're both called hybrids. But what I said in the video is definitionally incorrect, so I'll probably remove it
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 05:08:07 +0000 UTCOn the hybrid or not topic, this Is "Technically" a series hybrid. as opposed to the parallel hybrids you're probably referring to in the video. most diesel locomotives are also series hybrids as well, with a small(ish) battery to buffer the generator power.
Alvis the Homs
2024-05-25 04:04:30 +0000 UTCIt's home voltage. And I can rule that one out. It liked one charger, but kept faulting on another. They were both on the same outlet. Also, they were just Level 1. For some reason it rejected the Level 1 Clipper Creek, but worked just fine on the Level 2 Clipper Creek
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 03:10:08 +0000 UTCHmm, what voltage does your home charger run at? My Coda is also very picky about chargers, and I'm starting to think it might just not like chargers that run off lower voltage 208 as opposed to 240.
Nicky Ivy
2024-05-25 03:04:05 +0000 UTCI did not because they're aren't any more powerful ones in the vicinity and this thing is incredibly picky about chargers so I couldn't use my 40A home EVSE. I've charged my car at that charge point before and got the full 6.6kW. But yeah, 5.5kW is such an odd number. The charger on the truck has a sticker that says it can accept 70A, so the limit must be software defined
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 02:57:17 +0000 UTC20 miles of electric range? Better than my Coda! Did you try charging it on an EVSE with more available power? I've seen Chargepoints deliver less than they say they can, though usually not by quite that much.
Nicky Ivy
2024-05-25 02:47:31 +0000 UTCThank you Robert, for another video. I went from severely depressed to not quite severely depressed, with this video.🙂 Edit: Question Robert, how many takes did you have to take, while heating up Factor? How many of them were molten hot on the outside, while freezing on the inside? 😝
Allan Clipperton-Boyer
2024-05-25 01:27:32 +0000 UTCYou're not allowed to poke around my battery pack. It's still under warranty!
Wowdude87
2024-05-25 01:24:47 +0000 UTCNice!
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 01:22:39 +0000 UTCLoved the video! Thanks to you and Technology Connections I was sold on buying a Ford F150 Lightning electric truck. And I love it! It tows extremely well and is incredibly comfortable. You're right. After driving my electric truck everything else feels slow and pathetic in comparison!
Wowdude87
2024-05-25 01:21:42 +0000 UTCCursory googling reveals you may be onto something!
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 01:11:34 +0000 UTCLike, indicating 50% charge by sending a "the engine RPM is 3200" or whatever.
ɥsoſ uʍop ǝpᴉsd∩ (ʘ︹ʘ)
2024-05-25 01:10:46 +0000 UTCI suspect that the gauge cluster is totally stock, they just changed the faces of the gauges so they say different things, and are sending it fake readings for what the gauges would have been, to make them do the right thing for what they are now. As far as the flipping through random errors when it's charging, i think that's also a normal GM thing- i've watched some videos by a guy who repairs clusters (jeffescortlx on youtube) and i think they all do that kind of thing when they get power applied, but no signal from the computer.
ɥsoſ uʍop ǝpᴉsd∩ (ʘ︹ʘ)
2024-05-25 01:09:23 +0000 UTCDespite my disagreements with it, it's a really cool thing
Aging Wheels
2024-05-25 01:00:25 +0000 UTCYou’re not helping my obsession I still want one so bad
Garrett Cyr
2024-05-25 00:59:27 +0000 UTCI love these weird EV things from 10 years ago
Keith Dosik
2024-05-25 00:58:19 +0000 UTC
