America’s High EV Costs Are Driving Buyers to Hybrids
Concerns about high sticker prices and limited charging infrastructure for electric cars are driving renewed interest in the gasoline-electric vehicles.
Amber Lombardi with her Ford F-150 hybrid in Falmouth, Maine. She uses the pickup to tow the trailer for her mobile dental practice, called Mainely Teeth.
Photographer: Tara Rice for Bloomberg BusinessweekWhen Amber Lombardi went car shopping last year, she knew she needed an efficient vehicle able to haul a large trailer for her mobile dental practice. And it would be great if it could help provide electricity for some of her onboard equipment. The Ford F-150 pickup she chose has plenty of towing capability, and her drills and teeth-cleaning tools can draw juice from a 7.2-kilowatt generator built into the bed of the truck, powered by the same battery that helps propel it down the road.
Lombardi’s truck isn’t one of Ford Motor Co.’s hot-selling F-150 Lightning electric pickups. It’s a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the venerable F-150, which costs less and still saves big on her fuel bills. “It just wasn’t within our reach to have a fully electric vehicle at this time,” says Lombardi, chief executive officer of Mainely Teeth in Portland, Maine. “So this is kind of bridging our gap.”