Electric Trucks

cecilia

cecilia

Active Member
Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Messages
7,713
Reaction score
2,588
Make Way for Electric Trucks
Here is Hansel’s pitch, in a nutshell: Electric motors are powerful (they propel locomotives, after all), efficient (no waste heat or cooling system) and relatively maintenance-free (Hansel asks: “Do you have any idea what a company like Frito-Lay spends on mufflers?”). And they emit no pollution. Of course, they use electricity, most of which is generated by burning fossil fuels. But as power plants rely more on renewable sources such as wind and solar, electric trucks look better and better. Averaged over the entire country, and taking into account regional differences, Smith calculates that each truck it sells reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent, compared with diesel.
Click to expand...
 
cecilia said:
Make Way for Electric Trucks
Click to expand...
I remember there is a company around here doing electric vans and trucks. Or at least there was about 8 years ago. I'll have to check for them again.

Always struck me as a no-brainer. If you need to target people you need to target high mileage people and delivery trucks and couriers are high mileage. Cabs went Prius almost when it came out because they do the mileage, they make the savings - even a few percent is worth if for them. Deliveries are also high mileage so any savings on a fleet can turn into big money in short order.
 
Ya, but diesel was quite cheap for the longest time.
 
I wonder why we haven't see fuel cell trucks yet. I guesss the technology isn't quite there yet... :(
 
need fuel cell tractors and such too... the fuel bill just for diesel last year was around 18 grand... i know people that dont even make that in a year...
 
redrumloa said:
I wonder why we haven't see fuel cell trucks yet. I guesss the technology isn't quite there yet... :(
Click to expand...
Hydrogen needs to be manufactured. Water is split into Hydrogen that goes in the fuel cell and oxygen. Hydrogen has a very low power to volume ratio. You need 4 gallons of hydrogen to equal the amount of energy in 1 gallon of gasoline. The regular tank won't work as well ~15 gallon tank is about 90 pounds of gasoline or 8 pounds of hydrogen. Thus, fuel cells need to be invented. They are chemical storage units which imparts losses too. (Stupid conversvation of matter law, why not repeal it!) Hydrogen isn't close to cost competitive to manufacture. Now throw in there's no delivery systems (trucks or pipelines) no service stations (no where to fill up). There's not only a car problem but a larger problem to solve. It's do able, but again it's all money.

Now for the final trigger - throw in about 80% of the US are in a drought. Think corn based fuel is bad try using our water supply instead. It'd probably be fine around the coast line or in Hawaii. This would make a huge impact in the center of the nation.

Batteries simply make more sense. They're more cost effective and self generation systems can be put into cars. At some point we could use almost any source of power to do this. Want a sugar based engine - make one and hook it into the battery generation systems removing the gas engine in the Volt (for example).

So in short - yes the technologies aren't there and won't be for a long time.
 
Quote
"Electric motors are powerful (they propel locomotives, after all)"
-----------------------------

Poor example! Locomotives need a diesel engine to generate that electricity; and a monster one at that.

A 200 car, pure battery powered locomotive would probably need half those cars filled with batteries to make a 1,000 mile trip. Maglev on the other hand.......
 
cecilia said:
Make Way for Electric Trucks
Click to expand...

Locomotives are Diesel Electric
500px-DieselElectricLocomotiveSchematic.svg.png

Navistar has been selling the DuraStar Hybrid Truck chassis since 2007

images
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top