Electric tractor trailer

[roc]

https://youtu.be/w2SGUGMlNAU

[mk e]

..In a place like LA moving the pilomurion out of the valley is helpful, even if it means mire total polution (hybrids)...

OK, my vocabulary is quite extensive, but this is a new one to me. Please define and provide references. (Ah wait, perhaps we're supposed to go phonetic and sound it out as "pile o' manure"?)

Sorry...that is me typing on a phone were the letters are close together and autocorrect didn't fix it. Your guess was very close, pollution was the intended word..Sorry.

[CamKing]

Locomotives have been doing this for a very long time and works well. I'm surprised passenger cars and trucks are doing this more. I'd guess that's where were are headed though.

This works well because you can optimize the fuel efficiency of the engine at a certain sustained RPM making it VERY fuel efficient over an engine that has to deal with various load, RPM, and throttle position (vacuum).

Agreed.... hard to believe it's not more popular in automotive world.

It's called a hybrid

Actually, it's called a "Series Hybrid".
A Hybrid uses the engine and the electric motors to propel the vehicle.
A Series Hybrid uses only the electric motors to propel the vehicle, and the engine is only used to generate electricity for the motors.

[mk e]

Actually, it's called a "Series Hybrid".
A Hybrid uses the engine and the electric motors to propel the vehicle.
A Series Hybrid uses only the electric motors to propel the vehicle, and the engine is only used to generate electricity for the motors.

Probably so, but I'm not sure how significant the distinction is. The Toyota system has always been capable of electric only and maintaining constant engine rpm which are both key to efficiency and is probably more than a true series hybrid....at least in a car.

[peejay]

Even with charging stations you can't make a living stopping every hundred miles. Why do people think that electric vehicles are pollution free?

Electric isn't necessarily "pollution free" but even with losses involved in transmission and such, it is much more efficient to generate power at a single source than it is to have a few hundred thousand individual I/C engines.

That said I do not see the appeal at all of an electric tractor-trailer. Even hybrids wouldn't make sense, because that adds weight that takes away from available load, and you probably can save more fuel in getting more load onto a trailer than you could get back from hybrid regeneration, factoring in that you'd have to make more trips with a hybrid.

Basically, semis are the closest thing the road has to "central generation" that makes electrics so viable as personal vehicles. (It's way more efficient to move a lot of cargo in a single truck than to move it all in ten-twenty smaller ones) So this doesn't make sense at all.

Electric cars? Awesome. Sign me up when they make one that doesn't look as deliberately ugly as possible like the i3. Electric trucks? Mmmm... no.

[user-23911]

Nothing new really with electric trucks.
They were used years ago for delivering milk.
That's probably about all they're good for until batteries improve even more.

The only changes with up to date ones is better batteries, computers and more powerful motors.

[roc]

Nothing new really with electric trucks.
They were used years ago for delivering milk.
That's probably about all they're good for until batteries improve even more.

The only changes with up to date ones is better batteries, computers and more powerful motors.

Some subtle changes uh? In reality, anything between front and rear bumpers is new.

[user-23911]

It's the range that's lacking.

I've had a couple of cars on CNG and it's a bit of a pain to fill them up every 2 days even though it's really cheap.


But these days you've got the range on CNG.....with computers etc.

[roc]

It's the range that's lacking.

I've had a couple of cars on CNG and it's a bit of a pain to fill them up every 2 days even though it's really cheap.


But these days you've got the range on CNG.....with computers etc.

I agree Joe. But the range will improve with time. Some of us that used laptops in the 90's will remember how crappy their batteries were (or better said, the whole computer).

I worked with natural gas in early 90's and my daily driver was NG. I surely didn't like the limited range (around 200 miles on highway), but I loved the cost per mile. At least with NG I could change back to liquid fuel with a flip of a switch on the dash.

[emsvitil]

I can see them being used in a port to shift containers around as they offload ships.

They can be plugged in and charging when not in use.

They'd probably get less pollution at the PORT with them too...........

[lefty o]

https://youtu.be/HxYe26CIvuY

[stealth]

https://youtu.be/HxYe26CIvuY

GOOD ONE!....