The perfect drive train was invented more than twenty years ago by a small Japanese holding company named Toyota
Mating two motor-generators with a combustion engine via planetary gear set allows for 90 percent of the benefits of a pure electric vehicle but with a much smaller battery
They casually get double the mpg of a pure gas vehicle on the highway, and in the city they can drive several miles on batteries
The thing is, electric trucks already serve basically all Europe needs. There are mandatory breaks every few hours (4 I believe) which is about the range you get on one 80% charge of current trucks. Meaning they charge, drive, charge and rest, drive, charge and rest and so on.
The side benefit being that E-Trucks can haul 40 tons up the mountain without dropping down to 20kph
There are barely enough rest stops in many places of Europe to accommodate truck drivers just taking their mandatory rest breaks. Look at the stops along any busy German highway at night, it’s pure pandemonium. There’s an estimated 20 000 truck parking spots missing in Germany alone: https://www.adac.de/news/lkw-parken-an-raststaetten/
Now imagine that every single one of those spots (not the missing ones, not the new ones, all of them - millions) also needs a charging station. That’s a monumental undertaking.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’ll be extremely hard and would take a lot of time and money. This isn’t a “we’re halfway there” situation, we haven’t even started.
You’re absolutely right, but that is something that won’t change if trucks keep being electric or hybrid. Besides, E-trucks still have a use for shorter distances such as trips from a dispocentre to supermarkets for example. And there you can see part of the problem, lacking ingenuity and braveness.
Nearly every supermarket could have PV on the roof, for their own use and to charge delivery trucks. Effectively reducing the daily costs by a lot.
The perfect drive train was invented more than twenty years ago by a small Japanese holding company named Toyota
Mating two motor-generators with a combustion engine via planetary gear set allows for 90 percent of the benefits of a pure electric vehicle but with a much smaller battery
They casually get double the mpg of a pure gas vehicle on the highway, and in the city they can drive several miles on batteries
TRUE PRIUS HAS NEVER BEEN TRIED
The thing is, electric trucks already serve basically all Europe needs. There are mandatory breaks every few hours (4 I believe) which is about the range you get on one 80% charge of current trucks. Meaning they charge, drive, charge and rest, drive, charge and rest and so on. The side benefit being that E-Trucks can haul 40 tons up the mountain without dropping down to 20kph
There are barely enough rest stops in many places of Europe to accommodate truck drivers just taking their mandatory rest breaks. Look at the stops along any busy German highway at night, it’s pure pandemonium. There’s an estimated 20 000 truck parking spots missing in Germany alone: https://www.adac.de/news/lkw-parken-an-raststaetten/
Now imagine that every single one of those spots (not the missing ones, not the new ones, all of them - millions) also needs a charging station. That’s a monumental undertaking.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’ll be extremely hard and would take a lot of time and money. This isn’t a “we’re halfway there” situation, we haven’t even started.
You’re absolutely right, but that is something that won’t change if trucks keep being electric or hybrid. Besides, E-trucks still have a use for shorter distances such as trips from a dispocentre to supermarkets for example. And there you can see part of the problem, lacking ingenuity and braveness. Nearly every supermarket could have PV on the roof, for their own use and to charge delivery trucks. Effectively reducing the daily costs by a lot.
Plus they still benefit from advances in both battery storage improvements, ICE improvements, and electric infrastructure rollouts.