Electrify All the Big, Noisy, Belching Trucks
Electrify All the Big, Noisy, Belching Trucks
www.nytimes.com
Opinion | Electrify All the Big, Noisy, Belching Trucks
34 comments
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Better yet, replace all the long haul routes with electric intermodal rail. That way you don’t take away from battery production, publicly funded roads last longer, and freight gets much cheaper. The main problem is that railroad executives put the rail industry in “managed decline” because their fleet management and organization is so shit that any customer that can will pay a massive premium to never interact with them.
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Trains for long haul. Electric trucks for last mile. Existing disel trucks for long haul sparsely populated areas.
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Swappable batteries could facilitate this too, rail needs a lot of work also
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No. Put that stuff on fucking rails to reduce the emissions of fine dust in the air
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hydrogen is the nuclear of energy
edit: in trucks
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Pretty sure nuclear is the nuclear of energy.
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nuclear is the nuclear of energy?
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did an edit
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been following this dude on tiktok since this company was just a gleam in his eye. they making electric plugin hybrid trucks
34 comments
Electrifying the trucks will not solve the problem. Batteries don't have the energy density to work for long haul trucks.
Zero emissions long haul freight is a solved problem. Electrified rail. It just needs to be built.
Governments are continuing to subsidize trucks instead of building the solution that already exists.
There is still last mile/miles concerns. Not every grocer can have a rail spur, but it can be serviced by a local fleet of electric trucks. The ultimate solution is a mix of various electrified transport.
Freight trolly has been a thing and is still used in some places. Between trains, freight trolly, and cargo bikes you could cover basically all urban use cases and most rural use cases.
Logistics predatss cars and trucks by quite a bit, the last hundred years has been an aboration masquerading as the norm. Those old solutions can be brought back.
I'm curious what you think the energy density needs to be for it to be viable and why? The way I see it energy density is a very minor factor for this equation but I'm curious to hear your explanation.
Are there any long haul electric trucks currently in widespread use? No, there really aren't. Batteries are the reason. If it were economically viable we would see long haul electric trucks. Major truck manufactures make electric trucks. Kennworth and Peterbilt, the two biggest truck manufactures in the united states have electric truck models, and they are only their short haul models. Battery electric trucks are fine for delivery vans, and last mile delivery applications. But long haul trucks do not work with batteries. If these truck makers thought long haul trucks were viable they would make them. They have the technology to do battery trucks.
The technology to do zero emission long haul overland freight already exists. Governments should spend money on that instead of praying that batteries eventually become good enough to maintain the status quo.
https://insideevs.com/news/686339/pepsico-tesla-semi-545-mile-range-test/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/08/tech/virgin-hyperloop-passengers/index.html
The energy density isn't a problem. Problem is fine dust.
Delivering a single person by train is also stupid, but in a lot of places there are enough people making similar journeys that having a train does make sense. The same can be applied to freight.
Replacing every truck with an electric one would be an environmental disaster. More freight needs to be moved by rail, and the trucks that we still need should be electric.
I appreciate you disclosing that you're making a strawman argument at the very beginning. Very considerate.
You want hydrogen trucks for this. It actually has the energy density needed.
You actually want hydrogen trucks. It actually has the energy density needed.
In a train a single train driver can transport a hundred containers. In a truck it is one. Similar story for other types of freight. At the same time electric trains are incredibly efficient, do not need recharging and are a common well understood technology. So you already have economy of scale for electric trains, whereas hydrogen trucks are extremely rarer.
The only situation hydrogen trucks are better then trains, is transporting a bit of cargo to a very remote location.