Saturday, November 18, 2017

Do I believe in battery 18 wheelers with 500 mile range?

That's what Elon Musk  claims.  He even has a prototype to show.   Of course he didn't demonstrate the range.  Cruising on the interstates at 70 mph such a truck needs 7-8 hours to travel 500 miles.  Which is a good day's run.  I think there are regulations, honored as much in the breach as on the road, limiting driving shifts to 8 hours.  In short that battery, if it lives up to spec,  will keep the truck moving as long as the driver is supposed to be driving it. 
Nor did Elon mention a price.  Last I heard you could get a conventional diesel tractor, new, for maybe $65K.  Can Elon even come close to that?  Who knows?  How long does it take to recharge? 
   On the other hand, heavy trucks have the room for a massive battery pack.  More weight just gives a tractor more pulling power.  And heavy trucks run a lot more miles in a year than private autos, so a small improvement in operating costs will pay off sooner.

1 comment:

DCE said...

Sounds great on the surface, but I have to wonder about how quickly the batteries will recharge, particularly for a tractor that has team drivers. (A lot of OO's - Owner Operators - have a partner that shares driving responsibilities. I know of three that are husband/wife teams.)

If such rigs used flow batteries then going electric makes sense. Refueling wouldn't take much more time than pumping an equivalent amount of diesel. But if you have to plug in even quick charges could take an hour or more.

I liked Walmart's take on a new tractor, something they've been working on with one of the big rig manufacturers (Freightliner, I think). It's a hybrid that uses a turbine to charge the batteries. The nice thing about the turbine is that it can use just about any liquid fuel.

It is an unusual looking vehicle, using a centrally located driver's position rather than a left-hand driving position. It uses cameras rather than mirrors. It is also very aerodynamic compared to even the more modern tractors.