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Electric Trucks and Buses

Roger B
This firm seems to be putting a lot of effort into real sized electric trucks. There are a few running around here but I understand the Swiss taxation of HGVs makes this possible (as with the hydrogen fuel cell trucks).

Electric Trucks | Utility Vehicles | E-Trucks | Futuricum


Berlin had a few range issues with its battery buses during the cold spell and had to make the last few runs will diesels. It appears the busses did not deliver there specified low temperature range. This article is a bit negative but in the end says it was a limited problem.

https://notrickszone.com/2021/02/17/green-folly-berlins-city-e-buses-leave-passengers-out-in-the-cold-diesel-buses-to-the-rescue/


Personally I will be happy if the early morning buses and trucks are electric but I'm not sure if it is really economical.
  • 0
    Well it looks like the range problem is more to do with providing cabin heating than loss of battery amp hours, and that, perhaps with double door air locks and more imaginative construction (insulation/ double glazing  maybe, not worth it on short hops, but coaches perhaps) is the sort of thing that can be solved in a 'B' model.

    Actually even on a Diesel model, such things would be worth considering , but they are not designed for energy conservation, being designed on a 'cheap oil' model.


    This is all just the start, not the end, of a long process.

    Mike.
  • 0
    The buses here are already double glazed however they have to deal with a wider temperature range than the UK. Heating, lighting and aircon is also a problem for railways and a number of non-electrified passenger trains have had additional generating sets so as not to starve the traction power.

    As a slight aside we took a short break in the Engadin during the cold period, deciding for various reasons to drive rather than take the train as usual. The car, a 12year old Touran 1.9TDI, stood outside for a few days with overnight temperatures under -20°C. The morning we left it was -18°C. The engine started at the first attempt and the idling fuel consumption was 2.6l/h. When I took my foot off the clutch pedal it rose to 2.8l/h (always disengage the clutch when starting, in these temperatures it makes a difference). The normal idling consumption is 0.6-0.7l/h.
    Starting to drive back at 50mph up a slight incline (the Engadin doesn’t do flat) the engine temperature was falling, all the waste heat was going into the cabin. At the Verina tunnel we had to stop in a covered area to wait for the next shuttle followed by a 20 minute ride on the train all with no heat from the engine. We were aware of this and had worn our ski suits otherwise it would have been rather cold.

  • 0
    I watched an interesting video by Fully Charged on YouTube recently. While naysayers in the West keep telling us how electric vehicles aren't practical, the city of Shenzhen in China has now replaced all of its buses and taxis with electric ones.  That's 16000 buses and 22000 taxis.


    The buses charge up overnight on cheap rate electricity.  Taxi drivers can reserve a slot at a charging station while they take a break.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P7fTPLSMeI

  • 0
    I saw quite a number of battery buses when I was last in Changzhou (~6years ago) but not to that level. They will certainly help to reduce urban air pollution and noise but won’t do anything about total emissions. Although China is currently building the largest amount of wind, solar and nuclear generation capacity in the world it is also building the largest amount of coal generation capacity.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL4N2K81R0

    Buses, urban delivery and refuse collection are ideal uses for EVs. The routes and loadings can be optimised to match battery capacity so the vehicles are not carrying excessive battery weight ‘just in case’. As Shenzhen is also home to BVD who make the electric buses and taxis this does appear to be something of a research project as well.  According the official  press release the city paid nearly 500 million USD in subsidies. Their claimed energy savings seem a little optimistic.

    https://insideevs.com/news/335551/shenzhen-now-home-to-16000-electric-buses/

    It suggest that 1700 charging stations have been installed for the buses, mostly 150kW units so around 250MW  if fully utilised ¼ of a typical power station.

    https://insideevs.com/news/487869/shenzhen-city-16000-electric-buse-22000-taxis/

    I am quite happy with the use of EVs to reduce urban pollution and noise, I am not so sure about energy saving/CO2 reduction and I am very sceptical about actual cost savings.


  • 0
    I found a somewhat more acedemic report on Schnzhen which confirms that it is a subsidised experiment and is not currently economic.

    e-bus-case-study-Shenzhen.pdf
  • 0
    Another attempt at using a mining dump truck as a net energy source if it has to deliver downhill. 

    https://www.theengineer.co.uk/wae-and-fortescue-to-develop-electric-mining-haul-truck/


    A Swiss firm tried the same concept a few years ago with some success:

    Jump aboard the eDumper, the world's largest electric vehicle - CNN


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