It would seem to me that exchangeable battery packs would be the way to go for big trucks. Some type of drive over exchanger that drops the discharged battery then returns a charged battery -- something that a minute or two.
Having a driver stopped recharging for 20% of her workday seems a bit expensive.
I wouldn't want someone else's potentially worn out or abused battery, especially given I'm the sort of person who takes care of my things.
As for time stuck charging, this is such a common argument, but drivers MUST stop every few hours by law, including a lunch break in the middle of their shift. Plus sleep or off-shift overnight parked time like most of these sorts of trucks sit for anyways.
Once batteries become big enough it's all moot anyways.....most day cab trucks can already do their entire typical days work without needing to stop to charge as it is.
I wouldn't want someone else's potentially worn out or abused battery, especially given I'm the sort of person who takes care of my things.
As for time stuck charging, this is such a common argument, but drivers MUST stop every few hours by law, including a lunch break in the middle of their shift. Plus sleep or off-shift overnight parked time like most of these sorts of trucks sit for anyways.
Once batteries become big enough it's all moot anyways.....most day cab trucks can already do their entire typical days work without needing to stop to charge as it is.
I’ll agree for day trucks, but from what I’ve read the target is long haul - $250k day tractors don’t work out economically.
The idea of battery exchange is eliminating charge time for drivers, extending battery range from 80 to 100%, and to off battery maintenance to the service provider.
I’ll agree for day trucks, but from what I’ve read the target is long haul - $250k day tractors don’t work out economically.
The idea of battery exchange is eliminating charge time for drivers, extending battery range from 80 to 100%, and to off battery maintenance to the service provider.
Yeah, for battery exchange to work, no individual would own the battery. Same as propane tank exchange. You either pay up front or lease a battery and constantly swap. You own part of a pool, not a specific serial number. A fleet could decide to buy and service their own pool to eliminate the 3rd party provider. Big truck EV's are interesting. The batteries are huge so to get quick recharge needs a ridiculous amount of power (much of which is needed on-peak). The ability to time-shift battery charging to off-peak may be enough on it's own to make battery swap economically viable. There is no way they will all standardize on that though, it may be a few manufacturers or clients that choose to swap and the rest will stick with permanently mounted packs.
Once fleets start to recognize these saving potentials they won't balk at increased upfront costs. Several years ago our fleet managers started spending the not insignificant extra cost of specc'ing some of our new equipment with automatic transmissions solely to gain a fraction of a MPG in overall fuel costs in some of the equipment that wasn't being operated efficiently by the drivers...because over a 1M to 1.25M Kilometer period of ownership that adds up, as well as less clutches to replace (an additional not insignificant savings in both parts and labour) because of driver abuse.
Fleet managers look at the long picture, not just the sticker price.
The idea of battery exchange is eliminating charge time for drivers, extending battery range from 80 to 100%, and to off battery maintenance to the service provider.
Again, drivers need to stop by law regularly. Solo drivers sit (by law) for a minimum of 8 hours a night for bunk time. Once infrastructure is built to service these charging windows (fast charging for someone needing a top up during a lunch stop and medium speed chargers for an overnight charge during their 8 hours off) battery swapping becomes entirely unnecessary.
There is no way they will all standardize on that though, it may be a few manufacturers or clients that choose to swap and the rest will stick with permanently mounted packs.
Big trucks have a better chance at battery-pack standardising than cars and light vehicles do. Take the cab off, and underneath, they all basically look the same and have the same major assemblies in very close to the same places. Tesla of course can be expected to do their own thing.
Big trucks have a better chance at battery-pack standardising than cars and light vehicles do. Take the cab off, and underneath, they all basically look the same and have the same major assemblies in very close to the same places. Tesla of course can be expected to do their own thing.
Agree. I just don't think exchangable batteries will be required for everybody and they cause some issues as now you need reliable weather resistant systems to support the batteries and make the electrical connections. It adds a lot of cost and complexity that you can avoid if charging via cable can work for your use case.
Big trucks have a better chance at battery-pack standardising than cars and light vehicles do. Take the cab off, and underneath, they all basically look the same and have the same major assemblies in very close to the same places. Tesla of course can be expected to do their own thing.
That's why I still think Tesla should have made a proprietary system and then wholesaled it. Same concept could happen for battery powered trucks. There are a lot of players that don't know how to make vehicles but may have good concepts for the powertrain/battery system. Instead of a Cat or Volvo drivetrain, OEM's just buy a Sparky drivetrain and let each company design and build to their strengths.
I believe this is sort of whats happening in the GM Honda collaboration.
Can't wait to see both parties interpretation of a similar platform.
Perhaps they will sell their platform to others? I haven't seen or heard any thing on the EV side from Mazda or Subaru would make sense to purchase an existing drivetrain
The Limiting Factor's Jordan Giesige talked about rumors of Apple considering Toshiba's SCiB batteries, made from Lithium Titanate, for the 'Project Titan' electric vehicle (EV).
And the back bumper. If I bought a Tesla I would probably take a drive to "Mexico" and give is a solid high speed run to see what would fly off while it was still under warranty.
There was a tesla accident in Waterloo a couple of years ago. It got t boned by a red lite runner compact. Sil saw it happen, and said it looked like a Lego car coming apart.
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