Hybrid truck recharges from overhead wires

[u/guyoffthegrid]

[u/LordNibble]

No, this is just a one mile strip which the truck uses to load it's battery.

It replaces a gas station, not a tram track.

[u/NastyBanshee → u/LordNibble]

this is useless. At 50mph, it takes 1.2 minutes to go a mile. There is NO WAY, that you can recharge a heavy duty BATTERY in 72 seconds.

[u/influencer00 → u/NastyBanshee]

It’s in pilot phase right now; the idea would be to have this infrastructure in place on highways which have the most heavy duty traffic. The trucks would be able to use the power lines as a direct power supply to drive the engine and even charge their battery. Then use that battery or ICE hybrid for the rest of the route off the highway.

From the article:

“Because heavy duty road freight is normally concentrated on main routes, only a small percentage of all roads would have to be electrified to make the system work. In Germany, for example, 60 percent of heavy truck CO2 emissions occur on only two percent of the road network, while almost 90 percent of truck trips after leaving the highway only cover 50 kilometres or less, according to Alan McKinnon from the Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg. …

Making and building the infrastructure would also consume a lot of energy, but once it is installed, it could be used for decades to come - surviving many generations of battery-electric trucks. An additional advantage of catenary systems is that companies already have decades of experience with the technology in trains, trams and buses. The technology has been proven to work, and has relatively low maintenance and repair costs.

In a landmark study on cutting climate-damaging emissions, Germany's most important industry association BDI recommended electrifying 4,000 - 8,000 km of the country's 13,000-km autobahn network as the cheapest way to decarbonise road freight.

"Despite the necessary infrastructure investments, this option is currently the most cost-efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," the study said (p.183).”

[u/OkSyllabub3674 → u/influencer00]

Thanks for that info, it does sound like it would be some manageable numbers as far as being able to make the largest impact with least overhead.

[u/Camnorand → u/NastyBanshee]

The premise of solely electric is about like the communist utopia. Both sound nice but in practice it's pretty damn terrible for everything involved. Everyone responsible for this global push for solely electric vehicles needs to be beaten with a sock of d cell batteries for their claims of being better for the environment.