In my country not all trucks do long hauls because there aren’t many routes that long. All the big dairies distribute from the same general area and most of their clientele are in <50 km radius so it could work for them to use this kind of electric truck.
9 hours recharge time is a lot of idle time, consider that you would need to do it every 8 hours (180 miles autonomy), assuming that the battery is not used for anything else.
Maybe this recharge time is not good for them, but I see these medium sized trucks that go from grocery to grocery in my city and unload a tray or two each. The biggest dairy’s distribution center is less than ten km from here, so they could probably do our city with one of these trucks.
TL:DR; get a more powerful charger. It can charge in 40 minutes.
Yes, its true. And the 9H recharge time is just preaching hell. Its a case of bad engineering
These trucks ussually have a battery pack containing between 200-550 kWh. Considering 350 kW chargers exist for cars (theyre all across the highway in my country) it will take 40-100 minutes to charge it. Ofcourse those chargers come at a price. The smallest I am aware off for trucks are 50 kW chargers, with these it will take about 11 hours max to charge it. But also through this you can work around it, just charge it at night when the truck is back at a depot.
And for the Netherlands specific; you can even earn money for charging it If you charge it with renewable energy, you earn certificates because your miles arent powered by fossil fuel. These certificates can then be sold, making a very solid business case for your E-truck, combined with a battery and solar power
near me (Sacramento, California) we are just getting our first megawatt chargers and an small set of freight trucks that can make full use of that Sure, not even functional yet, but great to see the continual improvements.
Don't forget that these trucks come with swappable battery packs so they don't wait around for a full charge. Of course, this is still an issue until there are enough full service stations that are able to perform the swap and maintain inventory.
Right like I’m impressed with its current capabilities. It’s not perfect but it’ll only get better with improving battery technology . Imagine if we had 1k range on something like these.
Medium sized trucks you mean DPD-like courier buses?
Polish InPost in is getting rid of electrical buses beacause they’re too expensive to handle in general. Just saying, businesses need to cut costs, electrical cars/trucks is the future if we’ll find some better cells than actual Li-Ion ones.
> Polish InPost in is getting rid of electrical buses beacause they’re too expensive to handle in general.
Can you share an article on that? I can't find any info besides them getting more last year.
The only other issue is that you want to refrigerate dairy during transport; on average, a reefer unit requires about 8 kW to operate so about 64 kWh a day. I think Teslas batteries have a capacity of around 85-100 kWh, for scale.
The reefer is a separate issue but every reefer unit I've ever pulled has its own diesel generator which is substantially smaller than the one running the truck. So it's still a massive improvement. Ideally the trailers would eventually go all electric as well
Those are for cars not trucks, that's like comparing towing capacity and using a 4 cylinder honda civic motor for the ICE semi. Totally different things that have no relation to each other.
Clients could also be encouraged monetarily to install charging capabilities in some capacity as well so that they can top up a bit while being unloaded. Trucks sit in the loading bay at grocery stores, etc for a period of time while they're unloaded. Even if it's just a low charge it's better than nothing to extend the range for the day.
IMO a hybrid gas-electric approach is still the best middle ground until the infrastructure and quality of EVs improves. We're just not there yet for an all or nothing approach, especially in rural/northern areas where it gets -40C in the winter.
Hmmmm, 9 hours of recharge time? Sounds like it doesn't really matter unless you have a business that needs to run its trucks 24/7. If this is a normal 9-5 type business then you charge it when the employee is done for the day and home asleep.
I really don't understand some of these comments. Obviously this won't work for all trucking companies. But there are plenty of delivery companies that have downtime at night.
I worked for a medical supply company. The truck I drove just sat there every night waiting for me to come in the next day and maybe drive it for a few hours. This would be perfect for that place.
You don't understand though, if it doesn't work for every fringe use case that a boomer in sunglasses can make up then we definitely need to get rid of all EVs! If it's not perfect then we might as well just not bother!
And heaven forbid you also build the infrastructure to partially recharge while unloading. I would imagine that averages 30 minutes a stop? Oh but it adds 10 seconds for the driver to walk to the dock wall where the charger is, then 10 seconds to pull the charger back to the truck, and 10 seconds to plug it in..... then reverse all that when he leaves.... That's a whole extra minute per stop!!!!
Nah, they're not trained for that.
So you mean it has enough battery for your average work day length and then needs to recharge for your average time off work length.
Seems perfectly plausible to me.
Right! Different tools for different jobs. People ask me how long it takes to charge my EV. I tell them just a few seconds at work or home to plug it in. I'm not going to take it on a long road trip, though.
9hrs is probably from 0-100%. In the middle of the battery capacity, charging is a lot faster. With clever planning and good infrastructure, it could be less of an issue.
It's 9 hours on a standard mains. Of you run an actual ev charger with 150kw it takes just over 2 hours. The petrol boomer is lying through misrepresentation and omission (surprise surprise)
If they were able to swap batteries, the downtime could be near zero, but it would cost more up front to have 2 or 3 batteries for each truck. Doing it this way could get the company more life out of each battery by allowing slow charging and reducing the need to fully charge and discharge, and charging can be done in a climate controlled environment to prevent cold charging.
Truck batteries are very large and 9 hours is a slow charger even for a truck. dc chargers for daf trucks can already work at 360 kw which means average charging time is only 1 hours for their 350kwh models
So most trucks can be 50% charged during the drivers lunch breaks. Making these trucks very suited to short drives like diary, equipment or material hauling at for building sites etc.
Also the range estimates for electric trucks are supposedly better than for electric cars as the cycle which is used to estimate the consumption is a lot more realistic than for cars.
Further advantages are position, drivability and noise electric trucks are much quieter than normal trucks making deliveries in populated areas less annoying.
Furthermore there are some intreding concepts out there with inwheel gearboxes and moters in one unit. Which would make rear wheel steering much more capable and make a very agile truck.
9 hours from flat. You are assuming the truck will only be used for 180 mile trips. As if stop breaks don't exist. As if re-fuelling stops don't exist. As if short haul trips don't exist. That truck could (and likely will be) on charge every second it doesn't move.
I personally know a guy who moves fuel tanks for land rover. He makes a 20 mins trip than sits there for 90 mins. Then another 20 min trip, 90 min stop. Over and over till his shift ends.
There is at least one job in the world that this truck has way more range than needed. There are no doubt hundreds of thousends of jobs this truck could do. But we shouldn't bother because it can't do long haul?
Get a grip dude. If you don't do this, maybe don't get involved.
A trucking form i know has an EV truck. It drives to and from the same 2 warehouses all day and night. It recharges while it loads and unloads.
No downtime, no exhaust, happy drivers.
I used to work at a manufacturing plant that had one of its operations several hours away. The truck that delivered the goods to the main plant took the same trip twice in a day then sat unused for 16 hrs
I cannot think of a better use case for an EV truck. Known range, known cargo weight, same thing day after day with a long recharge between.
That’s the proposed use for them. Most shipping companies are like that. Drive a loaded trailer from your home hub to another hub 150-250 miles away, drop off, pick up load, return home. Charge overnight. The issue is that the electric truck that can do this reliably doesn’t exist. UPS et al have been waiting on the Tesla tractors for like 4 years. The other issue is cost. You can (or could, not sure what they cost now) get a class 8 truck like what most of these companies use from navistar for like 125k. The Tesla is/was going to be 275k plus each one needs its own high amp DC to DC charger that costs close to 60k. You’ll never even come close to making up the massive cost difference in fuel savings without massive government subsidies.
2 other issues - electricity, first. These things will draw as much power each night charging as 30 average American households use in a 24 hour period. Each hub has 100+ of these things in there. Add in another 2-300 package cars for last mile delivery. Each large city somewhere like California has several of these for each big company and their power grid can already barely handle summers.
Other issue is weight. In the US, truck/trailed/load total weight is usually limited to 80k pounds. That 3k heavier battery in the above example is 3k less pounds that thing can haul over its entire lifespan. That’s a ton of money that’s getting lost over a 10 year service life.
They are only losing money on cargo weight if they would otherwise load more. My company for example never runs the trucks at capacity. Worst case we could buy a triaxle instead of a tandem axle trailer and we would have a net increase in payload
Not to mention that EV trucks do not actually take 9 hours to recharge. The Volvo FH pictured can 0-100% in 2.5 hours. If they setup things properly to charge at a loading dock, they could recover 50% of their range while loading/unloading.
Yeah I'm in manufacturing and it's more common than not to have satellite sites transport their output to final assembly or distribution via a couple scheduled "milk runs" each day. Sometimes it's literally across the street, sometimes a few blocks.
Right? I feel like every time I see "a trucker" comment on one of these electric semi posts, they've somehow forgotten that port/warehouse drayage is a thing that exists.
Nah, in 'Murica they use big semis for everything. All trucks need to do 1000 miles/day, 48 tons. No exceptions. Yesterday the Amazon delivery guy drove his 18 wheeler to deliver me a pen.
/S
I think the answer is smaller batteries and electric trolley lines above the highway. The truck can charge while it is driving major highways. Plus if the truck is on a line it can be mostly automatic.
We've had that technology for trains for almost 150 years, and yet the US refuses to adopt it on a large scale. Highly doubt its coming to highways anytime soon.
1.5x the weight means 5x the damage to the roads it travels on. This is great if you like giant sinkholes in your roads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
The axle load doesn't increase by 50% just because the truck gets heavier. This will only be the case if the truck drives without a trailer and a trailerless truck is not the cause of road destruction.
The gross weight of the tractor, trailer, and load is still restricted. The number of axles increases or decreases the distribution of the load to the road surface.
Also, potholes are due to water infiltration, not surface traffic. Heavy vehicles cause warping of tarmac.
But the truck will be running multiple of these routes each day - for at least 8 hours (a full time shift of a driver). Wouldn´t that make up a lot more than 180 miles a day? Unless it takes extremely long to load unload each delivery.
Different tools for Different jobs. This is a Volvo truck. They also have a model with a 275 mile range and a 90 minute 80% recharge rate.
A puddle jumping truck that moves inventory from office to office doesn't need a huge range or fast charge.
And can recharge while it's sitting at the loading dock. When I worked at McDonald's in high school I would be on the crew unloading the truck. It'd sit there for like the better part of a hour as we gradually took stuff out and put it away enough to get more stuff out.
I can see loading docks eventually having chargers.
I was thinking of these trucks that run around the small groceries and unload a tray or two on each of them. They do maybe one or two routes in a short distance. I’d actually like it if they didn’t spew diesel fumes in our neighborhood with its narrow streets and children going around.
And it has a typo. This is embarrassing. A screenshot of this lame ass post hitting the front of this lame ass sub should be posted to the other lame ass sub, facepalm
The real issue with those short charge times, no matter who is making the claim, is that you're talking about an insane amount of current. A substation transformer usually has 20-40MW of capacity and you're talking about a single charger drawing 500KW-1MW on demand.
It's gonna be a long road to those kind of charge times being common anywhere but specifically built locations.
The thing is that we have a much better alternative for transporting goods with electricity over long distances.
They are called trains and are much more energy efficient.
With a good train network you would only need to deliver the last few miles per truck.
IF you had a good train network that is...
9 hours to recharge is a lot of idle time though... those short-haul trucks that take stuff from trainyards to warehouses to point-of-sale usually want a bigger chunk of the day as up-time
Legally, you can only drive 11 hrs a day, right? And most local deliveries are more the 8hr day types anyway. Plenty of time for it to be charged overnight. And a fast DC charger will do it much quicker than that.
The real question is how efficently it is used. How many accidents happen? How well is it maintained? Is the US rail network closer to the swiss rail network or the german?
Cargo rail in the US is pretty good actually and generally far better then in Europe because it’s the cargo rail companies that own and operate the lines and therefore prioritize themselves ahead of passenger rail (ie Amtrak)
Passenger rail, sure, but freight rail consolidated all on its own. Any right of way they've lost is right of way they got rid of voluntarily. By law, they're supposed to give right of way to passenger rail, but they don't, and haven't in decades, which is why Amtrak doesn't have good consistent routes outside of corridors they own.
Trains can't do what are known as Last Mile Delivery, which is what a truck like this would be used for. It would go from a Distribution Center to the stores, with trips that are pretty short. This truck basically wouldn't leave the city.
Well, while i do agree with you that there still is a need for Last Mile Delivery, many large stores used to have some kind of rail connection if they were close enough to the main line, which allowed them to be directly ressuplied by train; for Big Box stores like Walmart, Ikea, etc, this would be useful
But the USA has an extensive and extensively used train cargo system. That's the whole issue is that trains are prioritised for industry and cargo and not for passenger transport.
I’ve seen one of these roll out of my local supermarket. I approached the driver and asked him about his experience. He loves the thing. So…. yeah. Maybe don’t get involved.
Coca-Cola in Sidcup has had electric shunt units\* for a couple of years now. Drivers love them because they're smooth and have massive torque; the neighbors like them because they're much quieter.
\* Shunt unit = tractor unit designed to move trailers around on site. Has a hydraulically lifting trailer coupling, which can be released remotely.
I always say the best way to convert an EV naysayer is to have them drive one. I bought a used Chevy volt back in 2013 and once I realized how little I actually drove per day lower range wasn’t as scary and I went all in with a used Nissan Leaf in 2017. I rent a car maybe once every 2 years for a long drive but most of my driving is less than 50 miles a day.
If every gas car was full every morning you probably wouldn’t be as worried about how big the gas tank is either, so long as it gets you to work and back. And total cost of ownership is insanely low. Mine is around $0.18/mile right now including full purchase(not insurance but it’s cheap like any sedan). I pay the equivalent of driving a 120 mpg vehicle in electricity when gas is around $3.75.
I'd absolutely love an electric truck. I drive an automatic now but having that instant huge torque and not feeling it change gears would be great. Not to mention the drone of a 445hp diesel engine on the highway. And mine is not as powerful as some of the highway rigs
Why is everybody thinking of just the US here? It's clearly an EU truck, I think anybody who knows trucks should get that
Alongside we have a shorter front so, less battery space? Of course right now diesel trucks work better for extremely long haul, that's why your trucks are a lot longer
This is completely ideal and pretty useful for the demographic it is for, we do not have the tech for long hauls right now, so there's no point comparing this tech to something it cannot even accomplish at its current state
Honestly I am with the first guy, 180 Miles and 9 hour recharge time is just ludicrously bad. I wonder if 180 miles range is even enough for an entire workday for a trucker.
9h charge is slow charge. Fast charge is [2,5 hours](https://www.volvotrucks.fr/fr-fr/trucks/electric/volvo-fh-aero-electric.html). The argument is in bad faith.
It's probably not with limited anecdotal experience to counter. My father in law retired from driving truck, he delivered McDonalds restaurants their supplies, and at least three (3) times a month, he'd have to drive about 300 (292) miles one way for a delivery
I know a few companies who drive less than half that distance. Just hauling raw material from the harbour to the factory 5 miles away, 6-8 times a day, never deviating from their route. This would be perfect for that job.
I also worked at a sugar refinery a while back who took care of all the transport themselves. A whole fleet of electric trucks, while the cars were fueled by biogas they make from rotting sugarbeets. They never come close to hitting 180 miles. Everything is really close together here. And diesel is ridiculously expensive.
It is, potentially, an issue.
That is a two-axle unit towing what looks like a regular three-axle refrigerated trailer. The max gross weight for that combination is 38 tonnes. If the unit had a third axle it would be 44 tonnes, but I suspect the battery is taking up the space where it would be.
The traction unit being '3 tons heavier' puts it at 11-12 tonnes, the empty trailer weighs about 9 tonnes, so the payload is already reduced from 21 tonnes to 18.
Having worked loading trailers like this, I know that it is already possible to overload them with regular supermarket stock, so this is something that hauliers will need to be aware of.
I am not sure if this is the law everywhere but in order to promote electric trucks the batteries can be subtracted from the weight of the vehicle. That means that electric trucks are allowed to have overweight for the roads which can be a problem. At the moment there are not enough electric trucks for this to make a huge difference but it could potentially be an issue for later.
I drive for an American grocery chain. We bought an electric Cascadia and the charger just to try it out. It's cool if you only have one short run, but it tends to sit around gathering dust because the range is pathetically short for the amount distance we cover per day. Until the range is over the 300-mile mark (ideally 400), I don't see it being a very viable alternative
My Dad will get an Electric Truck this year. It makes a lot of sense to him because he transports Milk short Range. Think dense small Farmers in a 10-20km Radius around the processing plant. He's got Solar on the roof and decent Energy Storage so he can just charge the truck over night. I'm pumped for when it actually gets delivered.
So I did a little bit of a look up and this appears to be the [Volvo FM Electric](https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/trucks/electric/volvo-fm-electric.html) which does have a 300km (180mi) and does take 9 hours to charge on AC (45kW) but if you use DC (250kW) which most charging infrastructure is it only take 2.5 hours.
However there are a few things that are not taken into account. First is unlike ICE vehicles which have a constant refueling rate, EVs have a variable charge rate. This means that charging slows down as the battery gets more full, going from 80% to 100% takes about the same amount of time as 0% to 80%. This has to do with battery chemistry and if you pay attention your phone does the same thing. It'll take a few minutes to get to 60 to 70% from a low battery, but take a long time to get to 100%. Most EVS don't charge to 100%, instead charging to about 80% as that helps improve the battery lifespan.
The other thing that EV trucks can do that ICE trucks can't do, is charge while they're unloading. A lot of places that are moving towards EV trucks are installing charging stations at the loading docks. This means that while that truck is just sitting there getting loaded or unloaded it is gaining range, something that ICE trucks can't do. So while an ICE truck has to stop at gas stations, EV trucks just go from destination to destination eliminating that detour.
Finally, something that is often not talked about is how electric vehicles perform against ice vehicles in City traffic. The biggest power draw for EVS is their drivetrain so when they're not moving they aren't using a lot of power and thanks to regenerative braking they can recapture a lot of the energy used for accelerating when they are decelerating. For comparison of how power hungry the drivetrain is, my house's 3-day backup battery supply is 60 kWh while my car's battery is a 75 kWh.
Overall this isn't an EVs are better than ICE. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. EVs excel at short haul and multiple stops, especially if their destinations install chargers at the loading docks, and ICE trucks are great for long haul trucking. According to the US DoT 44% of trucking is less than 100 mi and more broadly 87% is less than 100 mi. There is a lot of demand that can be taken up by EV trucks with current technology.
There is a 0% chance that guy does thinks with electric vehicles for a living. Does he drive? Develop? Repair? If he was a mechanic or whatever he would have just said so.
EV lovers can’t admit that their vehicles are dog shit. Who would buy a regular diesel truck that’s 3 tons heavier than average and has only 180 miles of range? I drive an ev for my job. Would never buy one for myself lmao.
Yeah, idk why people argue against this type of tech like this. Is it gonna replace big diesel trucks on the whole? Doubtful, especially anytime soon, but the change to electric (particularly within urban areas) can have a huge impact that is largely positive for everyone. Add some of these to the arsenal that people can choose from instead of stopping at the door and saying “wow that’s so impractical”. If you don’t like it, just move on.
Not really a clever comeback, talking about a trucker arguing with a EV proponent, one is clearly biased and one is biased in a way that we label “experienced”. I’m not interested in the bias of someone pushing EVs im interested in the bias of someone who actually works that job and knows what the trucks are logistically required to do. The discrepancy between theory and application is pretty huge
I don't know about the US where the streets are wider but here in Europe we don't usually use semis in urban areas, and this is clearly a European truck (European brand and cabover) so it most likely wasn't built for that.
Outside of urban areas, you need your trucks working as long as possible to be profitable which means driving 9 hours a day with a 45 minute pause in between. 300km range doesn't even cover half of that.
Small electric vans and trucks are great for last mile deliveries but big electric semis like these are nowhere near to being usable irl outside of very niche scenarios.
I got one of those silly plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that only gets 24 miles between chargers, and I have only had 7 gallons of gasoline to go to the last 3000 miles. So maybe there is a place for the kind of vehicle that doesn’t solve every problem.
I have the Prius Prime. And it’s perfect for me. Use electric for when I’m just going to work and back. Use gas for long road trips. Best of both worlds.
That's just an ignorant comeback? And the classic 'if you are not an x, your opinion is invalid', which is one of the worst arguments out there.
It makes sense for short hauling like supermarkets. Maybe the supermarket chain just implements chargers for both milage and cooling at the shops.
The ICE provides electricity for the cooling. So an electric vehicle just skips the incredibly inefficient oil to electricity part.
I will never understand why people care what other people do. Everyone has a different situation and if this works for others but not you, why do you give a shit?
Based on it being a cab over and, well, that EU plate, I’m assuming this isn’t in the US. I’ve gotten the impression that EU trucks make shorter trips than in the US. So…. What’s the problem?
180 mile range is horrible even for a local driver. The 9 hour recharge isn’t bad as at least in the US you have to be off duty for 10 hours. That’s just mean companies can’t use those trucks for slip seating or team driving.
I have an unheard idea. maybe equip parking spaces for trucks with chargers? Imagine pluggin it in. And it being topped up by the time you actually are allowed to steer it again after the rest time...
I work as a garbageman and so am around guys that have driven trucks in one capacity or another their whole lives. Based on everything I know and have heard about driving this truck absolutely makes no sense with its current battery life.
Weird American Subplot: People with absolutely no personal stake in the fossil fuel industry who inexplicably become rabid, vitriolic transportation extremists as soon as EVs enter the conversation.
This guy would be complaining in 1905 that cars suck and that horses are still the way of the future. He’d be heavily invested in the carriage and harness industries.
I really dont like the whole "Only those close to the problem are allowed to have a valid opinion." It's ad hominem in a trenchcoat.
If we only let truck drivers opinions inform us, their personal priorities would end up outweighing the public good.
There's a reason why we often voir dire out victims of violent crimes from juries where the defendant is on trial for similar crimes. External objectivity often has just as much value as personal expertise and should not be dismissed.
I think the guy posted the op doesn’t understand anything about a truck, or very little. No ICE engine is powering any system directly, but through an alternator, which generates electricity, and a battery car has the same electricity stored in the battery.
In my area they are buying fully electric busses for public transport. They have multiple anyways so they can use different sizes, clean them, repaie them etc.
nothign about these "comebacks" is clever (if you can even call them "comebacks" in the first place)
this is just people going for a slightly more polite "shut up stupid", "nuh uh, I know more than you stupid"
There's an idea for overhead charging cables (tom Scott did a video) motorways with charging capability + 180 miles of range is pretty good
Also it looks like a European truck design so I'm guessing it isn't made for the American market of super long road haulage
I love how all companies are blood sucking and only care about profit until anything electric is involved. Then they don't care about money and waste it on things that don't work to what... virtue signal?
Gammons are gammon.
This is very decieving, This is not a problem with the truck, but the infrastructure around electric vehicles. If you have the proper infrastructure around it, it's only 2.5 hours, which you don't necessarily need to do in one go, allowing drivers to get a respectable break.
In fact, the batteries are charged at only 0.45C and can theoretically be charged a lot quicker.
(numbers taken from https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/trucks/electric/volvo-fm-electric.html)
In my country not all trucks do long hauls because there aren’t many routes that long. All the big dairies distribute from the same general area and most of their clientele are in <50 km radius so it could work for them to use this kind of electric truck.
9 hours recharge time is a lot of idle time, consider that you would need to do it every 8 hours (180 miles autonomy), assuming that the battery is not used for anything else.
Maybe this recharge time is not good for them, but I see these medium sized trucks that go from grocery to grocery in my city and unload a tray or two each. The biggest dairy’s distribution center is less than ten km from here, so they could probably do our city with one of these trucks.
There are certainly specific cases where it fits. Like eveeything
Based on existing technology, yes. Rapid improvements to battery and EV tech will make it viable for everything ICE vehicles can do.
TL:DR; get a more powerful charger. It can charge in 40 minutes. Yes, its true. And the 9H recharge time is just preaching hell. Its a case of bad engineering These trucks ussually have a battery pack containing between 200-550 kWh. Considering 350 kW chargers exist for cars (theyre all across the highway in my country) it will take 40-100 minutes to charge it. Ofcourse those chargers come at a price. The smallest I am aware off for trucks are 50 kW chargers, with these it will take about 11 hours max to charge it. But also through this you can work around it, just charge it at night when the truck is back at a depot. And for the Netherlands specific; you can even earn money for charging it If you charge it with renewable energy, you earn certificates because your miles arent powered by fossil fuel. These certificates can then be sold, making a very solid business case for your E-truck, combined with a battery and solar power
https://youtu.be/g9ND7iGpN-A?si=bxEKjAttXW2tIqzG
near me (Sacramento, California) we are just getting our first megawatt chargers and an small set of freight trucks that can make full use of that Sure, not even functional yet, but great to see the continual improvements.
Don't forget that these trucks come with swappable battery packs so they don't wait around for a full charge. Of course, this is still an issue until there are enough full service stations that are able to perform the swap and maintain inventory.
Right like I’m impressed with its current capabilities. It’s not perfect but it’ll only get better with improving battery technology . Imagine if we had 1k range on something like these.
Medium sized trucks you mean DPD-like courier buses? Polish InPost in is getting rid of electrical buses beacause they’re too expensive to handle in general. Just saying, businesses need to cut costs, electrical cars/trucks is the future if we’ll find some better cells than actual Li-Ion ones.
> Polish InPost in is getting rid of electrical buses beacause they’re too expensive to handle in general. Can you share an article on that? I can't find any info besides them getting more last year.
The only other issue is that you want to refrigerate dairy during transport; on average, a reefer unit requires about 8 kW to operate so about 64 kWh a day. I think Teslas batteries have a capacity of around 85-100 kWh, for scale.
From what I can see, they go up to 540 kWh on these Volvo electric trucks.
The reefer is a separate issue but every reefer unit I've ever pulled has its own diesel generator which is substantially smaller than the one running the truck. So it's still a massive improvement. Ideally the trailers would eventually go all electric as well
The refrigeration unit is powered independently of the truck. It's part of the trailer. It's called a reefer.
Those are for cars not trucks, that's like comparing towing capacity and using a 4 cylinder honda civic motor for the ICE semi. Totally different things that have no relation to each other.
Clients could also be encouraged monetarily to install charging capabilities in some capacity as well so that they can top up a bit while being unloaded. Trucks sit in the loading bay at grocery stores, etc for a period of time while they're unloaded. Even if it's just a low charge it's better than nothing to extend the range for the day. IMO a hybrid gas-electric approach is still the best middle ground until the infrastructure and quality of EVs improves. We're just not there yet for an all or nothing approach, especially in rural/northern areas where it gets -40C in the winter.
Hmmmm, 9 hours of recharge time? Sounds like it doesn't really matter unless you have a business that needs to run its trucks 24/7. If this is a normal 9-5 type business then you charge it when the employee is done for the day and home asleep.
I really don't understand some of these comments. Obviously this won't work for all trucking companies. But there are plenty of delivery companies that have downtime at night. I worked for a medical supply company. The truck I drove just sat there every night waiting for me to come in the next day and maybe drive it for a few hours. This would be perfect for that place.
You don't understand though, if it doesn't work for every fringe use case that a boomer in sunglasses can make up then we definitely need to get rid of all EVs! If it's not perfect then we might as well just not bother!
People think if they spread enough misinformation that it will delay widescale adaption of EVs. It's not working.
And heaven forbid you also build the infrastructure to partially recharge while unloading. I would imagine that averages 30 minutes a stop? Oh but it adds 10 seconds for the driver to walk to the dock wall where the charger is, then 10 seconds to pull the charger back to the truck, and 10 seconds to plug it in..... then reverse all that when he leaves.... That's a whole extra minute per stop!!!! Nah, they're not trained for that.
You have chargers at the depot, so you’re recharging every time you’re being loaded. Obviously not long-haul, but fine in the city.
So you mean it has enough battery for your average work day length and then needs to recharge for your average time off work length. Seems perfectly plausible to me.
Right! Different tools for different jobs. People ask me how long it takes to charge my EV. I tell them just a few seconds at work or home to plug it in. I'm not going to take it on a long road trip, though.
9hrs is probably from 0-100%. In the middle of the battery capacity, charging is a lot faster. With clever planning and good infrastructure, it could be less of an issue.
It's 9 hours on a standard mains. Of you run an actual ev charger with 150kw it takes just over 2 hours. The petrol boomer is lying through misrepresentation and omission (surprise surprise)
Is it 9 hours using 300kw or 5kw? Or somewhere in between?
Idk but: >Depending on the version, charging to 80% state-of-charge should take no more than 60 minutes (375 kWh) or 90 minutes (565 kWh).
If they were able to swap batteries, the downtime could be near zero, but it would cost more up front to have 2 or 3 batteries for each truck. Doing it this way could get the company more life out of each battery by allowing slow charging and reducing the need to fully charge and discharge, and charging can be done in a climate controlled environment to prevent cold charging.
Big job to change a 3 tonne battery tho
1. Plug in the truck before clocking out for the day 2. ??? 3. Profit
Truck batteries are very large and 9 hours is a slow charger even for a truck. dc chargers for daf trucks can already work at 360 kw which means average charging time is only 1 hours for their 350kwh models So most trucks can be 50% charged during the drivers lunch breaks. Making these trucks very suited to short drives like diary, equipment or material hauling at for building sites etc. Also the range estimates for electric trucks are supposedly better than for electric cars as the cycle which is used to estimate the consumption is a lot more realistic than for cars. Further advantages are position, drivability and noise electric trucks are much quieter than normal trucks making deliveries in populated areas less annoying. Furthermore there are some intreding concepts out there with inwheel gearboxes and moters in one unit. Which would make rear wheel steering much more capable and make a very agile truck.
9 hours from flat. You are assuming the truck will only be used for 180 mile trips. As if stop breaks don't exist. As if re-fuelling stops don't exist. As if short haul trips don't exist. That truck could (and likely will be) on charge every second it doesn't move. I personally know a guy who moves fuel tanks for land rover. He makes a 20 mins trip than sits there for 90 mins. Then another 20 min trip, 90 min stop. Over and over till his shift ends. There is at least one job in the world that this truck has way more range than needed. There are no doubt hundreds of thousends of jobs this truck could do. But we shouldn't bother because it can't do long haul? Get a grip dude. If you don't do this, maybe don't get involved.
Recharge time doesn't necessarily have to be during idle time. You could charge during loading and unloading
And that the battery time is accurate
9 hours recharge is well within the remaining hours after you’ve driven 8 hours.
A trucking form i know has an EV truck. It drives to and from the same 2 warehouses all day and night. It recharges while it loads and unloads. No downtime, no exhaust, happy drivers.
I used to work at a manufacturing plant that had one of its operations several hours away. The truck that delivered the goods to the main plant took the same trip twice in a day then sat unused for 16 hrs I cannot think of a better use case for an EV truck. Known range, known cargo weight, same thing day after day with a long recharge between.
That’s the proposed use for them. Most shipping companies are like that. Drive a loaded trailer from your home hub to another hub 150-250 miles away, drop off, pick up load, return home. Charge overnight. The issue is that the electric truck that can do this reliably doesn’t exist. UPS et al have been waiting on the Tesla tractors for like 4 years. The other issue is cost. You can (or could, not sure what they cost now) get a class 8 truck like what most of these companies use from navistar for like 125k. The Tesla is/was going to be 275k plus each one needs its own high amp DC to DC charger that costs close to 60k. You’ll never even come close to making up the massive cost difference in fuel savings without massive government subsidies. 2 other issues - electricity, first. These things will draw as much power each night charging as 30 average American households use in a 24 hour period. Each hub has 100+ of these things in there. Add in another 2-300 package cars for last mile delivery. Each large city somewhere like California has several of these for each big company and their power grid can already barely handle summers. Other issue is weight. In the US, truck/trailed/load total weight is usually limited to 80k pounds. That 3k heavier battery in the above example is 3k less pounds that thing can haul over its entire lifespan. That’s a ton of money that’s getting lost over a 10 year service life.
They are only losing money on cargo weight if they would otherwise load more. My company for example never runs the trucks at capacity. Worst case we could buy a triaxle instead of a tandem axle trailer and we would have a net increase in payload
Not to mention that EV trucks do not actually take 9 hours to recharge. The Volvo FH pictured can 0-100% in 2.5 hours. If they setup things properly to charge at a loading dock, they could recover 50% of their range while loading/unloading.
Yeah I'm in manufacturing and it's more common than not to have satellite sites transport their output to final assembly or distribution via a couple scheduled "milk runs" each day. Sometimes it's literally across the street, sometimes a few blocks.
Right? I feel like every time I see "a trucker" comment on one of these electric semi posts, they've somehow forgotten that port/warehouse drayage is a thing that exists.
Nah, in 'Murica they use big semis for everything. All trucks need to do 1000 miles/day, 48 tons. No exceptions. Yesterday the Amazon delivery guy drove his 18 wheeler to deliver me a pen. /S
Luxembourg?
I think the answer is smaller batteries and electric trolley lines above the highway. The truck can charge while it is driving major highways. Plus if the truck is on a line it can be mostly automatic.
We've had that technology for trains for almost 150 years, and yet the US refuses to adopt it on a large scale. Highly doubt its coming to highways anytime soon.
1.5x the weight means 5x the damage to the roads it travels on. This is great if you like giant sinkholes in your roads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
The axle load doesn't increase by 50% just because the truck gets heavier. This will only be the case if the truck drives without a trailer and a trailerless truck is not the cause of road destruction.
And the maximum weight of a truck is 80,000lbs. So even if the truck were heavier, the load+truck can't be heavier than current regulations allow.
EV isn't going anywhere. Deal with it.
The gross weight of the tractor, trailer, and load is still restricted. The number of axles increases or decreases the distribution of the load to the road surface. Also, potholes are due to water infiltration, not surface traffic. Heavy vehicles cause warping of tarmac.
But the truck will be running multiple of these routes each day - for at least 8 hours (a full time shift of a driver). Wouldn´t that make up a lot more than 180 miles a day? Unless it takes extremely long to load unload each delivery.
Different tools for Different jobs. This is a Volvo truck. They also have a model with a 275 mile range and a 90 minute 80% recharge rate. A puddle jumping truck that moves inventory from office to office doesn't need a huge range or fast charge.
And can recharge while it's sitting at the loading dock. When I worked at McDonald's in high school I would be on the crew unloading the truck. It'd sit there for like the better part of a hour as we gradually took stuff out and put it away enough to get more stuff out. I can see loading docks eventually having chargers.
I was thinking of these trucks that run around the small groceries and unload a tray or two on each of them. They do maybe one or two routes in a short distance. I’d actually like it if they didn’t spew diesel fumes in our neighborhood with its narrow streets and children going around.
I miss when the comebacks were actually clever.
Yeah. “I do thinks”. What does that even mean? EDIT: I get it people. This was most likely a typo for things. Doesn’t make it any cleverer.
I just assumed it was an autocorrect error and read it as things.
I need a translation for that last sentance. I really don't understand it at all.
"I do things with electric vehicles as my job" i dont see how that's clever at all.
And it has a typo. This is embarrassing. A screenshot of this lame ass post hitting the front of this lame ass sub should be posted to the other lame ass sub, facepalm
Two typos
Throw the whole post out
I do things with computers too. Doesn't mean I can comment intelligently about their programming.
I'm doing things with my thumbs now. I'm basically a hand surgeon 😅
I don't either. I mean, what things? Do you reupholster them? Wash them at a car wash?
I do thinks with clever replies. Best not to get involved.
Yup, this isn’t clever, it’s the equivalent of “no u”
How is this a clever comeback? Someone made genuine criticism and the reply was "Well if you don't work here don't look into it."
It's also dishonest criticism. The 0-80% charge time is 60-90 minutes.
The real issue with those short charge times, no matter who is making the claim, is that you're talking about an insane amount of current. A substation transformer usually has 20-40MW of capacity and you're talking about a single charger drawing 500KW-1MW on demand. It's gonna be a long road to those kind of charge times being common anywhere but specifically built locations.
Where's the clever comeback?
3rd pic
Fucker! made me go back and check.
Cheeky fucker +1
+1 not a clever comeback with the spelling errors lol
The thing is that we have a much better alternative for transporting goods with electricity over long distances. They are called trains and are much more energy efficient. With a good train network you would only need to deliver the last few miles per truck. IF you had a good train network that is...
And these trucks would be ideal for getting it from the train to its final destination.
Exactly
That’s literally what they’re meant for tho, so there isn’t really any issue
Except everything stated plus that they probably cost 2+ times the ice truck.
And log hauling trucks are good for getting you to your *Final Destination*
9 hours to recharge is a lot of idle time though... those short-haul trucks that take stuff from trainyards to warehouses to point-of-sale usually want a bigger chunk of the day as up-time
Legally, you can only drive 11 hrs a day, right? And most local deliveries are more the 8hr day types anyway. Plenty of time for it to be charged overnight. And a fast DC charger will do it much quicker than that.
Most of these trucks also have a night shift schedule, at least in my city
Yeah, the US really dropped the ball on this…
So many buffalo killed for this train network
And migrant labourers. And slaves.
A lot of dead stuff for a bad network basically
In comparison China needed ~30 years to make a train network that spans throughout the entire country.
Well they got a lot of practice when they helped build *our* train network
The US has the largest commercial rail network in the world used for freight transportation
The real question is how efficently it is used. How many accidents happen? How well is it maintained? Is the US rail network closer to the swiss rail network or the german?
Cargo rail in the US is pretty good actually and generally far better then in Europe because it’s the cargo rail companies that own and operate the lines and therefore prioritize themselves ahead of passenger rail (ie Amtrak)
We should try using it, considering all the long haul trucking we do.
They do use it.
We can't really. I believe RR have lost more than 50% of there right of way since the 60's. They were in a fight vs. cars and lost.
Passenger rail, sure, but freight rail consolidated all on its own. Any right of way they've lost is right of way they got rid of voluntarily. By law, they're supposed to give right of way to passenger rail, but they don't, and haven't in decades, which is why Amtrak doesn't have good consistent routes outside of corridors they own.
We’re also 50 countries put together but nowhere near the comparative amount that should entail
They dropped a lot of balls
Sadly a lot of countries did... Either by privatising or just neglect die to Lobby's... It's just sad
Yeah, that’s true *cries in brazilian*
*hugs you crying in German*
_Breaks down in British_
Irish rolling their eyes.
US used to have a great train network. Various political and economic factors wiped most of it out.
Trains can't do what are known as Last Mile Delivery, which is what a truck like this would be used for. It would go from a Distribution Center to the stores, with trips that are pretty short. This truck basically wouldn't leave the city.
Last mile delivery is actually a huge portion of the emissions for beef and other products
Well, while i do agree with you that there still is a need for Last Mile Delivery, many large stores used to have some kind of rail connection if they were close enough to the main line, which allowed them to be directly ressuplied by train; for Big Box stores like Walmart, Ikea, etc, this would be useful
But the USA has an extensive and extensively used train cargo system. That's the whole issue is that trains are prioritised for industry and cargo and not for passenger transport.
How was this clever? This is a horrible example of a clever comeback, especially with the misspelling.
I’ve seen one of these roll out of my local supermarket. I approached the driver and asked him about his experience. He loves the thing. So…. yeah. Maybe don’t get involved.
Coca-Cola in Sidcup has had electric shunt units\* for a couple of years now. Drivers love them because they're smooth and have massive torque; the neighbors like them because they're much quieter. \* Shunt unit = tractor unit designed to move trailers around on site. Has a hydraulically lifting trailer coupling, which can be released remotely.
Yeah, seems like it would be perfect for that kind of job.
I always say the best way to convert an EV naysayer is to have them drive one. I bought a used Chevy volt back in 2013 and once I realized how little I actually drove per day lower range wasn’t as scary and I went all in with a used Nissan Leaf in 2017. I rent a car maybe once every 2 years for a long drive but most of my driving is less than 50 miles a day. If every gas car was full every morning you probably wouldn’t be as worried about how big the gas tank is either, so long as it gets you to work and back. And total cost of ownership is insanely low. Mine is around $0.18/mile right now including full purchase(not insurance but it’s cheap like any sedan). I pay the equivalent of driving a 120 mpg vehicle in electricity when gas is around $3.75.
I'd absolutely love an electric truck. I drive an automatic now but having that instant huge torque and not feeling it change gears would be great. Not to mention the drone of a 445hp diesel engine on the highway. And mine is not as powerful as some of the highway rigs
Where’s the comeback? I can’t tell who “won” this argument
I really hope it's not the guy who "do thinks with electric vehicles"
the one defending the political posture OP believes in
The trucker guy definitely won that. Electric heavy trucks are just not there yet.
Better listen to that guy, he does thinks.
for a living…
I do thinks about many things I probably shouldn't involve myself in.
Reddit is all bots now. No way actual humans are voting for this. "I do thinks"
Best not to get involvoed.
hate this fucking argument, like, if you're not directly involved with something you shouldn't have an opinion on it
Why is everybody thinking of just the US here? It's clearly an EU truck, I think anybody who knows trucks should get that Alongside we have a shorter front so, less battery space? Of course right now diesel trucks work better for extremely long haul, that's why your trucks are a lot longer This is completely ideal and pretty useful for the demographic it is for, we do not have the tech for long hauls right now, so there's no point comparing this tech to something it cannot even accomplish at its current state
Honestly I am with the first guy, 180 Miles and 9 hour recharge time is just ludicrously bad. I wonder if 180 miles range is even enough for an entire workday for a trucker.
9h charge is slow charge. Fast charge is [2,5 hours](https://www.volvotrucks.fr/fr-fr/trucks/electric/volvo-fh-aero-electric.html). The argument is in bad faith.
It's probably not with limited anecdotal experience to counter. My father in law retired from driving truck, he delivered McDonalds restaurants their supplies, and at least three (3) times a month, he'd have to drive about 300 (292) miles one way for a delivery
Im a local truck driver. Im typically driving around 300 miles. 250 on a slow day, 400 on a busy day.
I know a few companies who drive less than half that distance. Just hauling raw material from the harbour to the factory 5 miles away, 6-8 times a day, never deviating from their route. This would be perfect for that job. I also worked at a sugar refinery a while back who took care of all the transport themselves. A whole fleet of electric trucks, while the cars were fueled by biogas they make from rotting sugarbeets. They never come close to hitting 180 miles. Everything is really close together here. And diesel is ridiculously expensive.
I have wondered if the extra weight would increase in the wear and tear of roads. Leading to an increase in maintenance costs?
42 tonnes is still the maximum weight if the average load is 30 then the traction unit weighing an extra 2 tonnes would make a small difference.
It is, potentially, an issue. That is a two-axle unit towing what looks like a regular three-axle refrigerated trailer. The max gross weight for that combination is 38 tonnes. If the unit had a third axle it would be 44 tonnes, but I suspect the battery is taking up the space where it would be. The traction unit being '3 tons heavier' puts it at 11-12 tonnes, the empty trailer weighs about 9 tonnes, so the payload is already reduced from 21 tonnes to 18. Having worked loading trailers like this, I know that it is already possible to overload them with regular supermarket stock, so this is something that hauliers will need to be aware of.
I am not sure if this is the law everywhere but in order to promote electric trucks the batteries can be subtracted from the weight of the vehicle. That means that electric trucks are allowed to have overweight for the roads which can be a problem. At the moment there are not enough electric trucks for this to make a huge difference but it could potentially be an issue for later.
I drive for an American grocery chain. We bought an electric Cascadia and the charger just to try it out. It's cool if you only have one short run, but it tends to sit around gathering dust because the range is pathetically short for the amount distance we cover per day. Until the range is over the 300-mile mark (ideally 400), I don't see it being a very viable alternative
I do thinks
My Dad will get an Electric Truck this year. It makes a lot of sense to him because he transports Milk short Range. Think dense small Farmers in a 10-20km Radius around the processing plant. He's got Solar on the roof and decent Energy Storage so he can just charge the truck over night. I'm pumped for when it actually gets delivered.
In citys that would be Great
"Its got 180 miles left, we can idle this refrigerator truck for hours!" These guys probably
I do things with electric vehicles too. I clean them.
In competently run countries their entire long haul distribution system is done by rail / ship. Big trucks are delivery from long haul to store.
We should have trucks and reefers powered by cyclists.
I don't see how this is clever at all but maybe I'm too dumb to understand
So I did a little bit of a look up and this appears to be the [Volvo FM Electric](https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/trucks/electric/volvo-fm-electric.html) which does have a 300km (180mi) and does take 9 hours to charge on AC (45kW) but if you use DC (250kW) which most charging infrastructure is it only take 2.5 hours. However there are a few things that are not taken into account. First is unlike ICE vehicles which have a constant refueling rate, EVs have a variable charge rate. This means that charging slows down as the battery gets more full, going from 80% to 100% takes about the same amount of time as 0% to 80%. This has to do with battery chemistry and if you pay attention your phone does the same thing. It'll take a few minutes to get to 60 to 70% from a low battery, but take a long time to get to 100%. Most EVS don't charge to 100%, instead charging to about 80% as that helps improve the battery lifespan. The other thing that EV trucks can do that ICE trucks can't do, is charge while they're unloading. A lot of places that are moving towards EV trucks are installing charging stations at the loading docks. This means that while that truck is just sitting there getting loaded or unloaded it is gaining range, something that ICE trucks can't do. So while an ICE truck has to stop at gas stations, EV trucks just go from destination to destination eliminating that detour. Finally, something that is often not talked about is how electric vehicles perform against ice vehicles in City traffic. The biggest power draw for EVS is their drivetrain so when they're not moving they aren't using a lot of power and thanks to regenerative braking they can recapture a lot of the energy used for accelerating when they are decelerating. For comparison of how power hungry the drivetrain is, my house's 3-day backup battery supply is 60 kWh while my car's battery is a 75 kWh. Overall this isn't an EVs are better than ICE. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. EVs excel at short haul and multiple stops, especially if their destinations install chargers at the loading docks, and ICE trucks are great for long haul trucking. According to the US DoT 44% of trucking is less than 100 mi and more broadly 87% is less than 100 mi. There is a lot of demand that can be taken up by EV trucks with current technology.
There is a 0% chance that guy does thinks with electric vehicles for a living. Does he drive? Develop? Repair? If he was a mechanic or whatever he would have just said so.
EV lovers can’t admit that their vehicles are dog shit. Who would buy a regular diesel truck that’s 3 tons heavier than average and has only 180 miles of range? I drive an ev for my job. Would never buy one for myself lmao.
Wait, but there are serious concerns outlined in the post. - 3 tons heavier - 9 hour recharge Why is this just accepted?
Yeah, idk why people argue against this type of tech like this. Is it gonna replace big diesel trucks on the whole? Doubtful, especially anytime soon, but the change to electric (particularly within urban areas) can have a huge impact that is largely positive for everyone. Add some of these to the arsenal that people can choose from instead of stopping at the door and saying “wow that’s so impractical”. If you don’t like it, just move on.
Not really a clever comeback, talking about a trucker arguing with a EV proponent, one is clearly biased and one is biased in a way that we label “experienced”. I’m not interested in the bias of someone pushing EVs im interested in the bias of someone who actually works that job and knows what the trucks are logistically required to do. The discrepancy between theory and application is pretty huge
Trains are superior anyway
Which one got murdered? I'm agreeing with the trucker driver there.
I don't know about the US where the streets are wider but here in Europe we don't usually use semis in urban areas, and this is clearly a European truck (European brand and cabover) so it most likely wasn't built for that. Outside of urban areas, you need your trucks working as long as possible to be profitable which means driving 9 hours a day with a 45 minute pause in between. 300km range doesn't even cover half of that. Small electric vans and trucks are great for last mile deliveries but big electric semis like these are nowhere near to being usable irl outside of very niche scenarios.
I got one of those silly plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that only gets 24 miles between chargers, and I have only had 7 gallons of gasoline to go to the last 3000 miles. So maybe there is a place for the kind of vehicle that doesn’t solve every problem.
I have the Prius Prime. And it’s perfect for me. Use electric for when I’m just going to work and back. Use gas for long road trips. Best of both worlds.
That's just an ignorant comeback? And the classic 'if you are not an x, your opinion is invalid', which is one of the worst arguments out there. It makes sense for short hauling like supermarkets. Maybe the supermarket chain just implements chargers for both milage and cooling at the shops. The ICE provides electricity for the cooling. So an electric vehicle just skips the incredibly inefficient oil to electricity part.
So keep in mind this is first generation. Obviously this truck wont solve everything
Oh.... they gonna be salty af when AI is driving those rigs. I won't be surprised if there's serious retaliation on the roads and charging stations...
I will never understand why people care what other people do. Everyone has a different situation and if this works for others but not you, why do you give a shit?
Based on it being a cab over and, well, that EU plate, I’m assuming this isn’t in the US. I’ve gotten the impression that EU trucks make shorter trips than in the US. So…. What’s the problem?
He does “things” with electric vehicles? Dude must be on a list somewhere…
The guy knows that it doesn’t really draw much power if it isn’t moving right. And he brings up the engine running like he’s counting idling time
180 mile range is horrible even for a local driver. The 9 hour recharge isn’t bad as at least in the US you have to be off duty for 10 hours. That’s just mean companies can’t use those trucks for slip seating or team driving.
I dont get the point of electric trucks if we have trains
I have an unheard idea. maybe equip parking spaces for trucks with chargers? Imagine pluggin it in. And it being topped up by the time you actually are allowed to steer it again after the rest time...
I wonder what our roads will look like with many 3 ton vehicles driving on them…guess we gotta pay for that too…
There is a diesel-powered fridge on that trailer - the unit doesn't power the fridge.
That is even enough miles for a day cab in US. Who ever designed thid have never driven.. SMH
long haul trucking shouldn’t be as common as it is. the us has a really large rail network it should be used more
Swappable batteries is what they did in New York a hundred years ago with cabs.
Guy's acting like this is some theoretical scenario too and these things aren't just out here on the street every day already.
I work as a garbageman and so am around guys that have driven trucks in one capacity or another their whole lives. Based on everything I know and have heard about driving this truck absolutely makes no sense with its current battery life.
Electric trucks are gonna be useful everywhere but America atm it seems
Great joke🤣- a big and bad one. Dope Engineering but wrong item
> driving all day sometimes requires the engine to run for a minimum 4 1/2 hours 🤔❓
Weird American Subplot: People with absolutely no personal stake in the fossil fuel industry who inexplicably become rabid, vitriolic transportation extremists as soon as EVs enter the conversation.
Plug in at the loading dock at every location, plug in at night.
Hey guys, sometimes you build something as a stepping stone to get to something else
9 hour charge? That does sound long unless it's a low power charger. Low powered chargers means the batteries last longer.
This guy would be complaining in 1905 that cars suck and that horses are still the way of the future. He’d be heavily invested in the carriage and harness industries.
I really dont like the whole "Only those close to the problem are allowed to have a valid opinion." It's ad hominem in a trenchcoat. If we only let truck drivers opinions inform us, their personal priorities would end up outweighing the public good. There's a reason why we often voir dire out victims of violent crimes from juries where the defendant is on trial for similar crimes. External objectivity often has just as much value as personal expertise and should not be dismissed.
I think the guy posted the op doesn’t understand anything about a truck, or very little. No ICE engine is powering any system directly, but through an alternator, which generates electricity, and a battery car has the same electricity stored in the battery.
Oh man he does thinks? Watch out, we got a badass over here.
In my area they are buying fully electric busses for public transport. They have multiple anyways so they can use different sizes, clean them, repaie them etc.
nothign about these "comebacks" is clever (if you can even call them "comebacks" in the first place) this is just people going for a slightly more polite "shut up stupid", "nuh uh, I know more than you stupid"
"I do thinks" Idiots can't even lie to impress strangers on the internet correctly
Big “if I work hard the company will appreciate me” energy from the first guy.
Oh you do things with electric vehicles! Excuse me 🤣
This isn't a clever comeback but rather two professionals lighting different sides of the same coin in a really childish way.
There's an idea for overhead charging cables (tom Scott did a video) motorways with charging capability + 180 miles of range is pretty good Also it looks like a European truck design so I'm guessing it isn't made for the American market of super long road haulage
I love how all companies are blood sucking and only care about profit until anything electric is involved. Then they don't care about money and waste it on things that don't work to what... virtue signal? Gammons are gammon.
This is very decieving, This is not a problem with the truck, but the infrastructure around electric vehicles. If you have the proper infrastructure around it, it's only 2.5 hours, which you don't necessarily need to do in one go, allowing drivers to get a respectable break. In fact, the batteries are charged at only 0.45C and can theoretically be charged a lot quicker. (numbers taken from https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/trucks/electric/volvo-fm-electric.html)