Then what about trucking? Lithium is not nearly as energy dense, weighs a lot, and does take a significant longer time to charge than a diesel to refuel. If you don’t believe me, look up the eCascadia by Frightliner. They are probably the current best option if you wanted a heavy electric truck, but they only get to around 200 miles with a load (for reference, a standard turbo diesel one would go around 600-800 miles and only take 30 min to refuel).
Currently in trucking, I’ve found that everyone kinda laughs at the idea of electrification (except on medium duty, that wouldn’t be too hard, just overly expensive). Current electric motors are fine, it’s just that the energy storage is nowhere near what is needed for actual use.
Yes, for most consumers current lithium is fine from a usability perspective, but from a cost one this might provide a much more useful alternative (assuming the cost isn’t insane).
Pretty much everything you said was said about passenger cars 15 years ago. Can’t fix every problem right away. as much as 85% of trucking is under 200 miles (by freight tonnage). This defeatist mentality of ‘it won’t work for this application, or this application, it’ll never change’ will always fail as technology and engineering improves.
The Tesla semi proved that fully loaded 450+ mi trucking is not only possible but better in every way, Pepsi is eager to incorporate them and Walmart too. Here’s the trick, Walmart and other companies doesn’t give a shit about charge times as long as it’s manageable, if it ends up saving even a dollar per freight delivery, they will switch. If it never improved and legit took 4 hours per 200 miles, companies will set up relay trucking. Trucking itself will change if technology can’t. It’s always about money, charge times only bother the driver
Then what about trucking? Lithium is not nearly as energy dense, weighs a lot, and does take a significant longer time to charge than a diesel to refuel. If you don’t believe me, look up the eCascadia by Frightliner. They are probably the current best option if you wanted a heavy electric truck, but they only get to around 200 miles with a load (for reference, a standard turbo diesel one would go around 600-800 miles and only take 30 min to refuel).
Currently in trucking, I’ve found that everyone kinda laughs at the idea of electrification (except on medium duty, that wouldn’t be too hard, just overly expensive). Current electric motors are fine, it’s just that the energy storage is nowhere near what is needed for actual use.
Yes, for most consumers current lithium is fine from a usability perspective, but from a cost one this might provide a much more useful alternative (assuming the cost isn’t insane).
Pretty much everything you said was said about passenger cars 15 years ago. Can’t fix every problem right away. as much as 85% of trucking is under 200 miles (by freight tonnage). This defeatist mentality of ‘it won’t work for this application, or this application, it’ll never change’ will always fail as technology and engineering improves.
The Tesla semi proved that fully loaded 450+ mi trucking is not only possible but better in every way, Pepsi is eager to incorporate them and Walmart too. Here’s the trick, Walmart and other companies doesn’t give a shit about charge times as long as it’s manageable, if it ends up saving even a dollar per freight delivery, they will switch. If it never improved and legit took 4 hours per 200 miles, companies will set up relay trucking. Trucking itself will change if technology can’t. It’s always about money, charge times only bother the driver