Electric vehicles (EVs) use onboard batteries to provide the energy they need to operate. The EV batteries have two limiting properties. The first is they only hold a limited charge whether that gives the operator 200, 300, 400, or more kilometres of range. The second is at some point they have to be hooked up to a recharger which means downtime.
But what if the road was the source of continuous power so that the EV would never lose battery charge when riding on it. If roads had this type of technology, then only when an EV went off them would it be using its onboard battery. I could imagine getting off the main roadway to switch to battery power for the last few kilometres to get home.
eRoadArlanda, a Swedish project, is trying to make the above a reality. Its project is a two-year test by the Swedish Transport Administration (STA). Why do this? Because 33% of Sweden’s carbon emissions come from road transportation which is expected to increase by 59% in less than ten years. The STA believes the electrification of 2 to 4% of its road network would reduce fossil fuel consumption in the country by 3 million tons annually, which means reduced emissions by 80 to 90%.
eRoadArlanda uses an electrified rail embedded in the road surface. Vehciles equipped with a sensor to detect the rail would then lower a movable arm which would make contact. The rail would be powered through the conventional power grid or could conceivably use solar panels adjacent to roadways as an off-grid energy source. Any EV if equipped with the sensor and remote arm would be able to connect.
The design allows for existing road infrastructure to easily be converted. The initial pilot project involves a two-kilometre section of road and was launched in 2018. A PostNord battery-powered freight truck was the guinea pig. It was outfitted with sensor and arm. If needed, it easily could disconnect or reconnect with the rail in the face of heavy traffic or poor weather conditions.
The rail and on-vehicle sensor and arm technology can handle obstacles on the road using front-viewing radar similar to what is found on many vehicles today. Small pieces of gravel that may lie or lodge on the rail surace are easily avoided by the flexible arm mechanism which detaches and reattaches to the rail easily. Nor is the rail configuration a danger to bicycles or motorcycles when driving on the roadway. There is nothing to get caught in like a streetcar track because the contract rail lies flush to the road surface and provides similar traction to a concrete or asphalt surface.
The conduction rail is rainproof and has a tested patented solution for dealing with snow and ice. The STA has also taken into consideration any risk to animals or humans that may inadvertently contact the embedded rail. It notes that humans contacting the rail would not receive a shock because the system is designed to provide power only in proximity to a passing vehicle. Anyone standing directly on the road at that moment would be in greater danger of being hit by the vehicle than receiving a shock. A vehicle at low speed will not trigger the rail’s current. Nor will parked and in contact with the rail. As a final safety consideration, should there be a break in the rail circuit, the power automatically shuts down to adjacent road sections.
The initial cost of electrifying the 2-kilometre test came to $2.4 million USD. For the conceived 20,000-kilometre road network the STA wants to electrify, that cost should come down considerably. It estimates the cost of electricity to run the completed road network would amount to $1.2 billion USD annually. Savings once completed would equal $3.8 billion annually with the electrified road paying for itself within 3 years assuming saved fuel costs, construction and maintenance.
For heavy trucks, electrified roads make sense. The electric power needed to transport goods would quickly drain battery packs. The same is true for continuous use transit vehicles like buses and taxicabs which confined to conventional EV battery packs would have to stop for frequent recharges daily. So it would seem that an EV-charging road system has merits.
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When the Hummer first hit the market, it became something of a joke. The consumer version of the military Humvee was popular but it also earned a reputation for barely making it from one gas station to the next — the H1 only managed about 10 miles to the gallon.
While the brand didn’t survive the Great Recession, with the last model rolling off the assembly line in 2010, a recent announcement from GMC has hinted that the Hummer will be making a comeback in 2022 — but it won’t look like the gas guzzler of the past. Instead, this new Hummer will be one of a few electric trucks coming to the market in the next few years.
As demand for alternatives to traditional internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicles grows, the truck industry is experimenting with electric trucks. Here is what to expect — and whether or not these trucks will be able to provide a suitable alternative to ICE-powered ones.
Details are currently scarce about what we’ll be able to expect from the new electric Hummer, with GMC planning to provide more information in a few months, but right now what we do know is exciting. The electric powertrain will generate a whopping 1,000 horsepower and accelerate from 0-60 in three seconds or less. That and the fact that it will appear in 2022 sums it up.
The new Hummer isn’t the first or only electric truck to be announced in the last year. Tesla beat GMC to the punch with the debut of the company’s Cybertruck, which should be available sometime in 2021. The Cybertruck is also a fully electric truck with a 250-mile range that can accelerate from 0-60 in less than three seconds. The Cybertruck will start at $40,000, cheap compared to other trucks, but still fairly expensive.
Other companies are planning electric versions of existing models. Ford, for one, is developing a completely electric version of the F-150. Not a lot is known about this truck yet, but Ford has published a video of the electric F-150 pulling what the company claims to be one million pounds. And Fiat Chrysler has announced electric versions of its Jeep line of trucks, and the RAM pickup.
Rivian is an electric truck startup that recently received investments from General Motors. The company is developing an electric light truck, the R1T, and the R1S, an SUV.
All of these trucks are expected to deliver horsepower and torque comparable to most leading ICE trucks, and may just provide a more climate-change friendly alternative to the top-sellers on the market.
It isn’t just passenger trucks that are trading out their fossil-fuel-powered engines for an electric powertrain. Recently, Dot Transportation — one of the largest food redistribution companies in the country — deployed its first electric freight truck in Modesto, California. It works 12 hours a day, and could potentially save the company tens of thousands of dollars every year, all but eliminating the cost of fuel.
Tesla is also working toward developing and delivering fully-electric freight trucks which can allegedly reach 60 miles per hour in 20 seconds while hauling 80,000 pounds of freight, and with ranges from 300 to 500 miles, depending on battery pack size.
Whether companies choose a diesel or an electric freight hauler, they all need to be compliant with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, something that can be challenging for small companies and new startups.
Some companies, like startup truckmaker Nikola Motors, are also investigating other sustainable alternatives to combustion engine-based freight trucks — like tractor-trailers powered by energy-dense hydrogen fuel cells.
While hydrogen power has been around for years, the high price of hydrogen fuel cells has prevented their use in most consumer and freight vehicles. Now, however, after years of R&D investment, the hydrogen fuel cell has have become a more practical, emissions-free alternative to electric and ICE vehicles.
Nikola, which reportedly hopes to launch its hydrogen-powered eighteen-wheeler sometime next year, is also working to develop a light truck powered entirely by fuel cell. They do, however, face a steep challenge, the lack of a hydrogen cell refueling infrastructure across the country.
Undaunted Nikola plans to provide additional details about its hydrogen fuel cell trucks at its upcoming Nikola World 2020 in September.
While electric vehicles (EV) that are cars do not rely on fossil fuels, some industry pundits argue that their manufacturing processes create just as much greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as those that burn gasoline or diesel. They use the example of lithium mining’s excessive use of water, 1.9 million liters (500,000 gallons) to produce one ton of lithium. And nickel and cobalt, both used in the production of EV batteries, they point out, are toxic to the environment as well as those mining these minerals. Those defending the status quo argue that the GHGs produced in manufacturing an EV can be up to 68% worse than a comparable fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
Whether you’re a fan of the Hummer brand or not, or of fossil-fuel powered trucks, the EV truck is arriving in showrooms around the globe. And if current market trends hold, it’s likely that EVs as a whole will become far more popular in the future. By 2022 we should know if the EV truck will be equally well received by a world seeking answers to the challenges of reducing carbon emissions from the transportation industry. As for those who think EVs are bad for the environment, there is the option of developing hydrogen fuel cell alternatives. And depending on how the hydrogen is sourced (not from natural gas but from water) this mode of transportation power could prove to be truly zero-emission.
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