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I think the best solution involves evoluton of the delivery network, so maybe EV haulage is closer than I think.. An EV light truck is perfect for the final de

I think the best solution involves evoluton of the delivery network, so maybe EV haulage is closer than I think.. An EV light truck is perfect for the final delivery to home or shop, and doubly so in congested inner cities with pollution charges, like London. I could be wrong, but I thought the London Routemasters were hybrids? HGV delivery might evolve to a combination of more rail, longhaul diesel HGVs and EV light trucks, or even full EV HGVs where the range is lower. Like making several supermarket drops in a city. Whatever way you look at it, we're already making excellent, and suprisingly quick, progress.

Reason077 11y ago
The "New Routemaster" busses are indeed diesel-electric hybrids, but London is also now testing new fully electric double deckers: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/world-s-first-electric-double-decker-bus-london-a6934646.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/wor... We already see a few EV delivery vans around (Nissan have one based on the Leaf technology). They need to get a bit bigger and have longer range before they'll start replacing all the diesel vans, but we are indeed making progress. There's various problems with using intermodal rail for things like supermarket deliveries, though, at least in the UK. It's not really compatible with the just-in-time model that supermarkets and other retailers operate, where the supermarket places an order every day based on their real-time sales data which is fulfilled overnight from their large regional distribution centres. Consider a shift from truckloads of goods to intermodal container loads: you'd be going truck-rail-truck, with all the inefficiencies of transferring between modes. You'd need intermodal freight depots on the outskirts of cities, shunting yards, etc which just don't exist any more. You wouldn't actually be cutting down on city traffic, since the same number of local trips would need to be made anyway. And the distances involved from distribution centre to supermarket are usually relatively short, so there just isn't a huge fuel saving to be made in using rail.

Reason077 11y ago

The "New Routemaster" busses are indeed diesel-electric hybrids, but London is also now testing new fully electric double deckers: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/world-s-first-electric-double-decker-bus-london-a6934646.html http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/wor... We already see a few EV delivery vans around (Nissan have one based on the Leaf technology). They need to get a bit bigger and have longer range before they'll start replacing all the diesel vans, but we are indeed making progress. There's various problems with using intermodal rail for things like supermarket deliveries, though, at least in the UK. It's not really compatible with the just-in-time model that supermarkets and other retailers operate, where the supermarket places an order every day based on their real-time sales data which is fulfilled overnight from their large regional distribution centres. Consider a shift from truckloads of goods to intermodal container loads: you'd be going truck-rail-truck, with all the inefficiencies of transferring between modes. You'd need intermodal freight depots on the outskirts of cities, shunting yards, etc which just don't exist any more. You wouldn't actually be cutting down on city traffic, since the same number of local trips would need to be made anyway. And the distances involved from distribution centre to supermarket are usually relatively short, so there just isn't a huge fuel saving to be made in using rail.