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There's Nikola One and Toyota's Project Portal though both use hydrogen rather than batteries. And as you say, Tesla is working on one. Electric motors should
by wisty 9y ago
There's Nikola One and Toyota's Project Portal though both use hydrogen rather than batteries. And as you say, Tesla is working on one.
Electric motors should be fine for torque, and great for efficiency (with regenerative braking). Range is obviously the main issue.
But is range really such a problem? Imagine you can just swap the battery pack at recharge stations. That would be a pain for cars (different batteries, batteries built into the chassis, consumers being worried about the new battery being OK, consumers not knowing how to swap them, consumers not planning routes properly), but for trucks you can standardize.
100 battery swap stations across the US could cover a lot of high volume truck routes. Tesla cars are low volume, and the battery can't be swapped (because they're built into the bottom of the chassis), and Tesla can still afford those power charging stations. Trucks seem a little more "blocky" than cars though, so perhaps a swappable battery is possible?
It doesn't need to cover every edge case, in the first rollout, just enough to steal business away on high volume routes.
- martin_bech 9y agoTesla batteries can be swaped. They have a video showing it, and a single station doing it, but there is no need for it atm. Ive been driving my Model S for 2+ years now, and the charging options are plenty. Link to video of battery swap https://youtu.be/HlaQuKk9bFg https://youtu.be/HlaQuKk9bFg
- wisty 9y agoWow, I didn't know that. And that's a lot faster than I would have guessed. From Tesla: "a Supercharger provides up to 170 miles of range in as little as 30 minutes". Yes, there is certainly a need for swapping batteries if you drive 500 miles a day, and are being paid to deliver on a tight schedule - you don't want to spend an extra hour and a half charging. But if you're spending 6 minutes swapping those batteries out (2 minutes per change), it's a lot more viable (especially if an EV can go up hills faster). People don't drive a Tesla 500 miles a day, and even if they do they don't mind a few 30 minute breaks. Trucks are a bit different.
- martin_bech 9y agoI think we will see some smart solutions in the future, and next generation charging hinted by Tesla and promised by the likes of Porsche for the Porsche Mission E, would reduce charging times by half. https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/technology/porsche-engineering-e-power-electromobility-800-volt-charging-12720.html https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/technology/porsche-engineeri...