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Locomotives have been diesel-electric hybrids for decades, so it probably makes a lot of sense for trucking, I agree.
by rfugger 8y ago
Locomotives have been diesel-electric hybrids for decades, so it probably makes a lot of sense for trucking, I agree.
- vvanders 8y agoYeah, I've always been curious if running a diesel motor at optimum RPM offsets the conversions loss.
- Animats 8y agoLocomotives do that because they need to power many wheels, and because they need huge torque at zero speed to get started. Trying to do that with a very large clutch is painful. (There are locomotive-sized clutches for some smaller locomotives, and British Rail was once into that approach, but it's obsolete.) Modern locomotives run the motors as synchronous AC servomotors, locking all the wheels together in software. Freightliner has an electric semitruck.[1] So do MAN, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, etc. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwI4Wt5Av3k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwI4Wt5Av3k