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I didn't see it mentioned in the article but is swapping out the battery entirely an option being investigated, i.e. you roll into the truck stop and some proce

I didn't see it mentioned in the article but is swapping out the battery entirely an option being investigated, i.e. you roll into the truck stop and some process takes the depleted battery and inserts a charged one. It was discussed on the past for cars but I'd assume it's easier to design for trucks due to their specialised use?

dchuk 5y ago
I actually asked that exact question as well recently :) The problem is that the truck batteries are absolutely massive (4k+ pounds), so while I'm sure it's technically possible, practically speaking, moving around and storing batteries that big and heavy is just not realistic today.
akira2501 5y ago
Most likely not.. it would be difficult to warehouse, move, charge and redeploy the batteries in typical truck stops. On top of that, with so many different fleets in operation in the US, there's no guarantee there will be the broad compatibility and on-the-road service that you would want when integrating an unknown piece of equipment on your vehicle. It will likely be more difficult for trucks. The amount of space consumed by the battery is prohibitive, and they're not laid out "below the floor" like they are in a passenger vehicle. They're typically in a large stack behind the drivers cabin, imaging the type of equipment needed to do the swap, I can't see this happening regularly.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  The trailer could have a battery pad on the front. Service it with a forklift.
- UglyToad 5y ago
  Yeah, sadly I think you're right. Ultimately this is somewhere standardization would really help. If rather than a fuelling pump there was some kind of (strong!) robotic assembly/arm that just retrieves the battery from behind the cabin, inserts it into a magazine type system at the truck stop and inserts the available charged battery from the same magazine with zero human involvement then I can't see the process exceeding 10 minutes or so. But this is somewhere where commercial competition will resist standardization, and I think that's going to cause difficulties in electric vehicle tech more broadly.
stubish 5y ago
I don't think it is an option being investigated, because drivers have mandatory rest breaks. Communities like that trucks require the downtime, because they remember when drivers where coked up doing back to back runs pissing into a bottle and a danger to everyone.
- UglyToad 5y ago
  This is a good point but they seem like slightly separate concerns in a sense. My limited understanding is that truck drivers tend to rest where they hit their legal limit which will often be a lay-by rather than a proper truck stop. Perhaps we could include charging points in most lay-bys to get an overlap in charging vs. rest breaks but it seems to me a shorter charging process via swapping in a truck stop would still be advantageous since the rest break and charging stop won't necessarily overlap in most cases.

dchuk 5y ago

I actually asked that exact question as well recently :) The problem is that the truck batteries are absolutely massive (4k+ pounds), so while I'm sure it's technically possible, practically speaking, moving around and storing batteries that big and heavy is just not realistic today.

akira2501 5y ago

Most likely not.. it would be difficult to warehouse, move, charge and redeploy the batteries in typical truck stops. On top of that, with so many different fleets in operation in the US, there's no guarantee there will be the broad compatibility and on-the-road service that you would want when integrating an unknown piece of equipment on your vehicle. It will likely be more difficult for trucks. The amount of space consumed by the battery is prohibitive, and they're not laid out "below the floor" like they are in a passenger vehicle. They're typically in a large stack behind the drivers cabin, imaging the type of equipment needed to do the swap, I can't see this happening regularly.

maxerickson 5y ago
The trailer could have a battery pad on the front. Service it with a forklift.
UglyToad 5y ago
Yeah, sadly I think you're right. Ultimately this is somewhere standardization would really help. If rather than a fuelling pump there was some kind of (strong!) robotic assembly/arm that just retrieves the battery from behind the cabin, inserts it into a magazine type system at the truck stop and inserts the available charged battery from the same magazine with zero human involvement then I can't see the process exceeding 10 minutes or so. But this is somewhere where commercial competition will resist standardization, and I think that's going to cause difficulties in electric vehicle tech more broadly.

stubish 5y ago

I don't think it is an option being investigated, because drivers have mandatory rest breaks. Communities like that trucks require the downtime, because they remember when drivers where coked up doing back to back runs pissing into a bottle and a danger to everyone.

UglyToad 5y ago
This is a good point but they seem like slightly separate concerns in a sense. My limited understanding is that truck drivers tend to rest where they hit their legal limit which will often be a lay-by rather than a proper truck stop. Perhaps we could include charging points in most lay-bys to get an overlap in charging vs. rest breaks but it seems to me a shorter charging process via swapping in a truck stop would still be advantageous since the rest break and charging stop won't necessarily overlap in most cases.