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I am going to be old school on this. I think the idea of trucks with separate batteries is not the most efficient, environmentally friendly solution. There is

I am going to be old school on this. I think the idea of trucks with separate batteries is not the most efficient, environmentally friendly solution. There is already a quiet, electric solution that has been proven to be much better. I think we should go back to trolleybuses[1], and expand them to allow delivery trucks. Hybrid trucks can use electric in city, and other fuel outside. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus (edit: love to know the super quick hate, but no answers why?)

rnk 3y ago
We'd have to maintain and run electric lines to every neighborhood in a city to make these kinds of vehicles work. That would be really expensive. Batteries are cheap and getting cheaper all the time, we just don't need this.
mym1990 3y ago
A trolleybus is efficient because people go to a location that the bus services, the bus does not go door to door to every person, that would be absolutely asinine. To make a trolleybus delivery service work, you would need a central location for customers to pick up packages. This would probably just create more congestion as people get in their cars to drive 1 mile down the street to get the package...which just makes the whole idea of 'delivery' kind of pointless.
telotortium 3y ago
Battery trolleybusses might be a solution, but there's never going to be overhead lines going over the middle of every damn street in a city, let alone the suburbs.
callalex 3y ago
It seems you fundamentally misunderstand what a delivery is.
JKCalhoun 3y ago
I like the idea of losing the weight of the batteries. As others point out though, running overhead trolley wires up and down neighborhood streets is a non-starter. It would be cool though if main streets had the overhead power infrastructure and if any electric vehicle could engage. Get a recharge on the go. This too could ultimately reduce the requirement for large capacity batteries.
papertokyo 3y ago
Have you ever looked at how the switching mechanisms in overhead wires work, and how slow vehicles have to move while they pass through? There's a minimum distance between each Y junction required which mean it's only practical for a limited amount of well-planned routes where drivers aren't optimizing for speed. Source: I live in Vancouver, BC which has an extensive trolleybus network.

rnk 3y ago

We'd have to maintain and run electric lines to every neighborhood in a city to make these kinds of vehicles work. That would be really expensive. Batteries are cheap and getting cheaper all the time, we just don't need this.

mym1990 3y ago

A trolleybus is efficient because people go to a location that the bus services, the bus does not go door to door to every person, that would be absolutely asinine. To make a trolleybus delivery service work, you would need a central location for customers to pick up packages. This would probably just create more congestion as people get in their cars to drive 1 mile down the street to get the package...which just makes the whole idea of 'delivery' kind of pointless.

telotortium 3y ago

Battery trolleybusses might be a solution, but there's never going to be overhead lines going over the middle of every damn street in a city, let alone the suburbs.

callalex 3y ago

It seems you fundamentally misunderstand what a delivery is.

JKCalhoun 3y ago

I like the idea of losing the weight of the batteries. As others point out though, running overhead trolley wires up and down neighborhood streets is a non-starter. It would be cool though if main streets had the overhead power infrastructure and if any electric vehicle could engage. Get a recharge on the go. This too could ultimately reduce the requirement for large capacity batteries.

papertokyo 3y ago

Have you ever looked at how the switching mechanisms in overhead wires work, and how slow vehicles have to move while they pass through? There's a minimum distance between each Y junction required which mean it's only practical for a limited amount of well-planned routes where drivers aren't optimizing for speed. Source: I live in Vancouver, BC which has an extensive trolleybus network.