5 ms·

'Supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you

27 points by rmason 2y ago

justinclift 2y ago
Energy pricing arbitrage on wheels? :)
- euroderf 2y ago
  Excellent idea. Might pay for itself in a hurry.
  - justinclift 2y ago
    Yep. Get yourself some low quality/crap land that's not too far from a population center with insane electricity pricing and turn it into a solar panel farm (or wind farm, etc). Regulations often seem to block new entrants from doing that and supplying the grid... but stuffing all of that energy into something portable which can directly top up or recharge consumer vehicles seems like a cool idea. Hopefully it works out for them such that they can scale up then open up further options for themselves. :)
GianFabien 2y ago
I was thinking it might be a truck mounted diesel generator. Instead it appears to be an even bigger battery on wheels. Must draw a massive amount of electricity to charge it up. Probably need to park it next to an electricity substation.
- theluketaylor 2y ago
  Porsche has a similar solution for race tracks and remote press events. A 2.1 MWh trailer that can dispense power at 3.2 MW. I think they are doing some clever things with solar to keep it charged (basically constant trickle charge with whatever they can generate), but the array might be pretty massive. https://www.porsche.com/stories/mobility/how-does-a-mobile-charging-trailer-for-evs-work/ https://www.porsche.com/stories/mobility/how-does-a-mobile-c...
AtlasBarfed 2y ago
You want a really crazy idea? How about a fleet of vehicles that charge EV semi trucks WHILE THEY ARE MOVING. That could reduce the needed size of the tractor battery and the cost of the whole system. Downside is it would probably be gasoline-powered. Less radically, you simply tow an additional trailer that is a power generator/range extender. It can be a trailer of batteries that you simply swap at a swap station rather than wait to recharge, and you don't need some whacko battery swap scheme. Honestly I think that should work for any EV, a range extending trailer. That way you can buy a 150-200 mile max range car for your daily stuff, and just rent/borrow a range extending trailer for longer trips.
- ambichook 2y ago
  i believe that's just a plug in hybrid
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > that's just a plug in hybrid To the extent an aircraft carrier is just an airstrip.
- euroderf 2y ago
  Just run regular shuttles between points A and B. Each participating truck has a connector on the front and one on the back, so that together they only occupy a single traffic lane. Any visual resemblances to a train are strickly coincidental.
  - Gare 2y ago
    Maybe we could even put a cheap wire overhead to supply electricity, that way we don't need heavy and expensive batteries.
    - op00to 2y ago
      Imagine if instead of roads we have some sort of low friction surface that also controls the direction of the vehicle. Some sort of metal rail. Then the vehicles could be larger, open to the public, and follow a set schedule!
bilsbie 2y ago
I wonder why no one just has a pickup with a generator in the back and drives around to help EV’s that ran out of batteries. Actually you could hang around overcrowded charging stations and make some good money. People in a hurry would pay a premium.
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  You would need a pretty big generator though. But an interesting idea.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  I remember I saw something similar in Ukraine when the war stared, a Tesla drivers was photographed fleeing the country towing a generator. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/zxk623/in_kyiv_they_spotted_a_tesla_car_with_a_gasoline/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/zxk623/in_kyiv_the...
- JosephRedfern 2y ago
  That's what breakdown companies (like the AA and RAC in the UK) do. It's slow enough that you'd only want to use it to get just enough juice to get to a proper charger, though - they use 3.5kW or 5kW chargers: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/rac-news/rac-begins-rolling-out-faster-emergency-ev-chargers-to-patrol-vans/ https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/rac-news/rac-begins-rolling.... I'd imagine it's way less efficient and way more polluting than using the national grid, too.
- craig1f 2y ago
  I doesn’t happen nearly enough to be worth the effort. Electricity is cheap, and these mobile services are only worth it if they can charge a premium. And they can only charge a premium when a car is literally stranded. And that happens infrequently enough that you may as well just use a tow, which is readily available.
- jillesvangurp 2y ago
  Well a generator would just make the power needlessly expensive. Presumably the whole point of such an operation would be to use cheap power and sell it at a premium.
rich_sasha 2y ago
What is the actual difficulty of charging at higher power? Is it getting energy to the charger? The charging device itself? Even as a non-EV-maximalist, I find it mind-boggling that we pump oil out in a few places in the world, ship it to turn it into gasoline, then ship it to millions of pre-placed fuel tanks and pumps around the world, and it all just works. Whereas even though all these places have electric power too, they can't charge EVs.
- spywaregorilla 2y ago
  It's the hardware required to output a huge volume of electricity into the battery in a short amount of time. Getting the power to the charger is trivial.
  - rich_sasha 2y ago
    But what is it then, beyond a thick copper cable? An expensive transformer-rectifier? High-power electronics? If I look at a petrol pump, I understand what makes it bulky. What makes a high power car charger bulky and expensive?
    - spywaregorilla 2y ago
      It converts from AC to DC and then has to work with the car to figure out at what rate to send power. You can't just go full throttle or the battery would start a fire (simplification).
- HPsquared 2y ago
  A gallon of diesel, which you can easily carry, has about 40 kWh of (admittedly thermal) energy. You can pour it into a tank in a few seconds. Edit: if it takes 10 seconds per gallon, that's 14.4 megawatts. Quite a lot. For instance, this massive wind turbine is rated 14 MW: https://www.siemensgamesa.com/products-and-services/offshore/wind-turbine-sg-14-222-dd https://www.siemensgamesa.com/products-and-services/offshore...
  - 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
vermilingua 2y ago
Would not want to be anywhere near the first highway accident involving one of these.
speedgoose 2y ago
Porsche did it a few years ago. https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-high-power-charging-trucks-mobile-power-sources-22285.html https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-high-po... Here is an ev influencer talking a bit about it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a6lmTJiNTJc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a6lmTJiNTJc

27 points by rmason 2y ago

justinclift 2y ago

Energy pricing arbitrage on wheels? :)

euroderf 2y ago
Excellent idea. Might pay for itself in a hurry.
- justinclift 2y ago
  Yep. Get yourself some low quality/crap land that's not too far from a population center with insane electricity pricing and turn it into a solar panel farm (or wind farm, etc). Regulations often seem to block new entrants from doing that and supplying the grid... but stuffing all of that energy into something portable which can directly top up or recharge consumer vehicles seems like a cool idea. Hopefully it works out for them such that they can scale up then open up further options for themselves. :)

GianFabien 2y ago

I was thinking it might be a truck mounted diesel generator. Instead it appears to be an even bigger battery on wheels. Must draw a massive amount of electricity to charge it up. Probably need to park it next to an electricity substation.

theluketaylor 2y ago
Porsche has a similar solution for race tracks and remote press events. A 2.1 MWh trailer that can dispense power at 3.2 MW. I think they are doing some clever things with solar to keep it charged (basically constant trickle charge with whatever they can generate), but the array might be pretty massive. https://www.porsche.com/stories/mobility/how-does-a-mobile-charging-trailer-for-evs-work/ https://www.porsche.com/stories/mobility/how-does-a-mobile-c...

AtlasBarfed 2y ago

You want a really crazy idea? How about a fleet of vehicles that charge EV semi trucks WHILE THEY ARE MOVING. That could reduce the needed size of the tractor battery and the cost of the whole system. Downside is it would probably be gasoline-powered. Less radically, you simply tow an additional trailer that is a power generator/range extender. It can be a trailer of batteries that you simply swap at a swap station rather than wait to recharge, and you don't need some whacko battery swap scheme. Honestly I think that should work for any EV, a range extending trailer. That way you can buy a 150-200 mile max range car for your daily stuff, and just rent/borrow a range extending trailer for longer trips.

ambichook 2y ago
i believe that's just a plug in hybrid
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > that's just a plug in hybrid To the extent an aircraft carrier is just an airstrip.
euroderf 2y ago
Just run regular shuttles between points A and B. Each participating truck has a connector on the front and one on the back, so that together they only occupy a single traffic lane. Any visual resemblances to a train are strickly coincidental.
- Gare 2y ago
  Maybe we could even put a cheap wire overhead to supply electricity, that way we don't need heavy and expensive batteries.
  - op00to 2y ago
    Imagine if instead of roads we have some sort of low friction surface that also controls the direction of the vehicle. Some sort of metal rail. Then the vehicles could be larger, open to the public, and follow a set schedule!

bilsbie 2y ago

I wonder why no one just has a pickup with a generator in the back and drives around to help EV’s that ran out of batteries. Actually you could hang around overcrowded charging stations and make some good money. People in a hurry would pay a premium.

actionfromafar 2y ago
You would need a pretty big generator though. But an interesting idea.
Rinzler89 2y ago
I remember I saw something similar in Ukraine when the war stared, a Tesla drivers was photographed fleeing the country towing a generator. https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/zxk623/in_kyiv_they_spotted_a_tesla_car_with_a_gasoline/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/zxk623/in_kyiv_the...
JosephRedfern 2y ago
That's what breakdown companies (like the AA and RAC in the UK) do. It's slow enough that you'd only want to use it to get just enough juice to get to a proper charger, though - they use 3.5kW or 5kW chargers: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/rac-news/rac-begins-rolling-out-faster-emergency-ev-chargers-to-patrol-vans/ https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/rac-news/rac-begins-rolling.... I'd imagine it's way less efficient and way more polluting than using the national grid, too.
craig1f 2y ago
I doesn’t happen nearly enough to be worth the effort. Electricity is cheap, and these mobile services are only worth it if they can charge a premium. And they can only charge a premium when a car is literally stranded. And that happens infrequently enough that you may as well just use a tow, which is readily available.
jillesvangurp 2y ago
Well a generator would just make the power needlessly expensive. Presumably the whole point of such an operation would be to use cheap power and sell it at a premium.

rich_sasha 2y ago

What is the actual difficulty of charging at higher power? Is it getting energy to the charger? The charging device itself? Even as a non-EV-maximalist, I find it mind-boggling that we pump oil out in a few places in the world, ship it to turn it into gasoline, then ship it to millions of pre-placed fuel tanks and pumps around the world, and it all just works. Whereas even though all these places have electric power too, they can't charge EVs.

spywaregorilla 2y ago
It's the hardware required to output a huge volume of electricity into the battery in a short amount of time. Getting the power to the charger is trivial.
- rich_sasha 2y ago
  But what is it then, beyond a thick copper cable? An expensive transformer-rectifier? High-power electronics? If I look at a petrol pump, I understand what makes it bulky. What makes a high power car charger bulky and expensive?
  - spywaregorilla 2y ago
    It converts from AC to DC and then has to work with the car to figure out at what rate to send power. You can't just go full throttle or the battery would start a fire (simplification).
HPsquared 2y ago
A gallon of diesel, which you can easily carry, has about 40 kWh of (admittedly thermal) energy. You can pour it into a tank in a few seconds. Edit: if it takes 10 seconds per gallon, that's 14.4 megawatts. Quite a lot. For instance, this massive wind turbine is rated 14 MW: https://www.siemensgamesa.com/products-and-services/offshore/wind-turbine-sg-14-222-dd https://www.siemensgamesa.com/products-and-services/offshore...
- 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

vermilingua 2y ago

Would not want to be anywhere near the first highway accident involving one of these.

speedgoose 2y ago

Porsche did it a few years ago. https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-high-power-charging-trucks-mobile-power-sources-22285.html https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-high-po... Here is an ev influencer talking a bit about it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a6lmTJiNTJc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a6lmTJiNTJc