4 ms·

Volvo FM Electric semi trucks helping to fight wildfires in NSW, Australia

6 points by zfg 2y ago

bigfatkitten 2y ago
> The big Volvo required less than 2 total hours’ charging to complete the 6 hour and 15 minute trip with stops at Goulburn and Tarcutta. A diesel prime mover wouldn't have had to stop at all. For those not familiar with the route, Goulburn and Tarcutta are only about 200km apart. A modern Euro truck on that route with a gross combination mass of around 40 tonnes would carry 600-1000 litres of fuel, and see fuel economy of around 2.2-2.5km/L. Volvo's product is undoubtedly fine for local distribution, but a poor fit for interstate work, and a diabolical choice for a bulk water tanker that would be expected to operate in locations with widespread infrastructure damage, such as the state's far south coast during the 2019/20 fire season.
magnetowasright 2y ago
Of all the things to try electrify, I wouldn't even have considered anything related to fires here. I don't know anything, so maybe this could be great. There is no planet b, after all. Will these be as bottom heavy as cars? If so, maybe replacing fleets with these will mean our governments don't have to worry about installing the roll protection that would have saved a bunch of fireys from being crushed to death the last catastrophic bushfires we had! Sarcasm about how we treat our fireys (and ambos!) like garbage aside (it wasn't these kinds of vehicles rolling on people, for the record) I won't own an EV while I live in regional Australia because (I can't afford one,) the reliability of ICEs and ease of quickly refuelling and transporting extra fuel with me (...a fire risk) in an ICE can be the difference between getting out alive and not. Also none of this "won't move, need updates!" rubbish. I'd hope that wouldn't be a problem for vehicles like this, but who knows? Manufacturers also don't seem to offer a car that can reliably get me to the nearest major city and back without having to be recharged when the battery is brand new. Minutes matter in fires. I suppose I'm just skeptical of full EVs for this in the first place, a bit ill-informed, and extremely distrustful of the powers that be when it comes to protecting our fireys and providing them with what they need, and of EV manufacturers. I'm curious, though. It's not like the problems I whinged about are not obvious ones. I'd like to know how those issues can be overcome. Have a fire plan, people! Evacuate early!
- bigfatkitten 2y ago
  This is a bulk water tanker. Its job is to shuttle water from a reticulated urban supply to a staging area somewhere else. It's not the sort of vehicle that ends up on an actual fireground. That said, don't expect to see electric bushfire trucks anytime soon. The first reason is that 30 year old trucks often go to auction with less than 40,000km on the odometer. They aren't utilised enough for electrification to make any sense from an environmental or cost perspective. The second is that no EV truck manufacturer builds vehicles with batteries designed to withstand direct flame attack. Commercial off the shelf trucks are modified with spray bars, insulation covering electrical cabling, fuel and air lines etc to greatly improve their survivability if impacted by fire, but that isn't an option for any EV truck currently in existence. The third of course is the logistical nightmare of having to recharge vehicles. It's easy to quickly refuel 30 diesel trucks from a fuel tanker (or even from drums), but much harder to charge 30 BEV trucks without mains power in the middle of nowhere.
nikau 2y ago
Now we wait for elon to jump in, call Volvo a pedo, and offer to ship bags of chips in his Tesla semi.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
karmakaze 2y ago
It seems like "FM Electric semi truck" is a typo as the first link in the article's says "Volvo just launched a new long-range version of its FH Electric semi truck, with up to 600 km (373 miles) of range on a single charge." There's been enough regurgitation that they look like distinct models, with according to AI summary considers the FM variant for city-medium range and the FH for long-haul. It might be the case that both exist and this story is mixing up the names (or its source had the typo and was corrected). We could use versioning as a core feature of the web rather than rely on archive.org for all of it.
- bigfatkitten 2y ago
  They are but least in the diesel world, the difference between the FH and FM is largely just the cab. The rest of the truck is otherwise built to order with whatever engine, transmission, suspension, axles etc that you like.

6 points by zfg 2y ago

> The big Volvo required less than 2 total hours’ charging to complete the 6 hour and 15 minute trip with stops at Goulburn and Tarcutta. A diesel prime mover wouldn't have had to stop at all. For those not familiar with the route, Goulburn and Tarcutta are only about 200km apart. A modern Euro truck on that route with a gross combination mass of around 40 tonnes would carry 600-1000 litres of fuel, and see fuel economy of around 2.2-2.5km/L. Volvo's product is undoubtedly fine for local distribution, but a poor fit for interstate work, and a diabolical choice for a bulk water tanker that would be expected to operate in locations with widespread infrastructure damage, such as the state's far south coast during the 2019/20 fire season.

magnetowasright 2y ago

Of all the things to try electrify, I wouldn't even have considered anything related to fires here. I don't know anything, so maybe this could be great. There is no planet b, after all. Will these be as bottom heavy as cars? If so, maybe replacing fleets with these will mean our governments don't have to worry about installing the roll protection that would have saved a bunch of fireys from being crushed to death the last catastrophic bushfires we had! Sarcasm about how we treat our fireys (and ambos!) like garbage aside (it wasn't these kinds of vehicles rolling on people, for the record) I won't own an EV while I live in regional Australia because (I can't afford one,) the reliability of ICEs and ease of quickly refuelling and transporting extra fuel with me (...a fire risk) in an ICE can be the difference between getting out alive and not. Also none of this "won't move, need updates!" rubbish. I'd hope that wouldn't be a problem for vehicles like this, but who knows? Manufacturers also don't seem to offer a car that can reliably get me to the nearest major city and back without having to be recharged when the battery is brand new. Minutes matter in fires. I suppose I'm just skeptical of full EVs for this in the first place, a bit ill-informed, and extremely distrustful of the powers that be when it comes to protecting our fireys and providing them with what they need, and of EV manufacturers. I'm curious, though. It's not like the problems I whinged about are not obvious ones. I'd like to know how those issues can be overcome. Have a fire plan, people! Evacuate early!

bigfatkitten 2y ago
This is a bulk water tanker. Its job is to shuttle water from a reticulated urban supply to a staging area somewhere else. It's not the sort of vehicle that ends up on an actual fireground. That said, don't expect to see electric bushfire trucks anytime soon. The first reason is that 30 year old trucks often go to auction with less than 40,000km on the odometer. They aren't utilised enough for electrification to make any sense from an environmental or cost perspective. The second is that no EV truck manufacturer builds vehicles with batteries designed to withstand direct flame attack. Commercial off the shelf trucks are modified with spray bars, insulation covering electrical cabling, fuel and air lines etc to greatly improve their survivability if impacted by fire, but that isn't an option for any EV truck currently in existence. The third of course is the logistical nightmare of having to recharge vehicles. It's easy to quickly refuel 30 diesel trucks from a fuel tanker (or even from drums), but much harder to charge 30 BEV trucks without mains power in the middle of nowhere.

nikau 2y ago

Now we wait for elon to jump in, call Volvo a pedo, and offer to ship bags of chips in his Tesla semi.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

karmakaze 2y ago

It seems like "FM Electric semi truck" is a typo as the first link in the article's says "Volvo just launched a new long-range version of its FH Electric semi truck, with up to 600 km (373 miles) of range on a single charge." There's been enough regurgitation that they look like distinct models, with according to AI summary considers the FM variant for city-medium range and the FH for long-haul. It might be the case that both exist and this story is mixing up the names (or its source had the typo and was corrected). We could use versioning as a core feature of the web rather than rely on archive.org for all of it.

bigfatkitten 2y ago
They are but least in the diesel world, the difference between the FH and FM is largely just the cab. The rest of the truck is otherwise built to order with whatever engine, transmission, suspension, axles etc that you like.