Is Electric Power the ‘Future’ for Ford Trucks?
And the logistical problems continue to mount, as TooManyToys notes.
“Until you can develop really lightweight batteries it’s going to be tough in the commercial market. It’s good PR, but reality sucks. The last half dozen years of my career had me doing a lot of field testing onmetro buses. The problem was as the industry moved to natural gas sources, the hefty tanks mounted on the roofs took up the weight of passengers. So many times the buses were overloaded and brakes suffered. Batteries weigh even more.
I think metro buses and delivery trucks like UPS/FedEx would be a better application for electric. But in order to reduce the battery pack weight you have to use brake regeneration to recovery the energy used to accelerate and travel. There’s a lot of energy there.
OTR truck transport is 99% travel energy, so there’s little opportunity for regeneration from the brakes. It’s all storage and depletion.
We would be better served using a modern format for railroad with different track design and routes to move freight from the docking and supply centers to the end use regions.Then use trucks for shorter distribution paths. Rail gets ridiculous mpg for tonnage compared to trucks. And you could utilize LPG/NG in a better format.”
Whether you agree with the idea of electric Ford trucks or not, this is some pretty fascinating information. Certainly not the kind of stuff you’d find in your average news article! Be sure and check out the entire debate (and add in your thoughts) by heading over here!
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