Who is/will be the 1st TTR member to drive Electric Semi-Truck?

I doubt total Co2 emissions would actually drop. The minerals used in these batteries are coming from countries who couldn’t care less about the environment. They are burning fuel and destroying the ecosystem to get at them. But hey! You are being environmentally conscious. And by the way. You will never replace every IC engine. There are large swaths of the world’s population that doesn’t even have basic electricity. How will they charge an EV?

 

I suppose it depends on the use of the truck? As long as they are daycabs returning to base daily and plugging in for the 12 hrs they are not being used there’s no issue.

If they are being slip seated, huge deal.

The elephant in the room is, of course, that there is a strong correlation between battery degradation and fast charging: the more often a battery is fast charged, the quicker it degrades. Which makes the whole battery semi thing even less attractive for OTR use.

Of course, as soon as we say that, new battery chemistries mature out of the lab, and change things again.

 

On average 1 kwh produced by power plants results in under 1 pound of co2.

Using a standard 20 kwh diesel generator, 1 kwh results in just over 1.5 pounds of CO2.

If you want data, look at Norway where almost 40% of vehicles are electric.

Are there knock on effects? Yes, no one says there aren't. You can talk about the environmental impact of mining the battery materials and I can counter with the keystone pipeline having 3 major leaks in 5 years, or the over 4,000 major spillages in the North Sea, or point to any of the dozen major spillage (10000 plus gallons) that Kinder Morgan has done in the last 2 years.

On the whole, an EV is better for the environment.

 

It’s not a debate on wether or not they are cleaner for the environment. Thus my comparison on sails versus fuel. Sails are absolutely better for the environment. But they aren’t efficient compared to modern ocean going vessels.

EV’s are less polluting, but they are not as efficient at moving the same volume of freight in the same time period. I’m not saying they won’t ever get there, just that the technology isn’t there yet. I also think there are some rather serious issues that need to be addressed, that guys like you seem to pretend don’t exist.

 

I responded to the question you asked in that post "But if we are being honest are they really better for the environment? I mean if you really boil it down from mining the materials to manufacture to where the electricity is sourced from?". And the answer is yes.

 

I’m glad you’re so confident. Even the EPA isn’t as confident as you. It can take up to 80% more GHG’s to make an electric car. So yes if you keep it long enough you eventually become cleaner. But that could take as much as 90,000 miles before you reach that point. How much less freight has been moved during that time? To compensate do we have to build more to cover the same ground? Yes they polluted less, but if you really dig deep how much less?

 

Source?

 

Aren’t these trucks already being restricted to <100mi runs? I was thinking I saw where Pepsi(?) was doing that. Is that a Pepsi or Tesla choice?

 

The “pollution break even number” is a political football.

Look at this article for an alternative interpretation. They come up with about 14k miles before the EV produces less lifetime CO2.

Analysis: When do electric vehicles become cleaner than gasoline cars?

 

1. Electric Vehicle Myths | US EPA https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/lifetime-carbon-emissions-electric-vehicles-vs-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/

It all depends on the type of fuel that the power generation plant uses. An It’s not as simple as you pretend that it is. It will require a top down revamp of the complete power distribution network to make it as green as you want. I highly doubt Asia and Africa as well as South America are able to do that. And you still have the issue of the weight and range of an EV semi to contend with. Which again means it will take more to do the same.

You also have to consider that the Tesla model X which is in the Reuters article gets .34 kWh per mile and the Tesla semi get 1.7 kWh per mile. The spread between it and a modern tractor is much closer than the spread of an automobile.