Electric dreams

How about a 379 Peterbilt with DEF and a Scania engine and electric drive axles ? Old school trucking with new technology.

This company is also going to try building diesel electric semi. Using regular OTR trucks. They are building a show truck also using a 379 Peterbilt.

 

Edison Motors has the cab and batteries and lots of stuff done in the crazy looking truck already

https://youtube.com/shorts/DxW18tjkD0o?si=iV0pdEg5yYG6kBh2

 

Edison Motors got approval to make and sell their electric/diesel semi. So you can get regular diesel truck or get the hybrid truck. They had to switch to Cummins engines to get approval and the Canada government found some way to make it work legally for EPA regulations.

 

I saw that. Depending on what the conversions run weight wise when they get the OTR kits ready. ive been considering going the hybrid route. I dont think all electric is viable in 90% of applications. But a hybrid especially if it can see better MPG then comparable all diesel options would be a huge game changer. I can easily see one getting 15+MPG when we already have all diesels getting 10 or so.

Would also eliminate the concern most of us have with electric and the stupidly long charge times. Moreso if we can charge the hybrid batterys overnight but still run the diesel if we cant/dont have time for a full charge or when diesel is cheaper then power (which with the AI centers murdering electric prices is likely to become a huge albatross around the neck of pure electrics)

 

I'm pretty sure that the Edison trucks will actually be less fuel efficient if you don't get a major benefit from the regenerative braking such as the logging truck example he had of going up empty and coming down loaded or in stop and go all day doing local P&D. The power comes from the same diesel engine either way, but with the hybrid it has to be converted to electricity and then ran through an inverter which is then transmitted to the motors.

AI Overlord perspective
The honest catch: flat highway cruise is the worst case for series hybrid. Steady-state cruise means the engine in a conventional truck is already running at near-steady RPM in its top gear, so the sweet-spot advantage shrinks, and there's no regen to recover. You're just paying the conversion losses with not much to offset them. This is why long-haul interstate efficiency for series hybrids is genuinely marginal vs. a modern aerodynamic conventional truck — and why Edison is going hard at vocational/resource markets rather than pitching it as a Freightliner Cascadia replacement.

 

Fair point. Let me be a little more specific. I haul 80k in the mountains a lot. Im not looking for an efficent truck on i80 through nebraska. Im looking for something that can haul 80k up a mountain on 64 at more then 10mph in VW, or can get me up to climax in colorado with a load of grinder balls then to pull molybdenum back down but will still be good on flat ground without needing a giant 550+ horse engine that gets 5mpg at the best of times. Also something ideally that doesnt have as MUCH of the garbage emissions stuff tacked on. I also do a lot of short hauls as often as super long hauls so something that on the days i only do 2 or 300 miles can be pure electric especially if electricty is cheap but can go pure diesel on the days its not cheap or i run 600+ miles.

Hybrid for MY use case is going to spend as much time in the hills as the flat and there are enough advantages elsewhere that the math says it SHOULD be more efficent in my use case. And from both my experince and many others who get the the little 13L engines, they simply can not handle the job and tend to have issues making them less then not ideal. So it tends to force us into the less efficent 15L engines.

There is also the weight of emissions systems. Something with minimal or ideally no emissions like you see on a semi today and a much lighter system would add up. 2000 less pounds (my 579 pre and post delete weight) added to 300 odd loads a year is esentially an extra 10 to 14 extra loads for free. And as i average around $2500 per load. That adds up.

I get for van life they are meh. For the kind of work i do. They are appealing and making me really eyeball them.

 

Yeah, thats fair. I just cruise around nebraska and surrounding states and I turn around and come back before I get into the Rockies lol. Looking forward to seeing what kind of results guys like you get out of em. I think in a way they could be simpler and lower maintenance. I am concerned about their constant shutting on and off effect on the Turbo though. If I really get my engine heat soaked I usually let it high idle for 5 minutes at least before shutting it down so I don't bake oil onto the turbo shaft bearing.

 

Same. As a rule i high idle for 10 mins with the engine fan on before i shut it off just to let everything cool a fair bit. As for if it actully happens. not sure yet. There are a lot of options coming up and i plan to rebuild my current truck at least once after its paid off before i decide anything. My last payment is october 2027 so figure if i pay it off turn around and do a small 1 or 2 year loan on a out of frame then ride it out 500 or 600k more miles all these techs should be on the market with good data. And i can pull the trigger on whatever makes the most sense at the time. Course thats if i dont have my CPL by then and transition to pilot or dont go back company for lower stress loads.

May even get a cabover scania when they release in the U.S if the 770s are as good as the hype promises or an HX520 with an S13 if they are still holding up as some hit1 mil. Not sure. Though hybrid makes the most sense as of now. 3 or 4 years from now may be a diffrent story entirely.

 

Edison Motors is not trying to compete with the big truck manufacturers. They can’t even come close to that with such small production numbers. They really wanted a truck built to last 25+ years and you can repair it yourself. They are going after the off road heavy duty trucks.

Looks like know they plan on offering both kinds of trucks. You can get regular diesel with 18 speed or go hybrid if you want more power. I would think the electric drive axles have more pulling power if they put a bigger generator as the now claim.

I think some guys would by Edison truck with regular 18 speed just for the looks and hopefully build quality. Drivers claim they don’t like the new plastic trucks today.

It’s hard to guess if the Tesla semi will ever be a successful truck. Maybe good for local or 500 miles or less runs. Tesla sleeper trucks plus all the power to recharging them could be a real problem.

 

I've been hanging out for an e-truck since 2018 when Elon announced the future. Its still not hear in Aus but some Chinese ones are. The reality is however there is no grid to charge them to the point I cant even get night rate off peak power when all is meant to be quiet. So to charge trucks in numbers during the day on a daily basis is at least a decade off or more. And that diminishes the further you get from the city. The other kicker is to have a service/parts network that can supply parts in a day or two is harder to establish than the truck itself. It's no good waiting 2 - 3 weeks for a part while you loose $2500 a day.

In my 7 years of trucking with my second hand 2013 DAF, I have come to realise buying a new truck is a trap. You are locked into company pricing for parts as they control the supply and distribution. You are locked into the dealer pricing as the product sophistication etches out old school mechanics, and that can be a difference of $70 per hour. And you are increasingly being locked into being spied on by telematics in the name of efficiency and safety. I see telematics as we have no idea where data and AI is going in the near future let alone medium to long. And if all that personal data can be sold, it will be.

So I am looking at rebuilding a 32 year old truck with a detroit diesel 60 series that is pre EGR, DPF, add blue in truck that suits my spec and needs, not the dealers spec of what they feel is the best all rounder. And plenty of part suppliers offering choice and price opposed to the dealer. I have grown to dismiss emission concerns rather finding them farcical when Australia burns with bushfires every year. There are wars going on everywhere around the world with lots of black smoke, Defense has no emission controls, and commercial planes, ships, and trains seem to be largely left out of the equation. For me to pay the bill for the next 10 years or 1 million kilometers in a new truck, is a future I have little to no interest in participating. Were just a few weeks ago I test drove a E-truck, and from a couple threads on a couple forums has turned it all around.