{"id":21109,"date":"2016-06-18T19:57:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T00:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21109"},"modified":"2016-06-18T19:57:55","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T00:57:55","slug":"diesel-is-finite-trucks-are-the-bedrock-of-civilization-so-where-are-the-battery-electric-trucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=21109","title":{"rendered":"Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks?<\/a><\/h3>\n
Introduction to battery electric trucks<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Heavy-duty diesel-engine trucks (agricultural, cargo, mining, logging, construction, garbage, cement, 18-wheelers) are the main engines of civilization. Without them, no goods would be delivered, no food planted or harvested, no garbage picked up, no minerals mined, no concrete made, or oil and gas drilled to keep them all rolling. If trucks stopped running, gas stations, grocery stores, factories, pharmacies, and manufacturers would shut down within a week.<\/p>\n

Since\u00a0oil<\/a>,\u00a0coal<\/a>, and\u00a0natural gas<\/a>\u00a0are finite, and\u00a0biomass doesn\u2019t scale up<\/a>, clearly someday trucks will need to run on wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal generated electricity.\u00a0 Yet even batteries for autos aren\u2019t yet cheap,\u00a0long-lasting, light-weight, or powerful enough<\/a>\u00a0for most Americans to replace their current gas-guzzlers with.\u00a0 And given the distribution of wealth, few Americans may ever be able to afford an electric car, since two-thirds of Americans would have trouble finding even\u00a0$1,000<\/a>\u00a0for an emergency.<\/p>\n

Trucks that matter \u2014 that haul 30 tons of goods, pour cement, haul mining ore, and so on can weigh 40 times more than an average car.\u00a0 So scaling batteries up for heavy-duty trucks (NRC 2014) is impossible now given the state of battery technology. For example, a truck capable of going 621 miles hauling 59,525 pounds, the maximum allowable cargo weight, would need a battery weighing 55,116 pounds, and could only carry about 4,400 pounds of cargo (den Boer et al. 2013). And because a heavy-duty truck battery is so heavy and large, charging takes too long \u2014 typically 12 hours or more.<\/p>\n

And car battery development is hitting the\u00a0brick-walls of the laws of physics and thermodynamics<\/a>, yet truck batteries need to be even more powerful, durable, and long-lasting.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks? Introduction to battery electric trucks Heavy-duty diesel-engine trucks (agricultural, cargo, mining, logging, construction, garbage, cement, 18-wheelers) are the main engines of civilization. Without them, no goods would be delivered, no food planted or harvested, no garbage picked up, no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[14052,14047,14051,328,1482,4856,14050],"class_list":["post-21109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-survival-2","tag-car-battery","tag-diesel","tag-electric-transport","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-mining","tag-shipping","tag-trucks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21110,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21109\/revisions\/21110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}