I use to work out of that yard for Schneider intermodal. That was a water treatment plant you observed next to the yard.

Interesting and well done video, showing the way forward for commercial use evs. 👍🏻😎

Interesting article about EV vs Fuel Cell trucks being used in California ports has this to say: “IMC, the largest company in the US hauling containers from ports to warehouses, has ordered 50 Nikola fuel-cell trucks for its operations in California, Arizona and Nevada, after disappointing results from two years of testing battery-electric vehicles. The firm had purchased six Class 8 battery-electric trucks from Volvo in September 2022, as well as installing charge points capable of serving a fleet of 30, but found them wanting. The main challenge with battery [electric vehicles] is that you get significantly lower productivity per truck vs other solutions and thus requiring more trucks for this application.” This is identical to what has been found with EV transit buses!

2 or 5 years from now trucking will be more electric

Why do the horsepower ratings seem so low?

Keep in mind that the need to liquid cool the charging cables (for these particular power levels), is because Freightliner is using only 400V charging. 400V requires twice the amperage as an 800V system to charge with the same level of power. The more amperage the greater the power loss (as heat), due to cable resistance. Power loss (heat), can also be seen as a loss of charging efficiency (lower charging efficiency means more expensive charging). Even though the charging cable is cooler (the heat being dissipated by the liquid coolant), the power is still being lost as heat. It becomes increasingly more expensive to charge with a lower voltage system as the charging power increases. I'm surprised Freightliner hasn't moved to at least 800V. I expect 1000V to become the standard for all electric trucks within a few years.

There’s no real reason why these would be abnormally expensive and there’s no reason why they couldn’t have a ton of range. Just for example the Tesla Cybertruck(not semi) has a 250 kWh battery that weighs 3,100 pounds. So why on earth does this semi which will have infinitely more capacity than a civilian vehicle have the same size battery as a civilian vehicle? You wouldn’t. If anything you’d put 2 or 3 of them. They can haul 80,000 pounds and the engine they are replacing weighs 3,500 pounds. 3,500 pounds alone is 2 of Teslas largest production batteries out right now, I mean what are we taking about? Let’s pretend you double the capacity, 500 kWh. That’s an extra 3,000 pounds, I don’t see any reason you wouldn’t be able to do that, there’s going to be a general weigh savings throughout the truck, if they just swapped engine for 250kwh that should be a net LOSS of weight. I don’t get it. Seems half assed and weak, you want to make a shift? Make something that can do 8-10 hours of driving straight and charge while the driver sleeps. Nobody gives a shit about a semi with 150 mile range, hell that’s not even enough range for a local driver.

This is how electric trucks should work... in theory :) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b8uJf9eBuMybgI0.html The range wouldn't be important as long as you have a "petrol station" to simply change the batteries. And the guys in the vid aim for a less than 60 seconds change! After all, it's the same principle from a flashlight: when the batteries are empty you replace them with a charged set. Why is it so hard to do that at a larger scale?