A new battery system and an aerodynamically optimized cab give Scania’s electric big rig an edge over the Tesla Semi.
Scania, the Swedish truck maker owned by the Volkswagen Group, is now offering a battery solution that boosts the driving range of its electric big rigs up to 447 miles (720 kilometers). That’s more than most truck drivers in Europe will ever have to experience between mandatory breaks, but Scania has done it anyway.
American truck drivers at around roughly 700mi/day (up to 11hrs at roughly 65mph, depending upon the company’s set limit - independents hit more like 75-80mph when they can):
😲
Independents then need to learn to do math because they are working for the extra fuel.
9 hours per day, up to 10 twice a week in Europe, but most countries limit trucks at 80 km/h, with some limiting them at 90.
But you also have to take a break of at least 45 minutes after 4.5 hours of driving at most. So you could use that break to charge. That’s why it’s unlikely you’d ever need to do 700 km in one go. You’d need ghost drivers whose cards to use, basically.
Cool! but “Scania didn’t disclose how much stuff its new long-range truck can haul.”, which isn’t very helpful - is 447miles with no trailer or load?
Maybe the used the Tesla trick of hauling potato chips.
616 kWh of usable energy.
MCS charging at up to 750 kW
For perspective, that’s roughly the same as powering a modern “global north” village of 150 people for a day or two.
I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done (we absolutely must decarbonise however we can), but that is an eye-opening amount of energy, materials and technological capacity we’re dedicating to shuffling our niknaks around on roads…
A typical us Semi truck carries around 200 gallons of fuel (up to 400 if DDG is to be trusted).
That’s Fuel Energy Content =7490kWh with a Usable Electricity =2247kWh
But more importantly it’s much dirtier and spread out in our cities when it diesel powered. Also it’s delivering food, medicine and clothing with those nik-naks.
Thanks for the numbers, that is interesting.
Just to be clear; my criticism is not of direct electric transmission; it’s of waste, inefficiency and overconsumption in general.
For me, one of the coolest things about electrification is the ability to read the number on the box (or out of the socket) and easily be able to compare it to other things. You can more readily quantify energy use and make an informed value judgement about it. Fossil fuels help to obfuscate this by putting energy use behind at least one additional layer of abstraction & calculation.
That’s Fuel Energy Content =7490kWh with a Usable Electricity =2247kWh
Please people, stop doing this sophomoric math.55% of the energy in Diesel is wasted as heat and noise.
Stop getting science from YouTube.
Isn’t the rate quoted actually less efficient than the ~45% efficiency of a diesel engine? Seems like they went for 30% efficiency.
The noise is irrelevant unlike the waste heat, too. It can’t be that much energy given that tire noise takes over at any real speed (tire noise actually being worse for EVs since the batteries are heavier).
But that’s nitpicking at this point. As long as you can steal electricity from somewhere, these trucks are going to be hella cheaper to run than diesels that require a ton of maintenance.
2247 is with getting 30% of the usable energy out of the diesel wtf are you on about?
Good feckin point.
I don’t suppose you’ve got the ratio between heat and noise?
Noise is utterly irrelevant in terms of energy use. 120 dB, where it starts to hurt, is only 1 Watt. But yOuTube sCiEnce bla bla. Sure.
That’s what I thought.
