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Sharing this feels a bit nerdy but it’s the first time I’ve seen a heavy truck driver describe the experience of taking an electric tractor-trailer on a proper long distance journey and you may be as interested as I was. The main trip here is the length of Germany, north to south and the takeaways seem to be that separate layouts of super rapid chargers are urgently needed for trucks (though he shared ok with cars) and some attention..

youtube.com/watch?v=I4b-cybcgk…


First Long-Distance Trip with my Electric Truck - Insane Efficiency in the Kassel Mountains

The third week as an electric trucker. This time with the Scania 40R, and for the first time, a long-distance transport over the Kassel mountains through Bav...
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in reply to Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖ mountains are where electric vehicles really shine tho. All that potential energy that ICE vehicles just use to heat their brakes up.
@Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖
in reply to Sarah Brown

jack
jack
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@goatsarah fond happy funtimes fun happy fun memories of driving an automatic car through the mountains of Australia without thinking very hard about it, to be viscerally informed of what brake fade is
@Sarah Brown
in reply to jack

Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
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@jack is updating your database @Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖ Hybrids are pretty shit at it too IME. Rented one in the dolomites. They recover energy like EVs, but into a very small battery, and once that’s full, it has to use its smaller than normal brakes.

The EV, on the other hand, is fine, as long as you haven’t been a total muppet and charged it to 100% at the top.

@Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖ @jack
in reply to Sarah Brown

jack
jack
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@goatsarah we've recently bought a small hybrid but thinking a plug-in hybrid would be preferable for the next car - with a larger battery there's more scope for regen

as to driving trucks the length of Germany... needs an overhead power wire instead of batteries, also steel wheels, on rails... ;)

@Sarah Brown
in reply to jack

jack
jack
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@goatsarah I knew what it was theoretically, but I'd only driven manual cars with obvious engine-braking and automatic buses on routes without sustained gradients before. came to a T-junction, braked for the give-way line, and overshot by a carlength. Thankfully without further incident

the transmission lever had positions to limit the highest gear available, but it never twigged to use them for engine-braking

@Sarah Brown
in reply to Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖

Pippa
Pippa
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- progress in electric heavy trucks is something which has caught me by surprise. I was very much under the impression that they were still in a R&D phase, and considered hard to make viable, and then suddenly they seem to be a practical option. Really great to see.
in reply to Pippa

Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖
Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖
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@philcowans The trick seems to lie in building the infrastructure around the working pattern dictated by safety regulations. As big vehicles, there’s no problem putting a 200-250kWh battery under the tractor unit and having a range of 200-250 miles or so fits well with the permitted hours. It sounds like the truck makers need to do more on regeneration though. The saving not discussed yet is that of reduced maintenance but maybe this driver will get round to that.
@Pippa
in reply to Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖

Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖
Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖
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@philcowans His employers seem to have thought through the logistics of running a yard for electric trucks. They’re building a wind powered battery that can deliver 4MW to a line of tractor units parked overnight without melting the local grid. Some of their trucking seems to be medium distance (there and back in a day) so, right there, they can eliminate a huge slice of their fuel costs by generating their own.
@Pippa
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