Heavy equipment going electric instead of diesel.

John & Angela wrote:

MNGeeks61 wrote:

John & Angela wrote:

MNGeeks61 wrote:
I have little hope that I will see this technology in my lifetime. When I was growing up in the 80's Popular Science and other magazines had all the electric cars showing there... battery technology is so much more advanced now, yet longevity of the batteries is still the main issue along with price.
Isn't the cost of disposal higher for lithium than lead-acid? And lithium is relatively rare, although I will admit that we should have enough for 350 years at current production rates.

Also in the article, it's not mentioned how the company will get the electricity. I'm assuming since it's in Canada it's hydroelectric, but there are still a ton of coal plants in the US and people still don't like nuclear power plants.

All good points. But twenty years comes and goes pretty quick and on like 5 years ago pretty much every manufacturer is now on board with the technology. And like you say, depending on the country more or less power comes from coal. But coal has been in continuous decline for a couple decades now. Canada will have no coal power by 2030 and many European countries have earlier deadlines than that. There are a few European countries that have 2025 and 2026 set for the final year you can buy am internal combustion engine. I would think that heavy equipment comes with some special challenges though in terms of energy.

In north America electric vehicles also have more challenges than europe because of the distance we travel. We also don't have modern cross country public transportation like they do in Europe. Our trains are all 1960's era technology and lumber along at a blistering 60 mph while the 200 mph plus trains in europe are a comfortable alternative. Many in europe simply won't take their personal vehicle if they have to travel more than 150 KM..they take the train. This is why manufacturers are all planning a variety of battery pack sizes for their cars depending on the market they will be sold in. Big battery packs just like big gas tanks will be King in North America. Having said that depending on the person, many won't need more than 150 KM of range. I know we don't.

ok, short version response is people have to WANT electric vehicles. They need to have that cool factor and be reliable. (Tesla does that for me, if I didn't have two vehicles already, I'd consider the model 3)

Europe and America can't really be compared due to the different ways of life. It'd be great to have a 32 hour workweek...haha. I agree we don't have enough trains...mainly they just won't work because of the infrastructure. I'm not up to date on the tracks but you'd need new tracks that don't go through populated areas to go any faster than 60 mph. Couple that with the inability to look both ways or the tendency to try to get past the crossing just to save two minutes time...yeah (generalizing here) we're idiots sometime.

Add to that, certain population centers just don't work well for trains. I used to take the light rail to and from work, for $3 per day and no need to park - wife would pick me up at a park n' ride. The big issue was scheduling for me, as I work in IT and have to be at work, at will. The light rail (northstar) max speed was 45 MPH, not sure if because of population or technical issues on the tracks. Sure more than a few rode the train, probably about 20%. But I still never really saw those cars completely full, unless it was a baseball game day.

Maybe we should start a different thread discussing transportation/power needs for the future. I think I'm getting off topic. I do like the original idea of electric heavy equipment :) Maybe it would be so quiet maybe you'd never notice it was on?

Totally agree. Different culture is part of it. But re the trains, North America does have light rail in cities, subways etc and in some ways comparable to europe. What is different is long haul cross country trains which are archaic on this side of the pond. Trains like the AVE in Spain or the, the ICE in Germany or the TGV in France simply don't exist and probably never will. If those did exist I suspect they would get used more as they are very comfortable, quiet and not expensive.

Anyway. Should be an interesting decade.