Electric truck - tow vehicle of future ?
Interesting article about an electric Class 7 truck . Begs the question, are electric powered heavy duty pickups...ready for HD towing service... far behind ? Range right now is somewhat limite...
Forum Discussion
Let's look at this:
- Towing a typical pickup might be putting out 150hp on level ground while towing. That's about 115kw.
- Assuming a modest 6hr run and you can use 80% of the rated storage (you can't use 100% of batteries without damaging them). that means you need approx 862kwh of storage.
- The 85kwh Tesla battery bank costs around $15k and weighs in at 1200lbs.
- To get a 6hr range you would need the equivilent of 10 85kw tesla battery banks.
Total cost: $152k
Total weight: 6 tons.
Considering your top of the line diesel dually runs $60k and weighs in at 3.5-4.0 tons, those numbers are tough to swallow.
Remember, that the $152k/6ton is only for the battery pack. You still need to account for the cost and weight of the rest of the truck.
Also remember, this is a very modest 6hr range. No 20hr runs from the midwest to Florida.
Cost and weight probably have to improve by something on the order of 6 times before it starts to become viable.
PS: 100mile range for a commercial truck is a complete joke. Even a local delivery truck is going to be expected to do 300miles per day without stopping to charge.
- Towing a typical pickup might be putting out 150hp on level ground while towing. That's about 115kw.
- Assuming a modest 6hr run and you can use 80% of the rated storage (you can't use 100% of batteries without damaging them). that means you need approx 862kwh of storage.
- The 85kwh Tesla battery bank costs around $15k and weighs in at 1200lbs.
- To get a 6hr range you would need the equivilent of 10 85kw tesla battery banks.
Total cost: $152k
Total weight: 6 tons.
Considering your top of the line diesel dually runs $60k and weighs in at 3.5-4.0 tons, those numbers are tough to swallow.
Remember, that the $152k/6ton is only for the battery pack. You still need to account for the cost and weight of the rest of the truck.
Also remember, this is a very modest 6hr range. No 20hr runs from the midwest to Florida.
Cost and weight probably have to improve by something on the order of 6 times before it starts to become viable.
PS: 100mile range for a commercial truck is a complete joke. Even a local delivery truck is going to be expected to do 300miles per day without stopping to charge.
