Chevrolet exits all ICE production by 2035
Chevy exits ICE engines Hopefully the other manufacturers won't follow suit. Being from Texas and starting to thaw out from our latest freeze of the century, I don't see how our current power g...
Forum Discussion
Groover wrote:
At this point Tesla is targeting city and terminal to terminal driving (500miles).
What might make sense right now for longer runs is plug-in hybrids with lets say a Cummins 6.7L 300hp engine driving the first rear axle with an 80Kwh battery pack and electrically driven second second rear axle with twin 200hp motors. That might work out to about the same weight and volume while reaping many of the benefits of electric drive.
The electric trucks will be worth more up front than a diesel driven truck if they are as reliable and maintenance free as cars have been so far. Electric cars have demonstrated no oil changes, no brake changes, no emission issues, etc. The Tesla will have 4 independent drive motors(one for each rear wheel) so that if one or two fail you still won't need a tow truck. Judging from how much my neighbor works on his long haul diesel reduced maintenance should be worth quite a bit up front.
I've always wondered why trucks don't use series-hybrid like locomotives. Last I check, AC-AC locomotives from GE were hitting 90%+ efficiency.
Not only do we have multi-motor redundancy like you mentioned, but we can tune the IC engine for a single (at most 2) operating points. It'll be a lot more efficient, and the emissions system a lot more reliable.
If I really want to dream - why not have traction motors on the trailers in the future? This works for both series hybrid and full EV drive-train. As someone who's chain up on BC snow passes, I would've given anything for an AWD semi combo back in the day!
