Electric truck - tow vehicle of future ?

Bedlam wrote:
When you read about these electrics, I wonder how many are tied to the grid verses being battery or fuel cell powered. Even our bus trolleys have battery packs to allow the driver to move it back under the lines if he has go around an obstruction and loses connection with the lines.

Yeah, pure electric on cantenary systems are easy to do.

Worked on a light rail project recently and there were a couple of overpasses,they had to get under, so the specs were adjusted so there was enough battery power to go about 1/4 mile. The cantenary lines ended a little ways before the bridge and picked up shortly after. The pickup automatically lowered as they approached the bridge and went up once clear.

Almost a pure electric-hybrid.

Actually, cantenary lines for buses with the option for trucks to share could be a good implementation approach. Getting a pure electric delivery truck with sufficient range is tough but you can justify running the cantenary for bus system as the routes tend to be fixed. Once built letting delivery trucks use the lines would be fairly simple and would allow for significant range extension as I'm sure a lot of the truck routes will parallel bus routes. Unlike with charging stations, the truck keeps doing it's job while charging and while I don't know the specs, I'm sure they put out some pretty good power, so probably can charge while running the truck.