Why not diesel electric trucks?
If a single diesel electric locomotive can pull 27,000,000 pounds, why has it not been scaled down to pull 20-40,000 pounds yet?
Forum Discussion
jdc1 wrote:
I think the OP was thinking along the lines of a Chevy Volt or Honda Clarity. Use the EV drivetrain, and a diesel engine as a generator. Makes PERFECT sense to me.
Chevy Volt is a completely different animal and designed to serve a different purpose, even if some of the parts superficially are similar.
It uses batteries most of the time for daily commutes while being charged at night. Only on longer trips does the ICE kick in to supply power allowing for effectively unlimited range. Effectively for most people 80-95% of miles it's a battery electric vehicle and it suffers less than ideal efficiency when the motor does kick in but for most that's a good trade off.
A diesel-electric locomotive doesn't use a battery bank for propulsion. If it's moving the ICE is providing the power, just transmitted via electrons.
PS: I believe Ford has a Plug-In-Hybrid F-150 which is similar in purpose to the Volt.
