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posted by janrinok on Sunday December 04 2016, @09:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-rollin'-coal dept.

In a recent article on Jalopnik.com, Shep McAllister talks about the Nikola Motor Company and the Nikola One. The Nikola One will be the first hybrid hydrogen-electric class-8 semi.

Six months ago the Nikola Motor Company came out of nowhere and announced it was going to put the first electric-powered big rig on American roads. We've been skeptical, but Nikola just revealed a full-sized model that apparently works, and more importantly a plan to build and sell it at scale.

[...] The Nikola One is a semi-truck sleeper cab, meaning it's got a little apartment behind the driver's seat. The Nikola Two will be a day cab version that's a little shorter and cheaper, but running the same hyrdogen[sic]-charged electric motor set.

[...] So the Nikola truck is supposed to be able to cover 1,200 miles without refilling its hydrogen supply, but we've been hearing that figure and the 1,000 horsepower, 2,000 lb-ft of torque claims since the first renders of this thing were unveiled back in the summer.

It's an interesting concept and if it works out we might be seeing the end of diesel trucking in the US.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @06:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 05 2016, @06:34AM (#437076)
    BEST we could do medium term would be change over to LNG or LPG.

    We have the largest already tapped natural gas fields on the planet.
  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday December 05 2016, @04:47PM

    by Immerman (3985) on Monday December 05 2016, @04:47PM (#437234)

    You'd think that, but the reality is sadly lacking. My numbers are doubtless badly misremembered, but the gist is that for natural gas use to reduce the rate of global warming, you have to keep leakage below 5-10%. (methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, and generally ends it's time in the atmosphere by breaking down into... CO2)

    Unfortunately, real world estimates put the leakage from current infrastructure at closer to 20%. So sadly, despite lower direct carbon emissions per watt, with current infrastructure natural gas is worse than coal with respect to global warming.

    LNG could offer less leakage, but only if you assume that it's "bottled" at the well head, rather than being shipped through existing pipelines and bottled nearer where it's to be used.