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This week, diesel truck engine company Cummins made an unusual announcement. In addition to several new high-efficiency diesel engines, it also showed off an all-electric truck called the Concept Class 7 Urban Hauler EV. The truck is just a concept at the moment, but it's coming in the nick of time—just as Tesla is about to announce its own semi EV.
The 18,000-pound tractor cab, built by Roush, comes with a 140kWh battery and is capable of hauling a 22-ton trailer. According to Forbes, Cummins hopes to be able to sell its battery to truck and bus manufacturers by 2019. Forbes says the truck can run for 100 miles and be recharged in an hour, although Cummins is allegedly working on improving the battery so that by 2020, that recharge time is reduced to 20 minutes.
In a press release, Cummins also said that its EV would come with a diesel-engine generator that could extend the range of the battery to 300 miles, which would offer 50-percent fuel savings compared to straight diesel trucks.
Cummins' news comes just after Reuters reported that Tesla's electric semis will likely have a range of 200 to 300 miles and come with autonomous functions. The trucking industry is a major polluter, and electrification is seen as an important component in reducing greenhouse gases from that sector, in addition to implementing fuel efficiency measures.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday September 02 2017, @04:35AM (2 children)
Especially between 0 and 5MPH, when other means of torque transmission involve tremendous losses in efficiency in the "torque converter", which ends up as heat, necessitating things like "transmission coolers".
I know my diesel van generates copious amounts of transmission heat when being run in stop-and-go traffic. Especially if towing. Once I can get up to speed and "lock the torque converter", everything runs much more efficient. I believe this is why I get something like 12MPG when constantly stop/go, but run aroung 25 to 30 MPG if I am running about 60 MPH on an uncongested freeway.
Each stop mandates just that much more fuel consumption.
Which really leads me to try to state most emphatically just how important it is to synchronize our traffic lights. Its obvious to a mechanic how poorly an engine runs if the timing is off; the same thing happens on a far larger scale when stoplights are poorly timed. I believe we need "smart intersections", where cameras feed computers, using image recognition of that which is in and approaching an intersection to make optimal decisions of when to switch the lights. Maybe this is already being done somewhere else, but a lot of what I see around where I live is terribly sub-optimal.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 02 2017, @05:22AM (1 child)
Some places deliberately de-synchonise traffic lights. They claim it slows traffic and makes things safer. In my opinion they are idiots.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday September 02 2017, @11:06AM
The most efficient system I have seen so far is the speed limit radar signage my city has installed on several of our main drags... if you exceed the speed limit, the thing begins brightly flashing an LED sign saying "Slow Down!" along with what it measures your speed to be. Once in a while a cop is parked within view of it, but we never know where the cop is. But we all know if he sees it, its reason for a nailing.
We all know its there. And why its there. And I think most of us actually want it there.
The neighboring city to our north deliberately sets the traffic lights to snarl up the traffic. Sure is wasteful. That kind of stuff penalizes ALL of us for the sins of a very few.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]