Will this be tomorrow's transportation?

[Egon]

Will the transporting industry be converted?

The technology seems to look Good.

[video]https://electrek.co/2016/07/20/tesla-semi-truck-business-cargo/[/video]

 

[2LaneCruzer]

She sure is purdy...but can she deliver?

 

[vvanders]

Doesn't seem too different than the Deisel-Electric locomotives out there now. Big concern is probably weight of the batteries and the fact that it's an unproven company.

That said electric transportation has been shown as viable over the last few years, and there's certainly savings to be made in braking, torque and drivetrain simplification.

 

[buickanddeere]

Batteries do not come free $$$ and they add weight. The hybrid system can add some efficiency from braking, some hill climbing additional power and stop light to stoplight boosted acceleration. Anybody that thinks solar panels on the roof and plugging it into an ordinary 120V, 15 amp u-ground receptacle for free power for 800-1200 miles a day does not understand numbers.

 

[zzvyb6]

Tesla can't survive without the huge government subsidies it gets. They should have gone belly up a year ago. I know some guys who are engineers at Tesla. (At least they pretend to be ones). They have to have help from their suppliers even to talk about product. A total shame company IMHO.

 

[turnkey4099]

Batteries do not come free $$$ and they add weight. The hybrid system can add some efficiency from braking, some hill climbing additional power and stop light to stoplight boosted acceleration. Anybody that thinks solar panels on the roof and plugging it into an ordinary 120V, 15 amp u-ground receptacle for free power for 800-1200 miles a day does not understand numbers.

Yep, until they solve the 'range' problem, electrics will remain a 'short trip' option. Some of the hybrids are onlyh good for about 30 miles on battery power.

 

[N80]

I have the solution to the range problem. The problem is infrastructure. Where do you go when your batteries are low? Where can you go to get energy for your vehicle quickly?

Well, to me it seems obvious: Standardized batteries. All cars will have the same batteries. There will be "filling" stations everywhere just as there are gas stations everywhere. You pull in and they remove your batteries and replace them with freshly charged ones. Yes, cars will have to be designed so that the battery packs are easy to remove. Yes, it will take some sort of standardized machinery to lift and insert the batteries in the car. Yes, at least at first, this may require an attendant to assist the motorist. Problem solved. You're welcome. ;-)

Same thing for trucks and truck stops. But, as mentioned above, why do the trucks need batteries? Why not a high efficiency diesel running at a constant RPM turning generators that turn electric motors just like the trains mentioned above. Yes, it will take significant downsizing, weight saving etc. Aren't we for to that?

 

[dickfoster]

Tesla can't survive without the huge government subsidies it gets. They should have gone belly up a year ago. I know some guys who are engineers at Tesla. (At least they pretend to be ones). They have to have help from their suppliers even to talk about product. A total shame company IMHO.

Tesla is a stupid joke who takes money from fools with liberal arts degrees who don't know diddly squat about science or engineering. Any high school science student can tell you that the tooth fairy doesn't put the electricity in the socket to charge those idiotic things so all they end up doing is burning coal in the most inefficient manner possible. Only if and when they find a decent way to power the grid can those things make any sense at all. Till then they are the biggest environmental and economic disasters on the roads today. The gas guzzlers from the 50s and 60s are more environmentally friendly than Tesla's so called clean cars. The same jerks who pay Tesla those subsidies to exist are the same idiots who brought us the Solyndra debacle.

 

[Egon]

Seems the hydrogen fuel cell can be "filled up" just the same as a diesel. It does not involve an electrical plug in.

[video]http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/basics.htm[/video]

 

[N80]

Only if and when they find a decent way to power the grid can those things make any sense at all.

We found it 50 years ago. It is called nuclear. The same people who brought us Solyndra effectively condemned nuclear to obsolescence. We had a new plant going in here locally. One of the first and only new ones in a long, long time (I've been told). Something, I'm not sure what, has stopped its construction. There is an active one near my house. Great local employer and you wouldn't ever know it was here except for the cooling tower plume.