Electric trucks – how the technology works

Is it possible to run a full-sized truck solely on electricity in full speed? This month, an electrically powered truck will begin rolling along a two-kilometre test strip in Sweden. This is how the technology works.

[MrSyltburken]

This is just the right way to make hybrid trucks, the range is increased and no limitations on smaller roads thanks to the diesel engine still being the primary power. Great idea and I hope to see more of these ideas! Long live the king of the road!

[TheRomanpolan]

WOW amazing, it took only 120 years to copy the idea from an electric trolleybus that were used since 1880

[willdatsun]

anything to reduce pollution is a good idea. Reducing the need for trucks in the first place would also be a good thing, more local products and less consumption.

[olivergunn]

Get a truck with a 100-150km battery range with a pantograph on top of or behind the cab, put overhead electric lines above every motorway in Europe and this would cut almost all of Europe's diesel dependence with a fraction of the dependency on lithium ion compared to a purely battery powered solution

[jamesshanks]

You go to most European cities and trackless trolleys is the normal power. Here in America there are a few city's that still use trackless trolley, Boston up till the early 60's trackless trolleys were everywhere streetcars used to run, the only place there left is Cambridge, Massachusetts. If you suggest you bring back trackless trolleys most everybody says, oh you can't pass another trolley bus. I remember riding them and each route had a spot or two with double wires for a trolley coach to pass and if a coach broke down the driver simply pulled the poles down and hooked them on the coach so other trolley coaches could easily pass. GM, the oil companies and tire companies paid off the right people to get rid of the trolley coach system to make money and we the people went from clean efficient trolley systems to smelly diesel coaches. 99 % of all trackless systems that were converted to diesel buses were built by GM with Detroit Diesels.
The best example of the trolley coach is in San Francisco. A friend lives on the steepest bus route in Frisco. The used large high horsepower diesel coaches up to double Diesel engines because when the coach hit the steepest part the driver kept it floored until the coach came to a stop. The driver then applied the brakes opened both doors and said " ok folks meet you at the top of the hill and everybody got out and walked up the hill with the bus roaring away up the hill empty at 2 or 3 miles per hour until reaching the top where everybody got back on and continued the commute. This went on for several years until one morning where the bus would normally stop the driver failed to stop and opened only the front door and told the commuters to get on the bus. Everyone was yelling open the rear door but the driver ignored them until the last passenger got on then stepped on the accelerator and everybody was shocked when the bus quietly accelerated up the hill easily with a full load. At the next stop everybody was asking how? Easy said the driver the transit commission finally did what we've been telling the for years. Installed a trackless trolley system on this route. This trackless uses a single 200 horsepower electric motor that we added a traction motor blower to blow cool air into the traction motor to prevent it from overheating due to the steep route and as you can see it works beautifully. This happened in 1975 and the only modification is adding regenerative breaking which generates power from the traction motor and it feeds that power back into the overhead wires. It also reduces the cost of operating the coaches.

Dayton, Ohio has been using trackless trolleys now since the early 1920's and continues to use them as they are reliable, very economical to operate the system and contrary to most people that say there too expensive to install is there actually cheaper to install and run then CNG, diesel, and far cheaper than hybrid systems or battery systems.
Boston MBTA system changed over to CNG powered buses 30 odd years ago and an average of 40 buses a day fail to complete their runs because they run out of CNG. They then are towed to a garage where they are refueled, restarted and put back into service. Not a good system when the CNG buses continually run out of fuel. Meanwhile the trolley buses have plenty of electricity to run on.

[LiveTree]

Amazing to see this technology being so easy and would amazing to see this technology being used more widely in the future and hopefully in the UK #livetree #fairweb

[symmetry]

This is what we will call "trolley trucking".

[리주민]

Let's do this for cars too. Give catenary wires on all lanes...or bury as third rail just below road (exposed). No CO², no worry about charging stations.

[JonathanRinny]

people don't forget that this technology is already being used by trolley buses all over the world! large heavy and sometimes fully loaded buses so I see a bright future for more eco friendly trucking unless oil companies boycott everything again.

[LoovesJf.]

It's a great systems.
Is this cargo only?
Is it not applied to passengers?
As a passenger trolley bus, if you run on the highway, it will be a great infrastructure development.

[RodrigoFernandez-tduk]

There isn't other solution. Batteries are just to heavy and expensive for long distance travels.

[Stig]

I think the internal combustion engine for the style of truck and for the method you're using it for is not the brightest idea you may be using the truck for a lot of off-grid driving but if you're doing a lot of highway driving that you would have this grid attached to then you could have a big battery pack to charge and Reserve while you're on the highway or if you're mainly doing just Highway and small off-grid driving you could have a smaller battery pack that way you don't have to you have the maintenance and wear-and-tear of an internal combustion engine and you save a lot of money since you're already utilizing electric motors and Electric System you would just switch to a battery pack rather than switching to a full internal combustion mechanical system. I guess since this is just starting up you would want an internal combustion engine but for the future it would probably be something you would like to phase out.

[adrianhoiland]

this is a good thing! much more enviorment friendly and better looking than diesel trucks IMO
However trains has more capacity :)

[sivasrn]

So wonderfull scania keet up god blease scania.

[shabanasty]

It's just a trolleybus. Very old technollogy, popular in many countries. Nothing new.

[Owner]

looool, i was always scania fan, gj guys :)

[Zerkbps]

seems a little dangerous but COOL, if the road develops a defect e.g. a pothole, undulation or debris the tractor units will bounce off them which could create an entanglement situation with the pantograph. I assume there will be a significant current going through the cables too! Batteries have got to be the way or at least hybrid

[erichhonecker]

I saw this for the first time today at IAA and I must say I'm very impressed!
I hope we will see something like this on our roads soon!

[dmitriy]

Интересно, а встроить землю в бетон автобана, чтоб не городить дерево на крыше - не вариант?

[giovanninassini]

can you give me the levels of current and voltage? thanks