Heavy Duty Trucking, February 2018

FUEL SMARTS HDT FEBRUARY 2018 40 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM expecting more of a kick like a Tesla car Its a really gradual easy transition Sometimes you dont even think its actually powering but at times you do and you get out of the throttle and can feel it propelling you up the hill When youre coming off the hill it goes into regenerative energy and starts collecting the energy back into the batteries so it almost acts like an engine brake Kim Kasee vice president of marketing for Hyliion told HDT in a follow up interview in late December that driver comments in testing so far praised the smooth ride It felt like they were hauling a half load instead of a full load she said Paul Pettit vice president of maintenance for Arkansas based PAM Transport said the Hyliion technology could potentially be a game changer I think the fuel savings is the thing everybodys chasing in the industry he said I think having this technology to be able to potentially save 30 on your fuel economy is second to none and its an innovation that has not been done before However when asked about the fuel economy Knowles and Pettit both said testing thus far has not really focused on the efficiency numbers Pettit told HDT early last month that PAM was scheduled to receive an updated production version of the system on its truck mid month I think well be a little closer to what is anticipated for the fuel savings he said We werent really close as far as fuel savings proposed numbers with the pre production test unit because they were working out the kinks and making sure all the hardware was up to speed and ready to be used Were excited to really put it through its paces and see how its going to be best used The Hyliion system includes a motorized axle lithium ion battery pack and electronic controls It adds about 800 pounds to the weight of the truck in our fleets and what kind of numbers we can get utilizing it with our freight The brains of the system Key to the performance of the Hyliion system is its computer brain Kasee explained that the Hyliion controls are a passive listener on the vehicles CANBUS So we can see what theyre doing but we dont undo what theyre doing The Hyliion 6X4HE Kasee explained looks at how much energy it has stored and at the topology of the road in front of it and determines how to take that energy and apply it for the best fuel savings If you have a road thats up and down and up and down with smaller inclinations and declinations then its pretty simple how we drive the energy into the motor and create energy on the downhill side to replenish that If its a steeper hill like a mountain it applies it a little bit differently to try to keep that engine in the sweet spot In fact she said on some steep inclines the system may not stay on during the entire incline In order to be able to power up long mountainous grades it would have required a larger battery that would reduce the available cargo payload too much So its more of an assist than a pure power play Those electronic controls are still being fine tuned As with any algorithm based product the more data you have the more performance you can eke out of the hardware So whats really critical to us is that we keep growing that database so we can keep tuning how the system reacts to elevation changes and to what the tractors are doing Hyliion is running further tests with the updated production units on the first three trucks and more fleets are going to participate she said In addition Hyliion is putting the system on three new Peterbilt trucks it has purchased It will lend them to fleets to try in their operations without having to retrofit one of their own trucks Pronounced HIGH lee on Hyliion is a true startup company less than three years old the brainchild of some mechanical engineers who wondered why there were hybrid cars but not hybrid big rigs They werent from the trucking industry but have drawn heavily on the expertise of fleets near the companys Pennsylvania headquarters Healy sees being an outsider as an advantage rather than a drawback Since we all come from different backgrounds we bring technology used in other industries to the trucking industry in a very unique way Another electric truck startup Thor Trucks a transportation lab based in Los Angeles unveiled a fully electric Class 8 semi truck the ET One The company led by co founders Dakota Semler and Giordano Sordoni plans to go into production in 2019 The final product is expected to have a 300 mile range when fully loaded to 40 tons and the base model will start at 150000 For more information visit www thortrucks com et one Researchers report battery breakthrough New research at the University of Waterloo in Canada could lead to the development of batteries with triple the range of current battery technology for electric vehicles Researchers said they have made a breakthrough involving the use of negative electrodes made of lithium metal The material has the potential to dramatically increase battery storage technology they said noting electric vehicles could see as much as three times the range on a single charge FUEL IN THE NEWS PHOTOS EVAN LOCKRIDGE PHOTO THOR TRUCKS