Heavy Duty Trucking, February 2018

HDT FEBRUARY 2018 90 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM Rolf Lockwood Executive Contributing Editor rolf@ newcom ca nce upon a time the technology side of this industry was pretty quiet Breakthroughs were few and far between on the hardware front and of course there wasnt a software front at all back in the 1970s and early 80s People specd their diesel of choice stuck an Eaton Fuller transmission behind it chose a hind end ratio and that was pretty much that a combination that demanded relatively little thought You wanted 300 hp Maybe 400 A 9 speed box A 13 speed Easy peasy And while specing an ordinary diesel powered truck today is in some ways even easier because of vertical integration theres now an astonishing array of safety and connectivity options to make things immensely complicated But is there an electric option in your future Yes for sure if youre talking about solar power to run a reefer and or hotel loads I think solar is on the march and in fact Im surprised it isnt already a bigger player in the broad effort to trim fuel costs and reduce emissions I think well soon hear some big announcements about solar and I know one guy who swears he can double the range of a Nikola fuel cell truck by plastering the roof of its trailer with solar panels Will you be buying a plug in electric truck Not any time soon unless youre talking short local hauls in which case you already have options in BYD tractors and the nifty little Fuso eCanter truck While electrification has tremendous promise its not the answer for everyone right now said Cummins in a recent statement It introduced its own all electric drivetrain in a demo truck called AEOS a few months back We believe electric vehicles make the most sense in urban areas where the drive ranges are shorter and the vehicles can more easily be recharged AEOS will help us learn about electrifications potential with larger vehicles traveling greater distances Charging AEOS isnt as easy as plugging it into the nearest outlet Cummins went on It takes an hour to charge when plugged into a 140 kW charging station although by 2020 advances in batteries are expected to shrink charging time to about 20 minutes There also isnt the service infrastructure that exists for diesel or even natural gas You could increase the size of the battery but it would take about 19000 lbs of battery to go 600 miles on a single charge That would take a pretty big chunk out of your payload If youre an ordinary practitioner of the trucking art not Walmart or Pepsico or the like you likely wont be buying a Tesla Semi next year or even in 10 years Sexy yes but dont get caught up in the hype Its expensive unproven and the charging infrastructure is almost completely undeveloped like 2150 or so Tesla Supercharger stations compared to well over 160000 diesel outlets in the U S Imagine the lines Honestly for my money if were talking about non conventional long haul trucks of the nearish future the Nikola wins this one Similar issues yes but a fuel cell running on natural gas especially if that gas is renewable just makes more sense to me Regardless the vast majority of you will be pumping diesel into your trucks for a long time to come Electric options Rolf Lockwood is vice president editorial at Newcom Business Media which publishes Todays Trucking He writes for HDT each month on the making maintaining and using of trucks He can be reached at rolf@ newcom ca or 416 315 1829 LOCKING IT IN Settle down world trucks will be drinking diesel for a long time to come O