Long-haul electric-powered semi-trailer trucks to be on road in 3 years.

The unveiling of the Nikola/one long-haul hydrogen-electric truck. A 42 minute video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wLidTCqAAtY

I can barely wait. Seriously.

There is a battle going on now between the Nikola one and the Tesla semi.

The Tesla semi has only batteries and no generation of electricity on board. It has a range of about 400 miles with a 30-minute charge time. Cargo space is more limited than the Nikola one because of the extra batteries needed. However, the Tesla semi is less than half the price at about $150,000 compared to the Nikola one at $375,000.

The Nikola one has a hydrogen fuel cell system on board to charge the batteries. Its range is 800 to 1,200 miles. The $375,000 price tag includes free hydrogen fuel for 1 million miles, which is the lifetime of the truck. Nicola truck company is planning on building a system of 374 hydrogen refueling stations.

Nikola one has an electric motor powering each of the 10 wheels of the tractor. I assume the Tesla semi has the same system, but I'm not sure.

It appears that the Nikola one is going for the Long Haul and the Tesla semi is going for the shorter trips of 400 miles or less.

Nikola truck company is also going to build its own water-splitting plants to generate hydrogen fuel, and I think these are going to be solar or wind powered, but I'm not positive. Using electric power does not help global warming unless the electricity is generated using renewable energy sources. Otherwise, it would be less efficient to generate electricity using fossil fuels than to burn the fossil fuels directly in the vehicle.

Here's a Swedish take on the electric truck idea. An electric road. Scania have wired up 2 km of a freeway. The trucks are hybrid. The voltage from the wires is 700v, so such a system could use tramway technology for a lot of its infrastructure. That's what I call a gnarly truck. This idea is possibly more suited to keeping emissions out of urban areas than very long haul. Scania are hard headed business types so I wouldn't dismiss it straight away.

That's an interesting concept, one that I never thought of. I guess every region has their own way of solving the problem of global warming. Once they got off the line they travel under their own power, of course, but when they were connected to the line they would be using green energy assuming the energy was generated with renewable energy. It's very interesting nevertheless.

Siemens has teamed up with Volvo Group to test an "eHighway" in Carson, California. It looks much the same as the Swedish Scania system. Twin pantographs, one for each pole of the 700v DC power supply. The trucks were made by Mack, which is a subsidiary of Volvo these days. The system is being considered for the I-710 freeway.

Many American, European and Asian cities have had "trolleybuses" for up to 100 years, they were only phased out in London in 1962. They could come back. In America they tend to be called "trackless trolleys". They could use the same infrastructure as the trucks. Here's one in Philadephia:

(Nicola Motor Company plans to eventually have a network of 374 hydrogen refueling stations.)

Nikola Motor Company Selects Nel ASA To Build 16-Station Hydrogen Refueling Network

November 22nd, 2017 by James Ayre

The somewhat controversial firm Nikola Motor Company — controversial because of the apparent flipflop from planning to offer an all-electric truck to offering a hydrogen fuel cell one, after numerous deposits were taken, amongst other reasons — has selected Nel ASA as the builder of its planned 16-station hydrogen refueling network.



The 16-station hydrogen refueling network is reportedly intended to span 2,000 miles of the US, and to support the rollout and operation of the firm’s planned Class 8 hydrogen-fuel-cell electric truck. Nikola Motor Company has reportedly already issued purchase orders for the first 2 stations of the network, with the other 14 to follow.

Nikola’s chief operating officer, Scott Perry, commented on the decision: “We have thousands of trucks that have been reserved and need to be delivered. The stations are the first step to completing that process. Nel has delivered over 3,500 hydrogen solutions in over 80 countries since 1927. We are confident they can deliver.”


Green Car Congress provides more: “Nel ASA will provide engineering, electrolysis, and fueling equipment. Nikola will provide the balance of plant, construction, dispensers, and other station equipment. The hydrogen stations will initially produce up to 8 tons daily, but can also be expanded up to 32 tons per day.

“Each Nikola truck is anticipated to consume around 50–75 kgs per day. Each Nikola truck will store between 2-3 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy. Each station will have around 4,000 kgs of backup storage for redundancy. Each station is anticipated to produce hydrogen at 700 bar (10,000 psi) and 350 bar (5,000 psi).”


The company is reportedly planning to allow hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles from any manufacturer to refill at its stations — the refueling stations won’t be limited to servicing Nikola Motor trucks only, in other words.

The company is planning to utilize renewable energy generated electricity to produce the hydrogen wherever possible, and is “exploring” partnership possibilities in Europe, reportedly.

Tesla semi vs Nikola one

Tesla Semi vs Nicola One vs Mercedes Urban: Which Is the Best Electric Truck?

Published on Nov 17, 2017

With the recent presentation of Tesla Semi, the world of cargo transportation has gained a remarkable competitor. It goes without saying that the future of heavy-duty trucks is electric and autonomous, but Tesla is not the only green vehicle that will be changing the landscape of trucking on our planet. In our opinion the fuel cell Nikola One and all electric Mercedes Benz are the strongest foes of Elon Musk’s hauler. Today we will review all three of these giants and would like to ask you which one is going to become an undisputed leader on the market. Is it the conglomerate backed Mercedes, a young but very potential Nikola or will Tesla destroy everyone once again?

https://youtu.be/NA-5FZz2BJ8

Are electric cars really green?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17xh_VRrnMU

Apparently electric cars and trucks cause more pollution then actually burning fossil fuels in the vehicles. Most electricity is generated by burning coal, which is very polluting. It's less efficient and more polluting to create the electricity and send it over the wire to charge your batteries than to just burn the fossil fuels in your vehicle in the first place.
The only way to get around that is to generate electricity using renewable resources such as solar and wind power. Nikola truck company is building solar plants for splitting water by electrolysis "where possible". So far Tesla company is just using the grid in electricity, as far as I have read.

Toronto had electric trolley buses until 1992. I remember riding them on the Bay line.

We still have streetcars which are of course on tracks.

I'm really interested in this development of electric-powered semis.

The prices noted earlier in the thread are quite good. Certainly competitive with tractors out there today (given the very different life spans).

On one site I saw the Tesla semis we're selling for $150,000. The Nikola Ones we're selling for $375,000. The Nikola One uses hydrogen fuel, which is free for 1 million miles of use. 1 million miles is considered to be the lifetime of the truck which is about twice the lifetime of a diesel engine.

The Tesla semis are also somewhat autonomous, driver free, to the extent that they can form a convoy, but the truck in front needs to be manually driven. Nikola ones are not autonomous, but there are a lot of independent owner-operators who still want to work. Can they get loans for these trucks is the question. But then there is always the option of leasing.

Discussing the Nikola One inside the cab. Something's missing. Oh, it's the gear shift. No more having to shift through 18 gears. The batteries drive a motor in the each of the six wheels.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4-J7H_XmmWg

Nikola/One


Tesla Semi

so pretty

I worked for a trucking insurer for about a decade - just love the look of a sharp tractor

In Britain, in 2016, just 8.6% of electricity used was generated from burning coal. It was 67% in 1990.

I heard that figure about coal being used to generate electricity somewhere, I can't remember where, but it may not be accurate. The important point is that all fossil fuels, whether coal, oil, or natural gas, are polluting and contribute to global warming.

People driving electric vehicles may feel smug and think they're helping forestall global warming, but driving an electric powered vehicle does not help forestall global warming and, in fact, increases it if that electricity is generated using fossil fuel.


Nikola one trucks use hydrogen, and if that hydrogen is derived from plants that use fossil fuels to generate the electrolysis, then that contributes even more to global warming. But the manufacturer of Nikola one says they will use renewable energy sources where possible to split water.

The Nikola one trucks will be available for Leasing at about 6 or $7,000 per month which, of course, includes all the fuel and maybe insurance. Over the lifetime of a vehicle that would come to about 1/2 million dollars.

The two trucks, Nikola one and Tesla semi look remarkably similar, not to say one is copying the other. This may simply be the result of convergence, that is both are designed to overcome air resistance, streamlining that is. One notices that animals such as birds and fish that have to overcome air and water resistance tend to look very similar. There is a sort of aesthetic appeal to the streamlining, and I'm not sure why. When I was on abuzz.com I wrote a short essay talking about the Aesthetics of streamlining and why it appeals to us. It has something to do with wanting to relate to Nature.