Webinar: Electric Trucks
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGaE_Lb3gtY]
My guest here was Dr. Brooks Agnew, CEO of Vision Motors, creator of affordable light-duty battery-electric trucks that will soon be manufactured in the United States and India.
As we’ve seen all too frequently over the last few years, anyone can design an electric vehicle. But how many people can make an attractive, high-quality, freeway-capable battery-electric pickup truck with 75+ miles of range, and sell it profitably at under $25,000?
You’re about to meet one.
Not all electric trucks and other electric vehicles have to be highway capable.
Many trucks are used only within cities and are constantly stopping and stopping. Garbage trucks are a good example; they stop every few feet and probably are not driven very far. Often there is no need to exceed 25 or 30 mph. Because of the constant stopping and starting, their IC engines are run in a very inefficient mode. Also, the constant stopping wastes kinetic energy that could be recovered if they were electrically powered.
Probably some post office trucks could be replaced by electric trucks. They too are constantly stopped and started, operate mostly at low speeds, and never driven very far during the day.
Probably there are other applications for which electric trucks would, even with the limits of present day electric vehicle technology, be more suitable than trucks powered by IC engines.
There are also other situations in which electric vehicles would even now be practical. At may airports, busses are used to move passengers for short distances from terminals to planes, often at distances less than 1/4 mile. Those busses spend most of their time standing still, so there would be more than sufficient time to recharge them.
Some hospitals, including those associated with universities, use IC engine powered vehicles to move patients from parking garages to clinics. Because of the low speeds and short distances, coupled with sufficient time for recharging, that would be an ideal application for electric vehicles.
It’s true that with current technology, electric vehicles have limitations that would make them impractical for many applications, but it would make sense to use them in situations where they are practical. It would help get people used to the idea of electric vehicles and reduce both noise and pollution in the areas where the vehicles are used. Also, in those special applications, they would be so much more efficient than IC engine powered vehicles that probably over-all pollution would be less than for vehicles powered by IC engines, even if the electricity came from coal-fired power plants.
Actually, another place where electric vehicles would not only be more efficient, but better for the job is site security. If you are using an electric vehicle for physical security, not only can you use it to make your rounds, but it is silent enough you can listen to your environment rather than your engine.