Towing with a Rivian electric truck

[Younggun]

But the problem with this is what happens when you drop and hook. Logistics will be a bitch. Because you gonna have to route trucks compatible with the trailer.
In the meantime you got product wating

Probably wouldn’t be used in those situations.

When O worked for Coca Cola they bought hybrid trucks for the city routes. Combination of tax incentives and the idea they would save fuel making their way around downtown Austin.


It was a bit of a disaster because they had early DPF systems that were constantly stopping up due to lack of highway driving to burn them out. But outside of the mechanical issues they would have been more efficient to operate. With a simple exhaust system it may have been a worthwhile investment. Not sure what happened long term as far as battery maintenance though. I left while they were still trying to deal with the exhaust issues. These were first Gen trucks basically with all the teething problems that go with it.


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[Axxe55]

They are probably going to be marketing these to groups like Amazon and Walmart who own both trailers and trucks and if you're not running an EV truck you won't be contracting with them. Owner operators with older trucks will be doing hauls for groups that don't already have a massive logistics operation in place.

^^^^This.^^^^

If I wanted to market an EV for hauling loads, these would be the type of end users I'd target for sales of those vehicles. Anyone with a large fleet of trucks hauling dry freight. UPS, USPS, and FedEx also come to mind as well.

 

[Sam7sf]

But the problem with this is what happens when you drop and hook. Logistics will be a bitch. Because you gonna have to route trucks compatible with the trailer.
In the meantime you got product wating

And road calls. Lol the first owner operator getting hit with the first road call bill can let us all know how that goes.

 

[Axxe55]

Another secondary market would have to be addressed for EV haul trucks to be viable would be charging stations for the trucks, both on-site and off-site. Technicians being trained to work on the trucks. Specialized tools for maintenance and repair.

I know from past experience, that pushing new types of trucks or new technology for a fleet is going to be an uphill battle all the way. Dazzling the bean counters with numbers will be easy, but fleet shop managers, techs and drivers will be the bigger obstacle to overcome.

 

[Sam7sf]

Another secondary market would have to be addressed for EV haul trucks to be viable would be charging stations for the trucks, both on-site and off-site. Technicians being trained to work on the trucks. Specialized tools for maintenance and repair.

I know from past experience, that pushing new types of trucks or new technology for a fleet is going to be an uphill battle all the way. Dazzling the bean counters with numbers will be easy, but fleet shop managers, techs and drivers will be the bigger obstacle to overcome.

That’s why a road call is going to be a nightmare. Getting techs in a metro area trained is one thing. Getting the techs trained at xyz ur sisters got a pretty mouth trailer repair is going to go well when they get called out to a Tesla. Then ya get hit with a dry run bill because all they can do is look at it and metrosexual trailer repair travels 150 miles to get your tractor up and running. It’s not going to be a fast success.

 

[Axxe55]

That’s why a road call is going to be a nightmare. Getting techs in a metro area trained is one thing. Getting the techs trained at xyz ur sisters got a pretty mouth trailer repair is going to go well when they get called out to a Tesla. Then ya get hit with a dry run bill because all they can do is look at it and metrosexual trailer repair travels 150 miles to get your tractor up and running. It’s not going to be a fast success.

Exactly. Dealership trained techs and even techs in many fleet operations can and probably would have access to factory training and equipment, but the independent repair shops are more than likely not going to have access to such resources and training to be able to work on such vehicles.

Or Billy-Bob from Redneck Hillbilly Truck Repair shows up, and shorts out the electrical system and burns the truck down to the ground because he's an idiot and way out of his field in being able to repair the truck!

 

[Darkpriest667]

That’s why a road call is going to be a nightmare. Getting techs in a metro area trained is one thing. Getting the techs trained at xyz ur sisters got a pretty mouth trailer repair is going to go well when they get called out to a Tesla. Then ya get hit with a dry run bill because all they can do is look at it and metrosexual trailer repair travels 150 miles to get your tractor up and running. It’s not going to be a fast success.

Tesla only allows their people to work on these vehicles. My guess is they'll be doing the same for the EV Trucks. There's been a legal battle about right to repair with Tesla on this.

On the one hand I agree anyone should have the right to work on their own equipment, on the other hand you have a 2000 pound lithium ion battery that is super dangerous if you don't know what you're doing

 

[Sam7sf]

Tesla only allows their people to work on these vehicles. My guess is they'll be doing the same for the EV Trucks. There's been a legal battle about right to repair with Tesla on this.

On the one hand I agree anyone should have the right to work on their own equipment, on the other hand you have a 2000 pound lithium ion battery that is super dangerous if you don't know what you're doing

That’s going to be a problem for the trucking world. Very time consuming.

 

[Grumps21]

Solar panels would work fine on box vans and reefers, but what about tank trailers, flatbeds, dump trailers? Or any type of trailer without a flat roof panel?

They are going to need to come to come up with a durable panel to withstand tree branches that routinely drag over the tops of the trailers. Even on white trailers, it’s easy to see the drag marks towards the tops of some trailers

 

[Grumps21]

We heard about the guy who blew up his Model S due to the high cost to replace the battery. Was it $20k for the replacement? What are these replacement truck batteries going to run? $100k? The big rigs will pretty much be disposable at that point

 

[Axxe55]

I also see another huge concern, the existing infrastructure that IMO needs a huge update in equipment and technology in order to support EV haul trucks added to the fleets and such. Last years ice storm showed exactly how inadequate the system already is, and they would want to put a few million trucks and cars on that same system? Recipe for disaster.

The "Greenies" want clean energy, and clean air and their way of thinking is EV's replacing gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. Not realizing there is no free ride. They are just trading emissions from one source to another.

The only viable clean source of energy I see is nuclear powered. But when was the last nuclear power-plant brought online in this country? Decades?

 

[TheDan]

They're lining the top of the trailers with solar panels.

Assuming a 53x8ft trailer, that's only going to be good for about 6kW. Basically a trickle charge for those big battery packs.

 

[Grumps21]

I also see another huge concern, the existing infrastructure that IMO needs a huge update in equipment and technology in order to support EV haul trucks added to the fleets and such. Last years ice storm showed exactly how inadequate the system already is, and they would want to put a few million trucks and cars on that same system? Recipe for disaster.

The "Greenies" want clean energy, and clean air and their way of thinking is EV's replacing gasoline and diesel powered vehicles. Not realizing there is no free ride. They are just trading emissions from one source to another.

The only viable clean source of energy I see is nuclear powered. But when was the last nuclear power-plant brought online in this country? Decades?

Nothing that a Mr Fusion won’t handle, just be sure to keep it under 88mph!

 

[no2gates]

Battery technology is the limiting factor in any current electrical vehicle. The technology has made leaps and bounds in the last ten years, but it's nowhere near the level of capability of providing the range of gasoline or diesel engines.

Even today's battery technology is in its infancy. Once they get super-capacitors practical, that will solve the slow charging and low energy issues of today's batteries. Electric cars are the future, but we don't have an electric grid that can handle even 25% of the people moving to EV's.

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

https://images.app.goo.gl/ZxDYxbXKiyf2DNsk8 until then gimmie mine

 

[no2gates]

Even diesel powered trucks can struggle going uphill depending upon the grade.

Batteries are the limiting factor IMO. How many times can an electric truck pull a load uphill before it needs to be recharged? A diesel powered truck can do it repeatedly, all day long as long as the fuel tanks have fuel.

I think a diesel/hybrid would make more sense, just like a diesel locomotive. Much more fuel efficient with the amount of diesel fuel consumed, but not limited in range of batteries.

I think locomotives are actually 100% electric powered and the diesel engine is just a generator. So, "technically" not a hybrid.

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

 

[no2gates]

If they *really* wanted to get electric vehicles going and have a decent range, they would need to embed induction coils in the roadways and pickup coils in the vehicles.

 

[F350-6]

If they *really* wanted to get electric vehicles going and have a decent range, they would need to embed induction coils in the roadways and pickup coils in the vehicles.

They're going to have to figure out how to build a road that isn't full of potholes first.

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

They're going to have to figure out how to build a road that isn't full of potholes first.