Thread: EV general discussion

Massive 15 tonne battery arrives to power Fortescue's electric truck ambitions

Originally Posted by Narangga

Massive 15 tonne battery arrives to power Fortescue's electric truck ambitions

Like and loath it. So complex and not able to fit in my boat Suspect solid state will make that almost a waste of time myself

Charging was in the news with a 90 minute wait listed as a issue with country trips!

Originally Posted by Narangga

Massive 15 tonne battery arrives to power Fortescue's electric truck ambitions

Just been reading about this - based on their figures (and not allowing for driving to and from the charging station) it will reduce it's availability by around 6.5% - It will be interesting to see if that's a number they can live with given the uptime requirements of a diesel truck like this has to be over 98% for a company to even consider the purchase of one. 94% availability on a machine like this would see it sent back to the OEM quicker than you can say "That's a large hole in the ground"

Maybe that's where it all has to go to and this is the start but the sceptic in me says it won't pan out quite like the Engineers think, but I do honestly wish them luck - it's an impressive bit of kit and there's obviously put a shed load of effort into it.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Just been reading about this - based on their figures (and not allowing for driving to and from the charging station) it will reduce it's availability by around 6.5% - It will be interesting to see if that's a number they can live with given the uptime requirements of a diesel truck like this has to be over 98% for a company to even consider the purchase of one. 94% availability on a machine like this would see it sent back to the OEM quicker than you can say "That's a large hole in the ground"

Maybe that's where it all has to go to and this is the start but the sceptic in me says it won't pan out quite like the Engineers think, but I do honestly wish them luck - it's an impressive bit of kit and there's obviously put a shed load of effort into it.

Fully agree the sheer number of BMSs configured to work jointly must have been a major achievement. Load balancing and charging balancing the array of cells may be a bit of a miracle if it works as planned. "eight sub-packs, each with 36 modules, all individually cooled and each with its own management system." leaves a lot of possible faults would be my main concern with the lithium cells liquid catalyst.

The ACDC fast charge in 30 minutes is extraordinary !!! " “a massive achievement” and several firsts for an electric mining haul truck battery, including the ability to fast-charge in 30 minutes and capacity to regenerate power as it drives downhill."

I wonder if the regenerate power limit on most EV's is overcome as that would be cool! Given the size IF the recharging unit is on the truck or it has a super capacitor to take the likely "massive" regenerate power. Most EV charging limits mean a lot of regenerative braking power is lost currently.

Biggest problem with haul trucks is they come UP fully loaded and go down EMPTY - so regen braking although important, won't be anywhere near what is needed to haul an extra 270 tonnes up the hill each trip. Then there's the infrastructure needed - 1 prototype with a 1.5MVA charger is one thing - to be able to charge multiples gets hard once you get past more than a few - even FMG's biggest solar farm wouldn't cope with too many at once so the will need to increase the solar capacity dramatically as well - something I'm sure they are all over and will do though.

Why is it that EV's dont have solar panels on their roof. Surely as we are told the sun is a free energy source, so slick panels and a MMPT converter would be a small weight penalty to pay for free charging. What am I missing?

Originally Posted by dirvine

Why is it that EV's dont have solar panels on their roof. Surely as we are told the sun is a free energy source, so slick panels and a MMPT converter would be a small weight penalty to pay for free charging. What am I missing?

A EV when driving is using say 10-20x the amount of electricity that any panels could produce. So you'd drive for say 2 hours, then park and recharge for the next 40 (sunlight) hours?

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Like and loath it. So complex and not able to fit in my boat Suspect solid state will make that almost a waste of time myself

Charging was in the news with a 90 minute wait listed as a issue with country trips!

They've obviously invested in this to make it happen but no doubt would love it to be solid state when available - as we all would.