EV truck for Sydney-Brisbane route

[DiscoMick]

Will be interesting to see the reaction to this prototype EV semi when it is shown at the Brisbane Truck Show.

Sydney to Brisbane for $525 in electric converted prime mover (https://bigrigs.com.au/index.php/2021/04/26/sydney-to-brisbane-for-525-in-electric-converted-prime-mover/)

[NavyDiver]

Will be interesting to see the reaction to this prototype EV semi when it is shown at the Brisbane Truck Show.

Sydney to Brisbane for $525 in electric converted prime mover (https://bigrigs.com.au/index.php/2021/04/26/sydney-to-brisbane-for-525-in-electric-converted-prime-mover/)

Interesting yet a few bugs to iron out I think. ROI depends entirely on volume.

Janus Electric (https://www.januselectric.com.au/)


The cost estimates

COST PER KM DIESEL $1.20

COST PER KM JANUS ELECTRIC $0.73

Depend on the costs of the batteries, the battery swap stations costs and infrastructure. It has the range estimates yet did not say the weight of the batteries which impacts on the Load capacity.

They claim a $75,000 cost reduction per year.

One aspect of EV to ICE trucks running cost is maintenance. My baby one suggested service interval is 20,000km and price suggested it will be 1/10th of the service cost on my D3??

If that bit is true, EV trucks will have significant maintenance cost savings making purchasing decisions very easy. It does come down to cost and reliability.

The POMs suggest "Refuelling costs 58% less for an EV and annual tax and maintenance costs including MOTs and servicing, are 49% lower. (https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=53979449-2b1f-4fba-8a73-71626b3d5e8c)"

That again is small scale stuff. Trucks and in particular large trucks and fleets of them can and do magnify scale advantages we cannot get at the consumer level. IF or when a large fleet operator moves into this the change will be very quick.

I suspect the major change will come with solid state batteries or my favorite topic of hydrogen. Noting Janus have allowed for changing battery technology which is smart.

[ramblingboy42]

I'd love to see this become successful.

This is the kind of endeavour our government should be backing at full noise.....not Snowy Hydro bull****.

Flow on business wise globally is astronomical.

[Homestar]

Great concept and it’s thinking like this that is required to get things to another level. I think the numbers are a bit off though. I can’t see anyone running out to convert a truck with a functioning good engine that will be worth $20K to sell on. The numbers for a rebuild of an existing engine are also based on the engine OEM performing the work - something that rarely happens in the real world. Cummins will charge you around $65K for a rebuild on a Signature for example - including engine out and back in but a good Indi will charge you $20K less than this, but having said all of that, it would still put the ROI at around 2 years which is still very worthwhile IMO.

Hope this takes off and we see them introducing other routes.

[Blknight.aus]

If its a battery lease situation this could be very good.....

I could quite easily envisage on say the syd to melb run a depo at somewhere like Albury or a special truck stop exactlyish halfway between melb and syd.

the conversion gets you your electric drive, a small manoeuvring battery pack which provides basic electrical (lights) for the vehicle and a very limited range for bobtailing in a trailer yard (5km max at ~5-10kph) and a small generator to keep that battery topped up provide heat/compressed air/hydraulics for when the main pack is removed.

The truck and trailer is connected up , pulled (or driven in on the old battery) into the loading facility, the load is put on, while the driver secures the load and checks off the manifest the front is swung open, a fresh pack slid in and hes on his way. Pulls in at the mandatory stop depo and as part of the leasing plan his battery is pulled out replaced with a fresh one while hes on his stop and then hes away., the battery goes onto a charging rack and when he gets to the other end the reverse process takes place.

Having never owned the battery (which is generally the most expensive part of EV gear) he never has to pay for charging gear, replacing it, the degraded perfomance of it over time.

It wouldnt work for guys who dont do the same route all the time but for someone like toll with fixed routes it could be a very big step in the right direction for implementing heavy EV infastructure.

I'd even go one further,

It might be workable for the battery packs to be made of smaller cells that are interchangeable, in much the same way as things that are now powered by a single lithium ion battery used to be powered by say 4 or 6 d cell batteries.

What if...

120 of the same battery that provided a cheap hybrid power source for say your daily runabout (im thinking an electric drive motor in each rear wheel of a FWD small to mid size car with the normal engine up the front) could simply drop into a frame that then dropped into a semi. You could then have smaller "servos" that had those batteries on a rack for quick swap outs. Pay per useage would be much like paying for fuel at costco, pull up pay for a full set of batteries and whatever was left in the old batteries would be removed from the cost. And as the batteries were modular in design how much power you need would simply be a case of having more cells in the bank in the car.

This could actually be a viable

much like this.

ISE 2020: Gogoro Explains Battery Swapping Station and Network for Electric Vehicles, Smart Scooters - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2zh5f71O8o&ab_channel=rAVe%5BPUBS%5D)

[PhilipA]

Tesla had this idea years ago, but decided not to pursue it.

One issue is ( not with leased batteries) that if you own a battery say 1 year old , how do you know how old the drop in battery is and therefore how much power it has left 80% , 70%?

Maybe this could even affect lease batteries as how do you plan a trip if a replacement battery is old?

And the batteries will age if used all the time with constant recharge and use.

What happens if the stop is just out of charged batteries when you arrive?

Many of the statements made as the above video also assume that you are the only one who wants to use the charging station. What if there are three cars for every charger? And as the bloke said , it is too expensive to overbuild chargers. Maybe in 10-20 years. This has already happenned at a large Tesla charging station half way between LA and San Francisco where people waited all night for a spot. I bet they were happy.

Regards PhilipA

[Blknight.aus]

Tesla had this idea years ago, but decided not to pursue it.

One issue is ( not with leased batteries) that if you own a battery say 1 year old , how do you know how old the drop in battery is and therefore how much power it has left 80% , 70%?

Maybe this could even affect lease batteries as how do you plan a trip if a replacement battery is old?

And the batteries will age if used all the time with constant recharge and use.

What happens if the stop is just out of charged batteries when you arrive?

Many of the statements made as the above video also assume that you are the only one who wants to use the charging station. What if there are three cars for every charger? And as the bloke said , it is too expensive to overbuild chargers. Maybe in 10-20 years. This has already happenned at a large Tesla charging station half way between LA and San Francisco where people waited all night for a spot. I bet they were happy.

Regards PhilipA


if you're planning a trip you phone ahead and book your batteries. much like if you want fuel at some of the very remote places in aus (and africa) for a trip you have to book ahead and make sure your requirements are catered for.

[Arapiles]

Similar concept:

Gogoro's new GoStation electric scooter battery swap stations are huge (https://electrek.co/2019/09/23/check-out-gogoros-giant-new-battery-swap-stations-for-its-electric-scooters/)

[DiscoMick]

Tesla had this idea years ago, but decided not to pursue it.

One issue is ( not with leased batteries) that if you own a battery say 1 year old , how do you know how old the drop in battery is and therefore how much power it has left 80% , 70%?

Maybe this could even affect lease batteries as how do you plan a trip if a replacement battery is old?

And the batteries will age if used all the time with constant recharge and use.

What happens if the stop is just out of charged batteries when you arrive?

Many of the statements made as the above video also assume that you are the only one who wants to use the charging station. What if there are three cars for every charger? And as the bloke said , it is too expensive to overbuild chargers. Maybe in 10-20 years. This has already happenned at a large Tesla charging station half way between LA and San Francisco where people waited all night for a spot. I bet they were happy.

Regards PhilipAThe video shows a wall full of battery packs plugged into chargers.
The trucking company only rents the use of the charged battery pack and has to deliver it to the next charging station.
All the large truck manufacturers are releasing electric models.