• @accideath
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    38 months ago

    Electric trucks for long haul can make sense. However, this is highly dependent on overhead lines for trucks getting mass adoption. Near where I live in Germany there is a test track on a section of the autobahn, allowing specially equipped trucks to run on external power like trains, fully electric, on the autobahn and continue on their own power on their way on or off the autobahn.

    To my knowledge, the test trucks are hybrids that run with regular diesel, most of the time, however, if this ever gets rolled out in more places, maybe the entire autobahn network, it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to have the trucks be battery powered while they’re not on the autobahn and have them be powered externally and maybe even charging while they’re on the autobahn.

    The main issue with this system is the cost associated with electrifying large parts the road network but the benefit of massively reducing carbon emissions and perhaps lower cost of electricity compared to fossil fuels might make it a good investment in the long term.