What is Digg?96 Comments
- pyroyetti420, on 07/11/2008, -1/+26its about time the world realized that most driving excursions are less than 100 miles and a truck like this could save alot of money in fuel costs. Having said that I'll be driving home in a truck myself......alone.......no carpool. Hipocrits ftw!!!!
- jboitnott, on 07/12/2008, -0/+16The encouraging thing at present is that we are seeing stories like this day after day which show that people are coming up with inventions, modifications and innovations that may take us straight out of the need for $147-a-barrel oil. It can't happen soon enough.
- Jenadae, on 07/12/2008, -0/+14If you didn't read theres only a few parts of the truck that are changed out, otherwise its a normal Isuzu cargo truck...
- RegularJohn, on 07/11/2008, -2/+15I think the gas giants would argue a bit with this post. Surprise it hasn't been burried yet, with all the digg censorship discussions that've been going out lately..
- idc5, on 07/12/2008, -1/+13I can't wait until the day where gasoline powered cars are considered obsolete.
- claycollins, on 07/12/2008, -12/+24George Bush will probably outlaw it.
- SoulDesigner, on 07/12/2008, -0/+11fix what - you realise that an electric motor lasts for years without any maintenance yes?
No spark plugs
No air filter / fuel filter
No Oil changes
Regen breaking saves wear and tear on the regular brakes too.
As far as maintenance goes, electric vehicles are far cheaper to run than ICE counterparts. - KMye, on 07/12/2008, -0/+8Jupiter: This post is *****!!
- fadeout, on 07/12/2008, -0/+8Electricity doesn't have to come from coal, chief! About 40% of the electricity in my grid is already hydro and nuclear and I live in a flyover state that isn't exactly cutting edge. Some of our hydro plants are 50 years old.
An electric economy powered by renewal resources and nuclear power is probably the way of the future. - inactive, on 07/12/2008, -0/+7What's so great about this is to finally find a commercial application for electric technology that can be mass produced.
- Thousand, on 07/12/2008, -0/+7The power is coming from off-peak current, which is normally wasted. The thing about electrical generators (coal plants, nukes, hydroelectric) is that you can't turn them off when everyone goes home at night, so they're constantly running. This means that they're outputting power at night just as effectively as they are during the day, yet it's not being tapped nearly as much, meaning most of it is wasted. Charge the truck at night, and you're using power that would otherwise be generated for no reason.
Electricity is cheap, it only gets expensive when you're taxing the system with demand spikes. - Gojirra, on 07/12/2008, -0/+7Since (Regular Cars) run similar routes every day and return to the same spot after all the work is done, they can charge overnight. Give us electric cars damn it!
- RedHeadedFreak, on 07/12/2008, -1/+7Yeah, everything's a conspiracy man...
- atbnet, on 07/12/2008, -0/+6Two things:
1. Creating electricity with coal is a lot more efficient than the internal combustion engine.
2. If charged at night it uses the electricity that is wasted anyhow.
Looks like a good solution to me. - h4ppydotcom, on 07/12/2008, -0/+5I seem to remember someone saying to me that power generation is more efficient at large scale. It is, therefore, better to produce electricity in one place than to have millions of micro-generators (i.e. engines).
- RokkaMan, on 07/12/2008, -0/+5$126000...
- NSkram, on 07/12/2008, -0/+5"And the typical monthly gas or diesel fuel bill for a truck could range from $1200 to $1800, if you include oil changes and assume 100 miles driven per business day."
$1,800 Per Month x 12 Month's = $21,600 Per Year x 10 Years = $216,000
IDK where you came up with $15k a month but even then by your estimation of it would be upwards of $1.8 Million
Pay attention to the article next time. - h4ppydotcom, on 07/12/2008, -0/+5Hydro, Solar, Wind, even Nuclear. There are lots of ways to produce electricity that don't (a) consume hydrocarboons or (b) produce large quantities of polluting gas. Of course, the nuclear question is a whole can of worms but there are alternatives.
- Jenadae, on 07/12/2008, -0/+5Welcome to digg :D!
- Red1Delta, on 07/12/2008, -3/+8Don't mind me being off-topic here but I just realized I don't have to type a captcha to add a comment anymore!!!
- apeweek, on 07/12/2008, -0/+5What repair issues? What wear and tear? Electric motors have just one moving part. EV motors can last decades with no maintenance issues whatsoever. The motor used here doesn't even have brushes (the only wear item on a DC motor.)
- apeweek, on 07/12/2008, -0/+4Except they do help the environment, and studies repeatedly show this. Example:
http://www.electric-cars-are-for-girls.com/electri ...
actual study: http://www.energy.ca.gov/papers/CEC-999-1996-015.P ...
"...in a study conducted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, EVs were significantly cleaner over the course of 100,000 miles than ICE cars. The electricity generation process produces less than 100 pounds of pollutants for EVs compared to 3000 pounds for ICE vehicles."
There's also plenty of off-peak electricity to go around:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/06121 ...
Mileage From Megawatts: Study Finds Enough Electric Capacity To 'Fill Up' Plug-in Vehicles
"Science Daily — If all the cars and light trucks in the nation switched from oil to electrons, idle capacity in the existing electric power system could generate most of the electricity consumed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. A new study for the Department of Energy finds that "off-peak" electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84 percent of the country's 220 million vehicles if they were plug-in hybrid electrics." - idc5, on 07/12/2008, -0/+4Amen
- askantik, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3When the time comes that most people have an electric car, I figure most will have solar panels, too. Which means there won't be a black out, unless the sun dies, in which case we have other problems than our cars not working.
- vpshockwave, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3You're both idiots.
- york2600, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3It's 100,000 more than the standard model
Electric costs per year:: $780 per year ($3 full charge x 5 day work week x 52 weeks)
Diesel costs per year: $10504 (diesel gets 12mpg = 8.33 gallons to go 100mi) (8.33 gallons @ $4.85/gal * 5 day work week * 52 weeks)
Savings per year = $9724.13
Savings over lifespan of batteries = $97241.30
In ten years you could swap the batteries out for a smaller cost than the $50,000 they cost now. This is also assuming that gas / electricity costs stay at current levels. I imagine gas prices will continue to climb at much higher rates than electricity. The diesel price is the Oregon state average price from AAA. - WayOfTheIronPaw, on 07/12/2008, -2/+5$126,000... and the question is "what's the total cost of ownership?". What is the usable life of that $50,000 worth of lithium polymer batteries? Not that cost is the only factor to consider. The environment counts. BUT the cost of the batteries would help to put that $3 recharge into its proper perspective.
- askantik, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3If you want it to become available faster, why don't you work on it? People always want "them" to "come up with something" but never want to put forth any effort or dollars themselves. It's totally understandable.
- SoulDesigner, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3just give it time, eventually these batteries will be cheaper.
- apeweek, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3Electric vehicles can be found cheaply - look for EV conversions, or used EVs.
http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car - apeweek, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3Coal doesn't matter. EVs are more efficient, which means more miles on less fuel, which means less net pollution per mile, regardless of what gets burned.
Point number two: Coal is not the whole electric grid! Only half our electricity is made this way.
Point number three: Coal plants are baseload - they are very hard to shut down or regulate, so they run all the time, EVs or no EVs. Peak-load plants are NOT coal. So how, exactly, do EVs increase coal-fired pollution in any significant way?
If we have to build more coal plants one day, newest coal electric plant designs are up to 80% efficient.
Despite the incessant oil-company-talking-point blathering on this topic, it is an utter non-issue. - bentrinh, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3Yes, because the engine in a car is wayyyyy more efficient than the generators in a massive power plant.
/sarcasm - kd1s, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3Oh yes, lets go all electric. National Grid here in RI just got a 21.7% increase granted by the PUC. Double digit increases, nice!
The difference is negligible but here's the thing. National Grid's RI operations are mostly fired by natural gas generators. The other little fact is that usage has actually gone DOWN in the past couple years. So in essence we're being penalized for conserving.
I do think the electric vehicle concept is feasible though. Even if it cost $10 per charge for 100 miles, which would be 10 cents per mile it would still be cheaper than gasoline. For example say you're car gets 30MPG which means you'd burn about 3.3 gallons at $4 a gallon or $13.20. But if we use the $3 to $5 range electric really demolishes gasoline prices.
- apeweek, on 07/12/2008, -0/+3100 miles per day, 5 days per week, for ten years (stated life of battery pack) is 260,000 miles.
$50,000 divided by 260,000 miles is 19 cents/mile. Added to the 3 cents/mile electricity cost, that's 22 cents/mile.
With gasoline at $4.25/gallon, this is the equivalent of getting 19 miles to the gallon. Not very special for a car, but that's a pretty good per-mile cost for a truck like this.
Plus, all other maintenance is now much cheaper. No oil changes, filters, fluids, plugs, tuneups, etc. Electric motors have just one moving part, no wear items (aside from bearings), and can last decades with no service issues.
Electric wins TCO hands down. - trippinlikegod, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2And lets not forget that only people who live south of Washington D.C. are still burning coal for power. Almost all the power plants in the north are oil fired now specifically because it's cleaner.
- jamada88, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2"Company officials say that within a year they’ll be able to get battery pack ranges of 150 to 200 miles per charge."
As soon as that happens you'll save much more with this truck!
Because 200 miles vs. 100 miles would normally double the fuel cost.
But for the charging the electric one... even if it would double that $3 per charge (I believe it will not)
even then you would save $1,280 to $2,480 per month!!! (assuming both drive 200 miles per business day) - owls27, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2I wonder what insurance companies will charge to insure one of those $180,000 truck! There goes those savings!
- SoulDesigner, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2yeah, I think there would be thieves targetting the battery packs also so hopefully they have thought about that.
- ryananger, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2It's also cheap.
- Gemfinder, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2The article does mention regenerative brakes, which send a charge back to the power plant whenever you brake. A hill is only half acceleration, the other half is braking. So I would imagine a city like San Francisco would be tailor-made for trucks of this type. Just make sure Hyde or California Street is on your route every day! :D
- Disjunto, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2thanks for the info
- apeweek, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Lower electric rates can be had by asking your utility for off-peak rates. This typically requires separate metering. Here in the Detroit area, off-peak electricity can be had for as little as 3 cents/KWH.
- PopcornDave, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2It's an interesting concept for a town that's fairly flat like Los Angeles, but I'm curious as to what the battery charge life would be in San Francisco with it's hills. If there was a way to increase the charge while coasting it would be interesting.
- veduvaru, on 07/12/2008, -1/+3that's cheep
- sanman, on 07/13/2008, -0/+2Electric motors work most efficiently under load, so having them show up first in heavier vehicles like trucks, buses, etc makes the most sense. Those are also the vehicles that guzzle the most gas, too. If you look at the latest cryogenically-cooled electric motors in newer ocean-going ships, you'll be amazed at how much smaller they are and how much space they save.
- atact88, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Can't wait for the day when you're stranded at home cause you have a power outage and you haven't charged up your car.
- carpespasm, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2ever heard pf a trolling motor?
- bincoder, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2In the article they made it 12 miles. That makes more sense than 100 miles on a charge since 50kWh would be enough to run 66 HP for one hour, assuming the battery is 100% efficient and delivers its power losslessly without regard to the rate of current flow from the battery (they don't do that in real life, unless you run a digital watch with one). Assuming an 8 hour shift, the battery could deliver 66/8 or a little over 8 horsepower for 8 hours before its dead. More likely, you would get half of that due to battery loss and motor loss. So sure, you can drive cheaply this way but you could also just put in a lawnmower engine and regear it for more torque saving a hundred thousand dollars. Or use far fewer batteries, a smaller electric motor (saving weight and expense) and a small IC engine running constantly at a single optimum RPM to keep the batteries charged and still retain the large amount of torque that an electric motor provides along with regenerative braking.
But then it would be more like a plain old hybrid and peeps would loose interest in about 2 minutes. Still, dugg for doing the right thing and going the right direction. - bincoder, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2I hope they welded the torque converter together.
That is a huge loss of energy, spinning oil around through a turbine for no more reason than to make heat. - trippinlikegod, on 07/12/2008, -0/+2Liability insurance has nothing to do with the value of your own vehicle, it's based on state minimum / recommended coverage levels in case you do damage to the property of someone else. As far as collision insurance big heavy work trucks are not as much as you would think mainly because regardless of their worth they are basically indestructible. Large farm equipment, DOT trucks, and other delivery trucks already have low insurance costs.
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