Volvo has announced their first all-electric semi truck

[Polycount]

Electric vehicles have become a common sight in recent years. While there are certainly many reasons for this, one could argue that efforts from companies like Tesla to make EVs as accessible as possible have played a role in their widespread adoption.

Regardless of who kicked things off, the car industry as a whole has been making some big changes to the way they view EVs. Chevy has rolled out the well-received, all-electric Bolt and many other major car manufacturers plan to follow suit with their own EV offerings.

Volvo, however, has decided to take things a step further. In July, the company announced their decision to go green and manufacture exclusively electric or hybrid vehicles in 2019.

It seems the company is now taking the first steps to make that goal a reality. According to Autoblog, Volvo is currently putting together a line of all-electric, commercial semi trucks.

The first of these vehicles will be called the "FL Electric." The FL Electric will be capable of traveling up to 300km (186 miles) on a single charge, courtesy of "between two and six" 100-300kWh lithium-ion batteries.

By contrast, Tesla's appropriately-named "Semi" electric truck is expected to roll out of factories in 2019 with "300 to 500" miles of range on a single charge. That said, the FL Electric is primarily intended for urban environments, meaning drivers will likely have more opportunities to stop and charge than they would on the world's highways.

Volvo has not yet announced a global launch date for their upcoming electric trucks but the "first trucks" in the FL Electric range are now entering "regular operation" in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/74152-volvo-has-announced-their-first-all-electric-semi.html

 

[wiyosaya]

Look out Tesla, here comes the competition.

 

[Reachable]

Short haul electric semi trucks just might be the way to go. Semi trucks carry a huge amount of weight. Which means they need a huge amount of power. Which means they need a lot of batteries.

But batteries are heavy. The more batteries you have, the more batteries you need, because the batteries need to be transported along with the cargo. This is not the case with gasoline or diesel, which produces a lot of power and doesn't weigh all that much even on a full tank and gets lighter as the fuel gets used.

So it might be something like the elevator problem. The taller a building gets, the more offices it has, and the more elevators it needs. But the more elevator shafts the building has, the less room there is for offices, so the less need there is for elevators. I hope the Tesla trucks have enough room for cargo to make it practical.

 

[GeforcerFX]

Short haul electric semi trucks just might be the way to go. Semi trucks carry a huge amount of weight. Which means they need a huge amount of power. Which means they need a lot of batteries.

But batteries are heavy. The more batteries you have, the more batteries you need, because the batteries need to be transported along with the cargo. This is not the case with gasoline or diesel, which produces a lot of power and doesn't weigh all that much even on a full tank and gets lighter as the fuel gets used.

So it might be something like the elevator problem. The taller a building gets, the more offices it has, and the more elevators it needs. But the more elevator shafts the building has, the less room there is for offices, so the less need there is for elevators. I hope the Tesla trucks have enough room for cargo to make it practical.

It pretty much has to happen with how many cities are planning on outlawing diesel vehicles in the 2020's, by the 2030's many will prob outlaw any carbon producing vehicles from the cities. You have to be able to move goods around in the cities and there's no way the cities are gonna let a company switch from using a single truck to 4 electric vans to deliver the same amount, now you get into a massive traffic issue.

 

[Uncle Al]

Like said, good for the short haul but not practical for anything more ..... still, it will give old Musk something to worry about ......

 

[GeforcerFX]

Like said, good for the short haul but not practical for anything more ..... still, it will give old Musk something to worry about ......

Not necessarily, depends on how the long haul is done. Drivers can only be on the road for so long, 8-12 hours depending where you are. If the truck averages 65 MPH you need a 520-780 mile range, Tesla is very close to that atm, in another 3-5 years with more efficient motors and better battery packs and you have a truck that can drive long haul in most situations, park at a rest stop and recharge. Chain driving and other systems obviously won't work for that, and it would be best on major routes at first, where the infrastructure for charging will be built up first, but pure electric will do long haul just fine. Diesel electric is the major future for long haul, small super efficient diesel motor powering 4 drive motors, same benefits as Tesla's truck power wise, not the same cost because of the batteries and fits in better with the current infrastructure.

 

[Syl1979]

It may be worth knowing that Volvo trucks and Volvo cars are two completely different companies.

Volvo trucks is part of the historic AB Volvo group.
Volvo cars belongs now
to chinese private automaker Geely

 

[yeeeeman]

Actually diesel engines on trucks are very well regulated in terms of emissions. They are tested on a mixed cycle, while moving, not on a stand and they must completely comply with what is required. Also, for the load that they are carying, compared to normal diesel and even petrol cars (not that petrol cars are emissions free or something, it is just propaganda to kill diesel), they are much cleaner. But in any case, this is a good place to start the change.
I also think businesses can benefit from this since an electric truck will be more reliable and longer lasting.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Lots of electric trucks operating inside London because of the congestion zone which is a pay as you drive area designed to try and reduce the number of vehicles and polluting vehicles in the centre of London.

Electric vehicles are exempt from the hefty daily charge and so many logistics companies already employ them.