Volvo delivers 74-tonne electric HGV

[Mart]

The way forward i think for many cos is to have some batteries in the trailer unit. This will reduce down time of the tractor and driver unit. It can often take hours to load a trailer sitting around all day so plenty of time to charge. This is not an original thought some firm is alredy doing it.

Hiya Ken, is it this recent news you are referring to?

New electric powered trailer could reduce diesel truck fuel use by 41%

In this example, you can add a 'BEV' trailer, to a diesel truck and reduce fuel consumption.


Different approach, but sticking with the idea of lowering diesel consumption via a hybrid approach, we have this incredible/fun idea from Tandem. They're focusing on twin axle tractors, but are developing a model for triple axle.

Tandem Centaur

[Ken]

Silly thought, but with a BEV, being charged from green leccy, then perhaps reverting to more tyres, at lower pressures might be seen as a good idea. Fuel consumption would go up but clean(er), but road damage would reduce, and grip and braking would be enhanced ..... but we'll need bigger batts, better charging etc etc..

Not a silly thought at all. BEVs have shown increased range with softer higher profile tyres over low profile harder ones.

PS that article was the correct one.

[richbee]

Silly thought, but with a BEV, being charged from green leccy, then perhaps reverting to more tyres, at lower pressures might be seen as a good idea. Fuel consumption would go up but clean(er), but road damage would reduce, and grip and braking would be enhanced ..... but we'll need bigger batts, better charging etc etc..

Not a silly thought at all. BEVs have shown increased range with softer higher profile tyres over low profile harder ones.

PS that article was the correct one.

I thought in general softer tyres are worse for consumption (and tyre wear).
I found from personal experience, low profile tyres tend to have softer rubber in order to give reasonable comfort (and better cornering I guess) - hence worse consumption and faster wear, but higher profile can get away with harder rubber for the same comfort.
I drive a Transit custom with standard 16" high profile tyres - lots of people fit 18" or 20" rims cos they look cool and then complain bitterly that they only get 8-15k miles out of the tyres, while mine are currently on nearly 60k!

(just realised you might be talking about softer in terms of tyre pressure, rather than softer rubber, but I'm not deleting everything at this stage )

[Mart]

Silly thought, but with a BEV, being charged from green leccy, then perhaps reverting to more tyres, at lower pressures might be seen as a good idea. Fuel consumption would go up but clean(er), but road damage would reduce, and grip and braking would be enhanced ..... but we'll need bigger batts, better charging etc etc..

Not a silly thought at all. BEVs have shown increased range with softer higher profile tyres over low profile harder ones.

PS that article was the correct one.

I thought in general softer tyres are worse for consumption (and tyre wear).
I found from personal experience, low profile tyres tend to have softer rubber in order to give reasonable comfort (and better cornering I guess) - hence worse consumption and faster wear, but higher profile can get away with harder rubber for the same comfort.
I drive a Transit custom with standard 16" high profile tyres - lots of people fit 18" or 20" rims cos they look cool and then complain bitterly that they only get 8-15k miles out of the tyres, while mine are currently on nearly 60k!

(just realised you might be talking about softer in terms of tyre pressure, rather than softer rubber, but I'm not deleting everything at this stage )

Hiya richbee, my fault for any confusion, and I think Ken was following my lead. My understanding of road wear/tyre damage is mainly down to pressure. The higher the pressure, the harder the tyre, the more damage to the road. But yes, probably more tyre wear for lower pressure tyres.

I was just pondering if damage could be reduced, or even max weight increased, if the amount of tyres, and/or tyre width was increased, and pressure reduced. I said it was maybe silly, as it would mean more fuel consumption, from greater rolling resistance, but perhaps (big stretch here, so feel free to knock this idea hard) if they are BEV trucks, and the leccy is green, then it's not so bad?

[richbee]

Not a silly thought at all. BEVs have shown increased range with softer higher profile tyres over low profile harder ones.

PS that article was the correct one.

I thought in general softer tyres are worse for consumption (and tyre wear).
I found from personal experience, low profile tyres tend to have softer rubber in order to give reasonable comfort (and better cornering I guess) - hence worse consumption and faster wear, but higher profile can get away with harder rubber for the same comfort.
I drive a Transit custom with standard 16" high profile tyres - lots of people fit 18" or 20" rims cos they look cool and then complain bitterly that they only get 8-15k miles out of the tyres, while mine are currently on nearly 60k!

(just realised you might be talking about softer in terms of tyre pressure, rather than softer rubber, but I'm not deleting everything at this stage )

Hiya richbee, my fault for any confusion, and I think Ken was following my lead. My understanding of road wear/tyre damage is mainly down to pressure. The higher the pressure, the harder the tyre, the more damage to the road. But yes, probably more tyre wear for lower pressure tyres.

I was just pondering if damage could be reduced, or even max weight increased, if the amount of tyres, and/or tyre width was increased, and pressure reduced. I said it was maybe silly, as it would mean more fuel consumption, from greater rolling resistance, but perhaps (big stretch here, so feel free to knock this idea hard) if they are BEV trucks, and the leccy is green, then it's not so bad?

Trouble is it's swings and roundabouts - lower pressure on the road could lead to less damage, but then increased fuel consumption would either lead to shorter distances between charging, or more and heavier batteries to bring the range back up to where it was with harder tyres......