6. Charging Ahead: Overcoming Infrastructure Challenges in Electrifying Road Freight (2/2)

Redefining Energy - TECH

In the second part of his conversation with David Cebon, head of the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight and professor of mechanical engineering at Cambridge, Michael Barnard discusses the challenges of integrating logistics activity and energy activity in decarbonization efforts. The need for bigger batteries in trucks is temporary and will eventually become a matter of economics.
Transcript.
However, the challenge lies in charging infrastructure at warehouses, where vehicle turnarounds require tens of megawatts to charge during half-hour periods. This distributed problem requires warehouse owners to spend millions on electricity grid connections to charge third-party vehicles. Overhead contact lines are seen as an important solution because they eliminate the need for big fat grid connections and can be built out along heavily trafficked roads through a single contract rather than thousands of distributed warehouses needing upgrades simultaneously worldwide. Modular electric vehicle platforms with battery swapping capabilities could help cover most logistics solutions globally by allowing OEMs to make slightly different configurations depending on country needs while reducing costs compared to adding megawatt hours or hydrogen fuel cells.
Finally, there is a debunked piece of folklore that heavier electric vehicles cause more road damage when truck weight laws vary widely among U.S states with Michigan having double Class 8 tractor semi-trailer weights allowed while civil engineers use something called "the fourth power law" based on outdated constructions from late 1950s AASHO Road Test results which saw most damage occur due to weather conditions rather than vehicle loading factors.Cebon discusses the fourth power law and its impact on road damaging potential of axles, which has been debunked. They also talk about the history of lane width and how it affects driver behavior. Additionally, Cebon shares his opinion on hydrogen fuel cell trucks for heavy ground vehicles and highlights their high cost compared to electric trucks due to a steep learning curve for hydrogen technology in small quantities.