The Uphill Battle for EV Trucks
[Dec. 16, 2019]
Let’s get something out of the way up-front: I’m an unabashed fan of electric cars. I own one myself. In terms of passenger cars, they’ve gotten to the point where, for the most part, they’re fully competitive with internal-combustion equivalents. I am also encouraged that beyond Rivian, Tesla, and other announced possible future entries in the market, that electric pickup trucks are moving toward being a reality. Energy density of battery packs has improved immensely, and looks poised to improve even more.
But pickup trucks throw a giant curveball into the EV equation. They are basically all the obstacles EV engineering teams have been fighting to overcome wrapped up in the same package: More weight, worse aerodynamics, and even more weight in the form of payload or towing.
The fact that trucks burn more fuel (whether gasoline, diesel, or electrons) while towing or hauling is not an earth-shattering revelation. It’s a well-documented fact. So the fact that the rated range on an EV truck will be cut significantly while towing is not a shock. However, the inconvenient truth with EVs is the charging network is not nearly as widespread and mature as gas stations, and topping off which will likely be a 100-200+ kWh battery will take upward of an hour, as opposed to 5-10 minutes. Even if the speed of fast charging triples from its current rate, EVs still won’t charge as fast as an internal-combustion truck can fill its tank.
In full disclosure, I am not an engineer. But I have thought about this conundrum quite a bit, and until both battery energy density increases exponentially, and fast charging speeds up proportionally, this is going to be a major obstacle for EV trucks to overcome. The only workaround I’ve hypothesized that can overcome this is motorized trailers with an auxiliary battery pack.
Granted, this is not a perfect solution either from the standpoint of cost or weight. This solution adds unavoidable expense in the form of battery packs and motors. This will also have the effect of somewhat reducing the GVWR of the trailer. On the other hand, the propulsion from a trailer’s motors would reduce the load on the truck’s motors and batteries, which counter-balances the strain on the truck’s drivetrain and could serve to both increase the towing range as well as effectively raise the towing capacity.
It should be said that I’m not talking about a dumb, disconnected motorized trailer. I’m talking about a fully networked, integrated, torque-vectoring trailer that is in constant, dynamic communication with the powertrain control module, transferring power and propulsion between the truck and trailer hundreds, if not thousands of times a second. It would go from re-gen generator to power sled in real-time.
I am already girding my loins for the virtual crotch-kicking I’m probably about to receive from the engineering community about why motorized trailers are a horrible, half-baked, crackpot idea. To that, I say bring it on. But don’t just tell me that I’m wrong, tell my why I’m wrong.
(Photo courtesy Tesla)
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