Should your next truck be gas or electric?

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Greg Swartz

Greg Swartz

Senior Member
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
ohm said:
The UK has a F150 plug-in electric that delivers 600 Hp and has a 100 mile range. http://www.hipadrive.com/sema.html

Maybe a house call in the future will be to repair a truck.
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I'm going to Denver next week. That's 60 miles... 1 way! But what about traffic jams... which happen a LOT! Are we talking 100 miles fully charged... take a look at the "can't decide" thread which talks about tools and their battery issues.

How long would this battery last? Full charge today is 100 miles. Tomorrow is... 70... 80 miles?

Then in Colorado, it got to -4, which is warm compared to some of you... What's the range there? 20-30 miles?

How long to charge? 8 hours?
Quick charge?

Then the parking lot where I have to park and pay $10 for, doesn't have this.... when they do, it will probably be a $25 charge for this.
 
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macmikeman

Senior Member
Location
Planet macmikeman
You know, actually me tinks it is going to be great, and they will get better mileage in time for the electric cars, its just that hundred mile thing in relation to electrical work. Me, I live on a pretty small island, but I can easily put more than a hundred miles on my van in a day if I got lots of calls to go hit.
 
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ohm

Senior Member
Location
Birmingham, AL
macmikeman said:
You know, actually me tinks it is going to be great, and they will get better mileage in time for the electric cars, its just that hundred mile thing in relation to electrical work. Me, I live on a pretty small island, but I can easily put more than a hundred miles on my van in a day if I got lots of calls to go hit.
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I have a four battery inverter system on my truck so I seldom need to run my 1Kw generator. If I'm pulling hard on my 120V 20A inverter I will start my generator and let it keep the batteries up, or let them charge off the trucks generator. I seldom if ever buy gas. I suspect a small on-board generator could run all day for a few bucks if the battteries are getting low and a long haul is planned.

Supply house might even be coaxed into letting you plug in while you shop.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Just to play dark cloud, please remember that electric vehicles are not pollution-free (carbon, whaterver), they're merely pollution-displacing.

The electricity still must be generated. The vehilce doesn't pollute where it's operated, but it does have a 'green footprint' nonetheless.

Imagine if the entire country went all-electric for all motor vehicles. The infra-structure that would have to be designed and built would be staggering.
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
LarryFine said:
Just to play dark cloud, please remember that electric vehicles are not pollution-free (carbon, whaterver), they're merely pollution-displacing.

The electricity still must be generated. The vehicle doesn't pollute where it's operated, but it does have a 'green footprint' nonetheless.
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Lets also not forget the pollution per mile will still be less then the gasoline driven vehicle.

That said, while I was driving my van in a winter storm recently I noticed an electric car beside me and I got to wondering how much less distance it could travel while running the defroster, wipers and lighting.

Imagine if the entire country went all-electric for all motor vehicles. The infra-structure that would have to be designed and built would be staggering.
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I wonder if that is really true? :smile: Consider that many of the chargers could be set up to charge at what is now off peak times.

I am not saying that your point is not a good one I just wonder where the truth of the matter would be. Usually it is somewhere between the naysayers and the tree huggers. :smile:
 
petersonra

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
I was doing some number crunching in my head.

gasoline has about 115,000 btus/gallon.

gasoline engines are perhaps 30% efficient.

that means a gallon of gas is roughly equivalent to 10 kw-hrs of electricity.

most of us pay around 10 cents for a kw-hr of electricity. there is also about 45 cents/gallon on average worth of motor fuel taxes on gasoline. some states add general sales tax on top of that.

that means the average price of electricity to replace a gallon of gas once taxes are put on it, is not much different than what a gallon of gas costs right now. you really can't believe that government is not somehow going to find a way to tax electricity used to power cars and trucks, do you?

as for refueling. if you plug your electric car in at night, your 20A/115V circuit can typically provide about 2 kw-hrs per hour. that means it will take five hours of charging to replace the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
iwire said:
That said, while I was driving my van in a winter storm recently I noticed an electric car beside me and I got to wondering how much less distance it could travel while running the defroster, wipers and lighting.
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Maybe they have a miles-remaining voltmeter.

I am not saying that your point is not a good one I just wonder where the truth of the matter would be. Usually it is somewhere between the naysayers and the tree huggers. :smile:
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Nay-huggers or tree-sayers?
 
cowboyjwc

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
The batteries in an electric car use a different technology than your regular batteries, but I still don't know how things like cold would affect them.

Here in CA you get a seperate meter for your car charger and it is on a timer so that you can only charge it during off peak hours. If you do charge it during peak hours, it's really, really, expensive.

Most of the chargers that I have seen use the same type end that is used on forklift chargers and what not, I assume that you can plug into a regular outlet in an emergency, but most of them that I have seen are 50 amps or so. Even though I did see a new model out that is supposed to do 0-60 in better time than my Mustang, you still only got 200 mile in it. Most people that buy them learn very quickly that they are only really good for around town.

Now natural gas is another way to go.
 
K

Karl H

Senior Member
Location
San Diego,CA
Unless Nikola Tesla's Induction System is utilized. Electric service trucks
IMO is a terrible idea. I'm not trying to be negative ,I just can see a lot of
vehicles stranded along the highway, in a battery powered future.
 
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ohm

Senior Member
Location
Birmingham, AL
Greg Swartz said:
Exactly! :D (Where's teh ebul grin smiley? :mad:)

I want a part of that... in fact, I want a BIG part of that!
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Sounds like we will be awful busy if this idea continues. Most grids can't share enough power to fully carry the next, so lots of windmills and PV solar will be comming online to distribute power. I read the US is #1 in wind now at 25Gw and they desperately need preventative maintenance.

Super capacitors are about to replace batteries. They charge faster, run cooler and recover much of the energy expended during acceleration, upon deceleration (no brakes) as the motors become generators.
 
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