Surprise: it’s on an Autobahn.
05.12.19 in Transportation
Germany is joining the ranks of those countries betting on “electric highways” to foster eco-friendly trucking. The country has started real-world tests of an eHighway system on a 3.1-mile stretch of the Autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, with an electric-diesel hybrid truck merging into everyday traffic while it received power from overhead cables to keep it from using its combustion engine. Earlier tests in the country relied on either slow nighttime tests or the safety of an unused military airfield.
The very first eHighway launched in Sweden in 2016. The concept here is the same — the trucks use pantographs (the pickps on their roofs) to latch on to the overhead cables and draw electricity. Trucks can feed electricity into the grid when they brake, making the system particularly useful if there’s ever a jam.
The system won’t have a major impact for a while. Just five trucks will run the electrified stretch each day where roughly 10 percent of the road’s 135,000 daily vehicles are heavy trucks. That reduced emissions footprint could scale up as more trucks support the system, though, and could encourage trucking companies to go electric knowing that their cargo haulers could drive longer on a charge.
Germany is joining the ranks of those countries betting on “electric highways” to foster eco-friendly trucking. The country has started real-world tests of an eHighway system on a 3.1-mile stretch of the Autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, with an electric-diesel hybrid truck merging into everyday traffic while it received power from overhead cables to keep it from using its combustion engine. Earlier tests in the country relied on either slow nighttime tests or the safety of an unused military airfield.
The very first eHighway launched in Sweden in 2016. The concept here is the same — the trucks use pantographs (the pickps on their roofs) to latch on to the overhead cables and draw electricity. Trucks can feed electricity into the grid when they brake, making the system particularly useful if there’s ever a jam.
HT/macusn
This is loaded with irony, and tragedy.
Germany could not manage the Transrapid maglev and instead went with wheel-theater fast trains. Cargo trains need that 400kmh speed on major trunks, but with the deadly “Black 0” , budget balancing, nothing is even being repaired.
The Belt And Road long distance cargo tonnage is heading skyward, and still no investment.
There was a political fiasco not long ago trying to add a Munich Airport maglev – cancelled.
It is the end-game of EU monetarist accounting to even think of eTrucks on the autobahn.
China will see 850 Fuxing high speed trains in service by year end.
What coud go wrong?
I bet these people ran this through Sim City 4.