Gizmowiz
It's about time that trucks adopted a locomotive drive train which this is--it's electric powered fueled by a turbo engine similar to trains with diesels (dirty ones). But I see this gradually jumping to mostly battery powered because when batteries become 10 times as dense by weight then it's competitive with any hydrocarbon based fuel using mostly the sun to charge (battery swapping will be used).
guzmanchinky
I agree with the skepticism, however, knowing a thing or two about semi trucks, and owning a couple of UTV's, the concepts and what they would do for either vehicle category are very cool...
zr2s10
I think the Semi-truck could be a great thing, especially if it really cuts fuel usage in half. Locomotives are almost all hybrid diesels these day for a reason.
The SxS, I'm not really interested in. First off, that much power is almost unusable off-road. You'd be digging a hole to China on soft ground in 3 seconds, not hitting 60 mph. And the solar panel would be destroyed by anyone that runs anywhere other than dunes. Fuel consumption isn't as much of a concern on UTVs and ATVs as it used to be, with the proliferation of fuel injection. I can ride all day in my Ranger 500, and not use half a tank. Granted, a RZR 1000 turbo will burn through more, but still, rarely an issue. Finally, UTVs without that "braaaaaaap!!" are just not going to be fun! There's no need to be Harley loud, but a decent exhaust note just hits you at the core...
-dphiBbydt
Wrightspeed of San Jose already have their turbine extender electric propulsion vehicles on the market (see http://www.wrightspeed.com/the-route-powertrain ) . Not quite as sexy-looking as these big rig cabs but still a practical solution to stop-start, around town, medium-size delivery trucks. Every now and again I pass one of the Isuzu trucks on the street - the turbine sound is unmistakable.
Big rigs, for the most part, drive long distances for hours on end - far beyond the range of even the most optimistic battery technology - so most of their propulsion will still be fossil-fuel based. Still, in town, electric drive would be a plus and out on the open road, decoupling fuel burning from directly driving the wheels would allow for much more efficient fuel usage.
Ray_Diminco
Honestly I would be happy with a traditional hybrid semi truck. If it had 500 horsepower, was plug-in and had a range of 28 electric only miles. Long haul truckers have to shut down for 10 hours every 11 hours of driving. Plenty of time to recharge the battery.
Every time I slow down I use the Jake brake. A technology that basically turns the diesel engine into an air compressor. Depending on the rpm the engine can produce up to 400 braking horsepower. Or about 300 000 watts. It takes roughly 12 minutes to go down an average mountain pass, that is a lot of energy! Probably enough to recharge the battery!
Throughout the day I use the engine brake hundreds of times and sometimes, thousands of times. All wasted energy. I just want a Prius equivalent in a semi truck. It would get 10 to 12 mpg. Where the average now is 6.5 mpg. But realistically most trucks get 5.5 to 6 mpg due to the new emissions controls. While at the same time burning hundred of gallons of DEF per week into addition to diesel fuel.
We desperately need a hybrid semi truck.
mindstorm8191
This is kind of a response to Ray_Diminco's comment. The problem with today's batteries is that you can't charge them rapidly. All these ideas of dumping wasted energy into battery storage are lovely ideas - but just not possible (with today's batteries, at least).
But perhaps there are other ways to store energy. My idea would be to use that energy to fill up a tank with compressed air, probably from regenerative brakes. Great care would have to be taken to make sure the tank doesn't get too full. But once filled, the tank could be drained slowly to either recharge batteries or add power to take off again. But I'm no engineer, so I don't know how much size & weight that would require for it to become useful; it might be much worse than a large battery pack.
Kpar
Mindstorm, Ford Motor Company was experimenting some ten years ago with a dual chamber hydraulic system. A drive motor connected to the drivetrain pumped hydraulic oil from one chamber to the other- compressing the air (or other gas) in that tank whenever the brakes were applied. There was a flexible bag in the "receiving" tank to keep the air and oil separate.
When accelerating, the system would reverse, and provide additional energy back through the drivetrain.
I have heard that UPS has installed this system on several delivery trucks in its fleet, but nothing more than that.
Stephen N Russell
Check out Luigi Colani truck designs, from 80s BUT very current for today to use for same market.
Craig Jennings
Something - electric would be nice. But apart from flexibility of fuel why would you want a gas turbine? They're also smaller? Hardly a problem with a truck. Diseasal engines are more efficient and so is mechanically linking that energy to the wheels (at least at a constant speed). Love to see the math done on all the comparisons.
Bruce H. Anderson
Batteries = weight. So part of the goal here is the Goldilocks formula; just right. Semis have a GVW limit, and are paid to haul freight, not fuel. I can see batteries for in town, and a boost on hills. On the road where the load is more steady-state the turbine genset can supply enough power. The key will be controls for electrical management, and finding the right generator. I recall that Volvo tried a turbo-electric on a sedan a few decades back.