{"id":3272,"date":"2022-07-08T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2022-07-07T02:51:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T07:51:47","slug":"semi-trucks-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/semi-trucks-electric\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Semi Trucks Be Electric?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may or may not have noticed an increase in \u201cgreen\u201d or eco-friendly options for a variety of things. Some restaurants, for example, besides sourcing locally grown ingredients, are working towards using biodegradable or reusable food and drink containers for to-go orders. Vehicle manufacturers now offer hybrid and even fully electric cars to lessen the reliance on fossil fuels and the harmful byproducts that come from burning them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what about trucks? Is it possible to have a semi-truck, for example, that runs at least part of the time on electricity? After all, if you\u2019re already wondering <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/18-wheeler-good-investment\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">if it\u2019s worth investing in a semi-truck<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it would help to know what factors you may need to consider on top of the ones you already know about. So let\u2019s take a look at the possibility of electric semi-trucks. <\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 3px solid; padding: 10px; width: 100%; border-radius: 25px; border-color: #F4A70F; color: #007bff;\">\n<strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #007bff;\">What&#8217;s Inside<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"#trend\">The Electric Vehicle Trend<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"#rigs\">Electric Big Rigs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"#models\">Current Models<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"#invest\">To Invest or No?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><b><\/b><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"trend\"><b>The Electric Vehicle Trend<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b><\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Electric Vehicles or EVs make up a relatively small percentage of the vehicle market, but they\u2019re a big topic in the auto industry because of how the sales numbers have steadily climbed. In the first quarter of 2022, there was a 60% jump in battery-electric vehicle registrations. Given that there was a 15.3% decline in new vehicle sales in the same quarter, the increase in battery-electric vehicle registrations is especially significant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even when looking at it from the point of view of a single manufacturer, the overall picture is the same: overall new vehicle sales decreased, but sales of EVs saw a notable increase. Whether this is because of rising gas prices, a desire to take the next step in ecofriendliness or both those reasons is unclear. What is certain, however, is that consumers are more than willing to invest in electric vehicles if they see that it\u2019s worthwhile.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"rigs\"><b>Electric Big Rigs<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b><\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the different Tesla models to Ford\u2019s Mach-E, most electric vehicles you\u2019ve heard about are, more often than not, sedans and SUVs. In other words, they\u2019re your average family car. Maybe there\u2019s a minivan thrown in here and there, but for the most part, these vehicles run on only four wheels. Electric trucks, however, are proving a little slower to make their way into the market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that\u2019s not to say they don\u2019t already exist in some form. Volvo is working on producing its VNR Electric Class 8 trucks, and Freighliner has a demo fleet of about 40 electric trucks. If anything, electric medium-sized trucks are apt to be on the market first. While not exactly the big rig you may be looking for, it\u2019s proof that manufacturers are working to surmount the biggest obstacle to electrically powered trucks: the amount of power consumed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As they currently stand, manufacturers can reliably produce electric medium\u2013duty trucks under 26,000 pounds, especially if they\u2019re meant for short, local runs. Heavier trucks, on the other hand, may take a while. Besides the huge amount of power needed to run, such models may need a bigger payload. All in all, truck manufacturers will have to go through a lot of trial and error before they find ways to balance everything needed to have a reliable electric semi-truck.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"uv-lst\" data-category=\"125\" data-count=\"6\" data-type=\"new\"> <\/div>\n<h2 id=\"models\"><b>Current Models<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b><\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As mentioned above, Freightliner has a demo fleet of electric vehicles, including the eCascadia, the eM2, and the Walk-In Van.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The eCascadia is the only Class 8 truck in that fleet, based &#8211; as the name implies &#8211; on the Cascadia frame, Freightliner\u2019s most successful heavy-duty long-distance truck. This electric semi-truck has power ranging from 360 to 525 hp, with a GVWR of up to 82,000 pounds, and a battery capacity of up to 475 Kwh (that\u2019s almost five Tesla Model S sedans). This apparently gives it a range of about 250 miles. Charging the battery to 80% capacity takes about 90 minutes &#8211; enough time for an owner-operator to take a nap or have lunch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Freightliner eM2, meanwhile, is a Class 6-7 truck, with a GVWR ranging from 26,000 to 33,000 pounds. Battery capacity is noticeably less than that of the eCascadia (316 kWh compared to the latter\u2019s 475 kWH), but it has a range of up to 230 miles. Charging up to 80% of battery capacity takes around an hour.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Walk-In Van is a step van that\u2019s been offered by Freightliner Custom Chassis since 2010. The one on the demo fleet is an MT50e, and it\u2019s currently in production. This vehicle sees a peak hp of 303 on a battery capacity of 220 kWH and a range of 125 miles. So far, this is the best application for an EV; step vans are used mostly for local deliveries, and 125 miles is plenty to work with even in a big city.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"invest\"><b>To Invest or No?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b><\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To make a long story short, semi trucks can be electric, but they aren\u2019t widely available on the market just yet. A manufacturer may have at least one model available that they\u2019re taking orders for, but that means they have yet to mass-produce said model.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Given all that, it\u2019s clear that fleet managers and owner-operators will want to carefully consider the total cost of ownership, or TCO, when getting an electric-powered semi truck. For your average diesel-powered truck, the TCO can be quite hefty, which is why some owner-operators opt for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/best-semi-truck-models\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used trucks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> instead of new ones. It follows, then, that the TCO for an electric-powered semi-truck can be up to three times as much as that of a diesel-powered one. That\u2019s not to say an electric drivetrain won\u2019t eventually pay for itself. At this point, though, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess as to how long that will take.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may or may not have noticed an increase in \u201cgreen\u201d or eco-friendly options for a variety of things. Some restaurants, for example, besides sourcing locally grown ingredients, are working towards using biodegradable or reusable food and drink containers for to-go orders. Vehicle manufacturers now offer hybrid and even fully [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":3278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[960,103,959],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-semi-truck","tag-electric-semi-truck","tag-semi-truck","tag-semi-truck-engine"],"modified_by":"Titus Asher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3283,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/3283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usedvending.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}