Ready to start plugging in your trucks?
August 5, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: Special Report, Technology
While Congress wrestles with plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, six American companies aren’t waiting around for a political solution. They just took delivery of a new, all-electric truck dubbed the Smith Newton.
The big advantage of the Smith Newton, made by Britain’s Smith Electric Vehicles, is the potential to eliminate GHG and other air pollution problems associated with gasoline- and diesel-powered trucks. There are also powerful fuel-cost savings as most recharging for the Smith Newton can be done overnight when electricity rates are cheapest.
The Smith Newton has a top speed of 50 mph, and a range of 100 miles on a single charge of its lithium ion batteries. It will take six to eight hours to recharge, which makes them suitable for corporate fleet vehicles that return to a central location each night. A Smith Electric brochure on some of the benefits of an EV truck is here.
Disadvantage: Cost. These first vehicles will cost nearly three times a standard diesel truck, well over $150,000.
However, these costs are expected to moderate once Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. completes its assembly plant in Kansas City, MO. Once the factory is up and running next year, it will provide 120 green jobs. Smith Electric also says it will help coordinate federal and state incentive programs to help offset the higher cost of going electric.
Companies taking delivery of at least one Smith Electric truck include:
Coca-Cola already plans to add a couple more.
More details on Smith Electric Vehicles are here.
Tags: AT&T, Coca-Cola, electric vehicles, Frito-Lay, green jobs, greenhouse gas emissions, Kansas City Power & Light, PG&E, Smith Electric Vehicles, Staples
GreenandMore.com
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August 6th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Sirs,
Very interesting.
My delivery trucks cost aprox $30000.00 each we use about $60.00/week in fuel each.
Over a ten year span we would spend about $63000.00 in fuel. It would be hard to justify the initial expense of this sort of vehicle. Our deliveries often require a 325 mile round trip to Miami. Deliveries by our suppliers come from Tampa about 135 miles one way. Maybe the truck from Smith Electric would perform well in a city environment but it would not do well in an urban setting. Most of the country, by the way, is urban territory.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:21 am
“Most of the country, by the way, is urban territory”
…John, you need to get out more.
August 6th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Yeah I have to echo John, his numbers are completely valid. What I see in my neighborhood are ZAP! Fed Ex delivery vehicles, and from what I see they are expanding their fleet shipments of the Zaptruck XLs. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ZAP-Expands-Fleet-iw-2918663454.html?x=0&.v=2
something to keep an eye on.
Tony
August 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
100 miles on one charge is probably not enough for a company and long to recharge…maybe in town delivery like grocery vendors…
August 6th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I’m sure John meant most of America is SUBurban, or even rural, though that’s not where most population and most work, trade, deliveries etc. occur.
However John Barry has a good point – upfront cost is important; 30-50% increase can be justified to offset operating cost within the depreciation time, but three-fold price isn’t doable for companies unless its for the advertising potential (hence the big-name first buyers)
The best use for hybrid work trucks is those that continue to operate their engines while standing still, such as trucks with hydraulic tools, boom lifts, power-take-offs, etc. When sitting still, these trucks are very inefficient, using their engines to run these small loads. This is where a hybrid can pay-off, allowing the batteries to drive the hydraulic pumps, etc. with the engine off.
Other good uses are in urban and suburban settings for start-stop deliveries, e.g. UPS and FedEx trucks, where frequent braking can recharge batteries, and top speeds are low for most operating time.
Years ago, contrary to popular belief, UPS found that turning-off engines at each stop saved fuel and engine life – You’ll notice all these drivers do this now. This is also a benefit of most hybrids, with the engine stopping and restarting as needed. This technology could be adapted to standard engines though, as well. Its this trickle-down, using the most appropriate technologies, that will have the most impact.
Keep looking for solutions, not problems!
August 6th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Before you jump on this one, take the example of California, they have encouraged people to buy plug in electric cars even though they have had to used rolling blackouts for the last several years to make up for the lack of electrical production. The lack of adequate power production is due to the fact that coal and oil have become evil, nuclear power is concidered too dangerous by many, wind power is killing bats and solar panels are too soar to the eye for the hard left. So now all of these people that have purchased these green cars that can’t go to work in the morning because their batteries are not charged are asking for goverment assistance to supplement their income… so what good is a commercial vehicle that won’t move? Maybe the goverment will just compensate companies for the lost production time?
August 6th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I’m wondering which California ‘Red Neck’ is referring to?
The California I’m familiar with (Left coast, just under Oregon and above Mexico) has yet to have any mass produced plug in cars available for purchase. There are a few ‘light use vehicles’ – basically glorified golf carts for use around town, gated communities and industrial complexes – but no real cars. Back in the late 90′s, GM and the other car companies produced a few electric vehicles (EVs), but none have been produced since. Oh, you can buy a Tesla, if you want a $100,000 sports car, that doesn’t really count. Plug in hybrids aren’t even available yet.
There haven’t been any rolling blackouts for a couple of years now. And they never happen at night, when most EVs are charged, since they are caused by our massive air conditioner use during hot, sunny summer days. And rolling blackouts only affect a given are for about 15 to 30 minutes, at a time, so they wouldn’t actually be a problem if you were charging your EV. The rolling blackouts were not caused by environmental concerns about power sources so much as by bottlenecks in the supply system. Environmental concerns aren’t even the main issue for new power plants here in California. The Not In My BackYard folks are the biggest obstacle. It seems nobody wants those nearby.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Well said Red Neck, everyone says electric is emission free far from the truth the power has to come from somewhere oil, coal, nuclear. if you factor in line loss, (the power that is lost when electricity is conveyed long distances) it is probably better for the enviroment to create the power where it will be used like a car or truck already does. We are well under way to “greening” our country to death!
August 7th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Well said Miss Brown. You know, there are businesses with covered parking that allow employees with plug-ins and sales/delivery vehicles to plug into the awning that is one giant solar panel. It’s this kind of thinking that will bring about the abundant use of electric cars and trucks in the inner cities and sub-urban sprawls.
And, like Pam says, most people who have a mind to own an electric car, most likely have solar and/or wind on their homes.
Didn’t Obama mention something about outlawing POA’s ability to disallow solar and/or wind in the residential sectors?
Once again, good comment post Miss Brown.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:01 am
How is a vehicle “green” if it uses electricity? What this administration totally misses is that the vast majority of our electricity is produced using fossil fuels and will be well into the future. An electric vehicle uses electricity, what’s so hard to understand about that? Electricity is produced using fossil fuel or nuclear power. Wind is gaining but not projected to be a major player for about another 50 years, so how is this vehicle helping? It is all a bunch of hype by an extreme administration that is using our tax dollars to further their agenda. What a shame!
August 7th, 2009 at 9:14 am
In California, most of the people that I know that have purchased an electric vehicle also have solar panels on their houses, enough to cover the electicity they use and charge their car. They also plug in, often, at night because they are at work during the day. The rolling blackout have always occured in the afternoon hours, during peak demand time periods. I’ve never met a person that owns one of these cars to not have the capability to charge them and have not heard of them asking for government assistance to supplement their income. Besides, the state has not encouraged people to buy electric vehicles and they are not readily available for purchase. GM had collected and destroyed the entire fleet of EV1′s several years ago much to the dismay of the people that were leasing the vehicles. Many offered to buy them, but GM wouldn’t sell. There is a documentary out about electric vehicles and how manufacturers of these cars stopped or slowed down production. Red Neck Granola, where did you get this information about California? Also, the “hard lefts” don’t have a problem with the way solar looks, it is the “hard rights”.
I don’t believe that we Californians think that oil and coal are evil, but it’s time we stop putting all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak. That’s what good mutual fund and stock investers do, it makes sense to apply the same idea to many aspects of our lives. Relying on one resource makes us vulnerable. And I don’t believe that electric vehicles are for everyonw with the current technology. However, quite a few of us commute less than 100 miles a day and this type of vehicle would be beneficial for us. It is very simple to plug it in at night to recharge. If you forget, that’s your problem. It’s not much worse for not filling up your tank and running out of gas. It’s a change of mind set more than anything. If we can adjust to Twitter, phone apps, and all of the electronic gadgets, we can deal with this.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Dave Kaufmann likes people yelling at him as he drives through La Cañada, Calif., the wealthy suburb north of Los Angeles where he lives. What they’re shouting about is his battery-powered electric vehicle, one of up to 30,000 estimated to hit the streets of Southern California in the next 36 months, the biggest expected e-car surge in the country… By some accounts, the next 10 years will see as many as 1.6 million electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles zipping around the state, in what is shaping up to be the nation’s e-car proving ground. But in the 1990s a similar optimism hit here too, only to fizzle as gas prices plummeted and gas-guzzling SUVs took over the auto market with a vengeance… While EV owners can charge the cars by plugging them into a regular 110-volt outlet, the “slow charge” can take up to eight hours and may jack up an electric bill the equivalent of 2 kilowatts per month. Most e-car owners will eventually want to plug in their faster, highway-approved EVs into new rapid-charging, 220-volt garage chargers. But that requires another step: finding a certified electrician and several thousand more dollars to install the add-on feature to the home or garage… To complicate matters more, an influx of 220-volt chargers on one block, even just two or three per a typical circuit (10 to 12 homes), could overwhelm the system, according to Craver… “Plug-in vehicles draw the equivalent of another house; the system can handle one per circuit, but two or three chargers on the same circuit could cause problems,” he says. “Too much of a load could end up causing neighborhood outages.” – Time Magazine
While the electric car revolution could provide a way to make better use of renewable energy sources, it also presents some big challenges. If lots of electric cars are being charged at the same time in a small community, they could overwhelm the system. For instance, more powerful transformers might be needed, Kjaer says.
Plugging in an electric car can be the equivalent of running up to six plasma television sets at once — a big energy drain. – USA Today
August 11th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Something companies are looking at is image. If electric vehicles are being supported as “greener” than fossil fuel vehicles, customers who want to support “green” are going to go with the “greener” company. This may help increase that company’s sales in turn helping offset the upfront cost of the vehicle. These $150,000.00 vehicles appear to fit better with the larger corporations as they have the capital to experiment with them. Unless the company that owns the electric vehicle is able to purchase or produce energy generated from air, water, or wind, there will be a carbon footprint for the fuel but much less than if that vehicle ran on fossil fuels. I hope a comprehensive battery recylcing program grows so that there is little waste when the batteries wear down.