We all know that there’s a shortage of darn near everything in the trucking and service truck industry.
We can’t seem to get enough rubber or workers to manufacture tires. Iron ore for steel. Materials for brakes. Bodies andchassis’ for trucks, and even semiconductors chips that manage and control the flow of current in electronic devices and equipment. Heck, we’re even running out of dinosaurs for fuel—unless someone wants to Jurassic Park-up some new ones.
We have seen some service truck fleets move to propane—Canvec comes to mind-while more than a few transport truck fleets electrify.
Although battery shortcomings currently prevent the long-haul electric trucking experience from becoming the de facto industry standard, so too does the lack of electric “fuel” station infrastructure, and the length of time it takes for a battery to charge.
And that’s just for cars… how long will it take a truck to recharge? A battery could recharge when the driver is resting, as long as it can still provide enough mileage when a driver is supposed to be driving. Will this delay delivery times?
How prepared are the States and Prov- inces for the extra burden a more electrified world of trucking and personal vehicles will place on aging electrical networks?
In February of 2021, Texas froze after its power grid failed when two days of snow- fall and single-digit temperatures caused residents to turn up the heat. That simple act of survival overloaded the Texas power grid and plunged nearly three million Tex- ans into 36-plus hours of no heat and no electricity.
Currently, plans have been instituted by the Federal government with funding to the States to begin infrastructure construc- tion of a network of electric service stations to charge vehicles.
I applaud the initiative because we are running out of dinosaur goo.
So creating electric vehicles, like we once had back at the turn of the 20th century over 100 years ago, is seen as a viable alternative.
If we were smart, we’d have the nuclear fusion-generated flying vehicles as predict- ed in the 1985 movie, Back to the Future, which incorrectly stated we would already have commercial use of such vehicles by the year 2015. However, we still have until 2062 to prove The Jetsons’ dream of flying vehicles correct.
At the beginning of the summer of 2022, Texas saw a heatwave causing temperatures to hit over 100 degrees. It caused residents to flip on the AC unit, which caused a surge in electricity demand. The state had to beg people to go easy on the power usage for fear of overwhelming the electrical grid.
In nearby Arizona, it had a water short- age in 2021—the result of a change in climate that brought about drought and heatwave. It has plunged the water levels of both Lake Mead and that huge water source of the Colorado River that brings 36 percent of Arizona’s water. It’s ongoing.
According to 2021 data, some 99 per- cent of Arizona’s electrical net generation comes from six sources: natural gas (43%); nuclear power (28%); coal (13%); solar energy (9%); hydroelectric power (5%): and wind (1%), with hydroelectric pumped storage, petroleum, and biomass supplying the rest.
While not a huge amount of electricity is generated by hydroelectric options, should Arizona eventually electrify its road- ways—will there be enough juice to avoid brownouts/blackouts? FYI, a brownout is a partial outage, while a blackout is a complete shutdown of electricity.
But is my concern much ado about nothing? Perhaps.
It is expected that when the US eventually gets up to 80 percent of its vehicles electrified, it will only cause an additional 10 to 15 percent increase in electricity consumption, according to Jerry, a vehicle insurance company.
Jerry noted that yes, electric vehicles are more fuel efficient than liquid fuel inter- nal combustion vehicles—otherwise, there would be no push for electric vehicles et al.
I agree that while current battery technology is lacking the vehicle mileage we want and need before requiring a recharge, it’s coming.
Just remember: from the time the Wright Brothers—those wonderful bicycle manufacturers—built their Wright Flyer aeroplane without wheels in 1903 for the first-ever machine-led flight, it only took 66 years for us to land people on the Moon via Apollo 11 in 1969. Time flies, as do technological advances. Electric vehicle batteries will improve in range capacity.
And then there’s “smart charging” technology, where the electric vehicle battery is linked to a charging device. It identifieswhen during the day electrical consumption is the highest and prepares for it by “pulling power” from the grid during lull times and holding it in reserve. The idea behind this “smart charging” is for vehicle owners to avoid charging delays when the electrical power grid is the most active IE under the most stress.
It is expected—or hoped—that smart charging will reduce the possibility of brown/blackouts from too many electric vehicles charging up at the same time.
For truck fleets, some have opted to get themselves ahead of the curve and electrify, while others are choosing the wait-and-see approach, like the US Postal Service. It’s okay. There is no wrong answer, at least not as of 2022.
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2022 issue of Service Truck Magazine.
