Pure electric beating out hybrids in UK commercial vehicle market
Writers for Newspress are at the Commercial Vehicle show in the UK and their overall impression of the CV market is "Battery electrics today – hybrids tomorrow." That might seem backward to people familiar with the passenger vehicle market what hybrids dominate over the pure-EV market, but that's how they see it.
Their logic is easy to follow: there are no hybrid CVs available on the UK market, but companies like Smith Electric Vehicles of Tyne and Wear, were displaying a "new generation of battery-electrics comprising repowered versions of established diesel-engined models, notably Ford Transit vans and chassis-cabs at 3.5 tonnes gvw and the Avia chassis-cab (dubbed the Newton by SEV) at 7.5 and 9 tonnes." In the UK, hybrid CVs are in the prototype stage and the EVs are already on the streets (see, for example, this post).
One big push for these clean trucks is the planned Low Emission Zone (LEZ) restrictions in London. Smith Electric Vehicles use Zebra sodium nickel chloride batteries instead of lead-acid type batteries. Newspress learned that these power packs are about 80 percent lighter than lead-acid units with the same energy storage and deliver more performance.
[Source: Newspress]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TG 2:25AM (4/27/2007)
Link requires a repair.
Otherwise the writing is great and enjoyable.= TG
Reply
Howard Lee Harkness 11:41AM (4/27/2007)
If you need short-range low-cost low-maintenance transportation, EV is likely to beat PHEV from now on. PHEV is going to be more expensive and more complex than EV for short-range vehicles. And it looks to me very much like battery tech may improve quickly to the point where range is no longer an issue.
I've been a biodiesel fan from the first time I read about it, and I still think that it is far superior to any other liquid fuel currently available. But I think straight EV has the potential of filling over 90% of ground transport and commuter needs. Especially if photovoltaics continue to improve at their current rapid pace.
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Sebastian Blanco 1:56PM (4/28/2007)
TG,
Link has been fixed.
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