Much has been made about the introduction of electric vehicles. And quite a bit lately about the electric semi trucks. My two cents on this: Electric vehicles are coming, and there isn't anything anyone can do to stop it. That being said, I want to draw your attention to a video that popped up on my feed recently:
The Tesla cheerleaders quickly posted this all over the internet with claims showing how the electric vehicle just "blows the doors off" of it's diesel competition going up a 6% grade on Donners Pass by passing trucks at 15 miles an hour faster than they are traveling. Something about this video didn't sit right with me. It took me a few days to chew it out, and I finally put my finger on it. But first some backstory.
Everyone who has driven in the last few decades has been privy to this situation:
Two or more semi trucks having a drag race on the interstate. One doing 64.7 miles an hour and one doing 64.8 miles an hour. Running down the interstate for miles blocking all the lanes while one idiot tries desperately to assert his diesel dominance. And the slow ass accelerating trucks merging onto the interstate at half the speed limit, nearly causing collisions. My personal favorite is waiting at a stop light behind a semi, and it pulls away so damn slowly that you get stuck at the light for another cycle. There is a reason for all of this.
About 1990, engineers figured out how to efficiently electronically control internal combustion engines. (They started putting computers in your vehicles). Diesel engines were also included in this change. This allowed carriers, fleet owners, lease agents and insurance companies to govern and restrict the speed and power band of big trucks. Which was something they promptly started doing. There were, and are a lot of reasons given for this, most of them are complete bullshit, but some have a valid foundation. The most obvious one is simply money. By locking down the top speed and torque of a vehicle, it can dramatically improve its fuel economy. In the case of semi trucks, fuel economy went from 2-3 miles a gallon, up to as much as 8-10 MPG. And lets face it, in a day when fuel is four dollars a gallon, that kind of cost savings is astronomical.
Keeping in mind that technology is forever moving forward, the power efficiency of diesel engines has made staggering improvements over the last couple decades. So much so, that on average, just about every modern semi truck operating on the roads today is governed to operate at about 25% of its potential power band. Imagine trying to drive around in your car with a brick stuck under your gas pedal. This is so common, that in my 10 years of driving trucks, I can count on one hand the number of vehicles I've seen that were "ungoverned". And in all honesty, they were so powerful, that a couple were genuinely frightening to drive.
Now, lets revisit the video of the Tesla truck "blowing the doors off" the diesel trucks that are struggling to climb Donner Pass. Once you understand the technology of it, you start to realize that you are watching a race where all of the competitors except one have one leg tied behind their back. And to make it worse, by not clarifying the restrictions on the diesel vehicles, the media is essentially showing the entire race by shooting the competitors only from the waist up.
I will leave you with one final thought. Science measures the amount of energy it takes to accomplish a given piece of work in joules:
J = kg⋅m2⋅s−2
I will spare you the long version of this, but i can summarize it pretty simply: If you don't change the method of doing the work, (if you are still hauling the load with a truck) the amount of energy it takes to accomplish the task does not change. In other words, if takes 1000 joules worth of energy to move a loaded trailer up Donners Pass, it takes the diesel truck 1000 joules worth of energy and it also takes the electric vehicle 1000 joules worth of energy. Just keep that in mind when people start going on about how efficient electric vehicles are.
