Electric trucks.

[Chippy_Tea]

Finally a solution to trucks being powered by electric.

 

[Irishwizard]

It will never happen Chipster. Your going to tell the world that trams are making a comeback next.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

It will never happen Chipster. Your going to tell the world that trams are making a comeback next.

Well they need to find a solution for wagons they all use diesel do 5mpg and there are so many of them its pointless trying to get the rest of us into electric cars and do nothing with trucks, they cannot really use batteries as the weight would mean their carrying capacity would be massively reduced they cannot run all day without charging and they cannot afford time for drivers to charge them as they are already driving the maximum hours they are allowed this would be the perfect solution especially for motorways.

 

[Clint]

The future is hydrogen.

 

[Donegal john]

The future is hydrogen.

Just heard on the radio today Northern Ireland has 2 hydrogen powered busses and Ireland’s first hydrogen refuelling station. Then again the busses would be pointless without the refuelling

 

[Nicks90]

Yep. Heavy haulage and plant machinery needs to go hydrogen combustion engine, everything else should be hydrogen fuel cells or pure ev

 

[Donegal john]

https://www.irishnews.com/business/...gen-refuelling-station-for-translink-2373072/

 

[Alastair70]

Well they need to find a solution for wagons they all use diesel do 5mpg and there are so many of them its pointless trying to get the rest of us into electric cars and do nothing with trucks, they cannot really use batteries as the weight would mean their carrying capacity would be massively reduced they cannot run all day without charging and they cannot afford time for drivers to charge them as they are already driving the maximum hours they are allowed this would be the perfect solution especially for motorways.

That may be, but cars and vans accounted for 278 and 55 billion vehicle miles (bvm) respectively in 2019. Lorries accounted for a total of 17.4 bvm. (Department of Transport data from .gov.uk)
So don’t worry about the lorries for now. We already have a functioning technology to deal with cars and vans. Hydrogen will be awesome when it becomes commercial feasible, just like nuclear fusion.

 

[Nicks90]

Hydrogen will be awesome when it becomes commercial feasible, just like nuclear fusion.

Ohhh yes. That's the nirvana. Get fusion to work and you can have pretty much limitless clean energy to convert water in to hydrogen fuel.
Want your 5.2l V8 rip snorter that does 8mpg on a good day? Why not, it's running on hydrogen and produces water. Guilt free motoring.

 

[Clint]

First heavy industry to go hydrogen will be where the money is to get interest and followers...steel I recon. Once its realised money can be made it'll be a bun fight..
I wonder what they'll do with all that coal they could still mine?

 

[Clint]

Ohhh yes. That's the nirvana. Get fusion to work and you can have pretty much limitless clean energy to convert water in to hydrogen fuel.
Want your 5.2l V8 rip snorter that does 8mpg on a good day? Why not, it's running on hydrogen and produces water. Guilt free motoring.

I believe the machinery is under production to harvest the hydrogen already.

 

[Irishwizard]

Hydrogen driven trains are on trial at the moment in Scotland. Its probably easier to make hydrogen in scotland with a lot of excess wind powered leccy.
Personally, I think we should just drill some bloody big holes into the Earths core - problem sorted. Alternatively put a dome over the House of Commons and harvest all the hot air

 

[TonyT]

Well they need to find a solution for wagons they all use diesel do 5mpg and there are so many of them its pointless trying to get the rest of us into electric cars and do nothing with trucks, they cannot really use batteries as the weight would mean their carrying capacity would be massively reduced they cannot run all day without charging and they cannot afford time for drivers to charge them as they are already driving the maximum hours they are allowed this would be the perfect solution especially for motorways.

They could always try something revolutionary and invest more on the railways. Up until about 50 years ago, most freight was shifted by rail and had been for over a hundred years. It wouldn’t be cheap or quick because most of the infrastructure has gone but once it was in place again it would be there for the long term, and with modern containers it would also be simpler. And we’d all benefit from fewer trucks on the road.

 

[jof]

I wonder what they'll do with all that coal they could still mine?

I am surprised we don't have a working "heritage" coal mine.
Not just a museum to show people what it was like, but a working mine to supply the heritage steam railways & traction engines that are scattered around & require Welsh steam coal rather than imported dirty brown coal to run on.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Put more freight back on the railways. Any distribution centre should have a rail link. Obviously rail would need to be all electric so convert all rail to electric.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

That may be, but cars and vans accounted for 278 and 55 billion vehicle miles (bvm) respectively in 2019. Lorries accounted for a total of 17.4 bvm. (Department of Transport data from .gov.uk)
So don’t worry about the lorries for now. We already have a functioning technology to deal with cars and vans. Hydrogen will be awesome when it becomes commercial feasible, just like nuclear fusion.

Small engine petrol cars with turbos and diesel cars using AdBlue produce low emissions and do 50mpg plus, trucks run on diesel do 5 mpg and only recently started to use AdBlue so there are millions of trucks out there with hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock driving 8 hours every day 7 days a week compared to the majority of cars that travel a few miles to work then park up all day or sit outside our houses for days on end when we don't use them, few cars drive all day every day.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Put more freight back on the railways. Any distribution centre should have a rail link. Obviously rail would need to be all electric so convert all rail to electric.

They tried here a few years ago as we have the shipyard and a few huge factories here it didn't work trains were often late or didn't turn up so drivers sat waiting in trucks not knowing when they would be able to move it used to work backin the day when rail was nationalised but i doubt it will ever work when run by its private companies.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

BMW made a hydrogen car 14 years ago and they have been working on it for 30 years and we are still seeing people talk about hydrogen being the thing that will supersede electric well they have had 14 years to develop it and nothing has happened.

 

[Alastair70]

Small engine petrol cars with turbos and diesel cars using AdBlue produce low emissions and do 50mpg plus, trucks run on diesel do 5 mpg and only recently started to use AdBlue so there are millions of trucks out there with hundreds of thousands of miles on the clock driving 8 hours every day 7 days a week compared to the majority of cars that travel a few miles to work then park up all day or sit outside our houses for days on end when we don't use them, few cars drive all day every day.

I don’t think your right. By the Department of Transports own figures, articulated lorries do less than 1/20 of total road miles and average 8mpg. The average mpg for all ICE cars is just under 39. So sorting out cars and vans has the potential to take away over 70% of road based CO2 emissions.

 

[Irishwizard]

Sidings at Southampton been re jigged to take longer freight trains. Also look up "Tesco Train"