Community Forums

bokobird · 03-15-2023, 10:15 PM

These guys figured it out...they even say in the video, the global truck manufacturing base is only capable of replacing 5% of the truck vehicles each year...think about how many decades to replace them all.

Why not just replace the engine/tranny of what's there? These guys did and it's real, in use, today.

Janus Electric Class 8

Unplanned Tourist · 03-16-2023, 09:16 AM

Interesting concept. It seems to be working for them in Australia.

Doing the battery pack exchange system makes a lot of sense.

DrivingDan · 03-16-2023, 02:35 PM

For fleets especially swapping power train makes sense for cost of maintenance and fueling, smaller shops and indies won’t as it’s upfront capital expenditure for them that is harder to amortize.

Trains are interesting and special. They’re already electric, but the key is down time - how fast can they do the swap as the engine is losing money while it sits. I think they’ve got the swap down to two months which is near acceptable. But again it depends if they’re willing to spend the capital now for amortization.

The IRA should have included incentives for power train swaps - I don’t know maybe it does.

Anyhow if I was well endowed (ahem) I’d buy a used diesel pusher and have it converted. The problem with conversions is the motor whine is annoyingly bad - the OEM’s get that problem licked in R&D. But in a electron pusher it might be easier to control that.

KenZ71 · 03-17-2023, 10:11 PM

I'll pass. I have an RV partly for the freedom it allows. I would hate to be tied to a charging pedestal.

Now if I could replace the Allison transmission with electric components but still use the Cummins X15 to provide power that might be interesting. In a ground up design could most likely have a smaller motor but still would be interesting.

ereck.po · 03-20-2023, 10:47 AM

here you go, Allison H 40 EP and H 50 EP with 280 and 330 additional electric HP and Regen.

https://www.allisontransmission.com/...ions/egen-flex

Just bring Money!! I'm sure the payback period in a RV would be somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100 years (read a really long time).

Solo_RV_Guy · 03-22-2023, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ereck.po

here you go, Allison H 40 EP and H 50 EP with 280 and 330 additional electric HP and Regen.

https://www.allisontransmission.com/...ions/egen-flex

Just bring Money!! I'm sure the payback period in a RV would be somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100 years (read a really long time).

Don't go changing to try and please me, don't change the color of your hair... (billy joel)

Makes no sense to change out an existing RV and I don't think that's being actively promoted. Payback ain't a thang.

Our kids and grandkids will be buying EV based RVs, though, and the swappable batteries may be part of that calculus.

brucemcdou · 03-23-2023, 05:23 PM

In addition to the many OEM manufacturers building brand new battery-electric Class 6, 7 and 8 trucks, Coach buses, school buses and transit buses, there are several companies that offer the conversion of existing trucks and buses to electric drive trains. The cost for an operator is of course way less to convert their existing fleet than buying brand new battery electric vehicles and they can just convert the vehicles that are already in their fleet in the same cycles as they would have done heavy maintenance, or at the point they would have sold them out of their fleet.

The payback period for delivery, drayage and other truck or bus operators is obviously pretty reasonable based on the lower cost of "fuel" as well as the reduced maintenance.

I think any discussion of the "payback period" for an RV is a red herring - none of us (OK, very few of us) buy an RV to earn money. Speaking for myself, we bought an RV (RVs) as a toy, just like a boat, private airplane, vacation home or condo, etc. I'm spending money to have fun/relax, so if I want to spend money to convert my noisy diesel engine/transmission to quiet and powerful electric I'll do it. Right now, I wouldn't because of the lack of DC fast chargers set up for big-rigs along the highways, but those are on the way as all the traditional truck stop companies are building them out for the electric semis and buses that are on the way. 3 or 4 years from now, a battery electric RV will be a viable option for many of us.