How BMW is lowering its diesel truck CO2 emissions by 50%
How do you make a long-haul diesel truck emit 50% less CO2 without changing a single thing about it? Sounds like a riddle, right? A new pilot solution embraced by BMW Group Logistik and supplied by partner firm Trailer Dynamics here in Germany, though, can do just that. I spoke with Mo Koellner from BMW and Michael Nimtsch from Trailer Dynamics about this tech on a call earlier in the week.
As to the answer to the above riddle: This is a semi-truck trailer that has a massive battery pack (up to 600 kWh) installed in its floor, and that battery powers an electrically driven axle underneath the trailer. The solution isn’t conceptually novel; e-trailers, or electrified trailers, have been on the market in various forms for a number of years now (though the technology is still in a relative stage of infancy). The basic principle is simple, too. By adding a battery-electric driven power source to a diesel tractor-trailer, you reduce the fuel consumption of the diesel portion of the system. In other words, you’ve created a plug-in hybrid-electric big rig. Pretty straightforward, yeah?
What makes Trailer Dynamics’ solution cool is just how “plug and play” it is. In fact, the company says that its electric trailers can work with any truck they are physically capable of hitching to. No trailer-to-truck connection is utilized; the e-trailer operates totally independently. Trailer Dynamics says this makes its product unique* in the space, as most other e-trailer solutions require active communication with the connected truck to enable the electric-assisted drive. BMW is currently testing TD’s solution on its BMW Group Logistik fleet. (*US-based Range Energy also claims to work with basically any truck, and their solution seems quite similar to Trailer Dynamics. We covered them back in May. The biggest distinction I’ve seen is that Trailer Dynamics offers far larger batteries and is designed for use with European tractor-trailer configurations. BMW’s fuel consumption figures also seem to indicate TD’s solution may be more efficient, but it’s hard to know how apples-to-apples these numbers are given the pack size differences.)
The way TD achieves this is down to a proprietary sensor pack that lives in the kingpin of the trailer. There, a computer control model takes input from the sensors (used to monitor various forces on the kingpin) and converts that data into a decision about when and how much power to apply to the electric motors in the axle. The logic of the system takes into account the sort of things you’d expect. For example, if the trailer knows the truck is currently stopped and is beginning a start — when large trucks tend to make use of their fuel most inefficiently — it will apply very substantial power to get the truck rolling. The result is a huge reduction in the amount of diesel used. Similarly, if the system detects the truck is going uphill, electric assist will be applied generously to minimize the effects of an otherwise high fuel consumption situation. According to TD’s website, factors like weather conditions, route topography, and traffic can also be considered, though it was less clear to me how these play in to when the trailer applies power. The system can also be configured to disable itself if the battery capacity reaches a predefined cutoff point (important, as fleet operators ideally want a minimum level of charge guaranteed at any moment).
The system itself is, by the standards of passenger electric vehicles, some very heavy-duty stuff. Battery packs of either 400 kWh or 600 kWh are employed (a 200 kWh unit is coming later), with the 600 kWh configuration being the most desirable among TD’s prospective customers. That’s because the economics of efficiency apparently pay off best for longer routes, where a larger battery is going to be necessary. The electric motor unit outputs up to 580 kW (777 hp), which is impressive, but it’s the insane 13,000 nm of torque that’s doing the heavy lifting (literally). Charging is also pretty damn quick, with the 800V architecture supporting 44 kW AC and up to 350 kW DC fast charging. The supersized figures here make sense when you consider the weights at play — BMW is testing TD’s trailers with a payload of 16 metric tonnes, or over 35,000 pounds. (Specifically, BMW has been using them to haul electric drive units for its passenger cars.)
As for the end efficiency, BMW is seeing fuel consumption lowered by nearly 50% on some of the long-haul routes it’s testing, meaning emissions on those routes are cut in half. Even on shorter routes, the figure is in excess of 45% fuel savings. Because BMW is using 100% carbon-neutral sources to recharge the trailer batteries, it estimates that each e-trailer could cut up to 120 tonnes of CO2 emissions from its fleet each year. For comparison, assuming a “typical” ICE car emits around 5 tonnes of CO2 annually, each trailer optimally utilized is like taking 60 cars off the road. All that is to say: It’s hard to overstate how much fuel a real big truck uses.
BMW has also been testing TD’s trailers with electric trucks, where the system effectively acts as a range extender. Depending on the specific truck, payload, and route, BMW says the range of an electric truck could be extended by a factor of 2-3x, opening up entirely new scenarios for the use of BEV tractor units. In one test, BMW used an unspecified Volvo e-truck in combination with a TD mega trailer to go over 600 km (373 miles) without recharging.
In a perfect world, diesel trucks would be replaced with electric ones wholesale. But in reality, the design principle of trucks as long-life assets means that ICE trucking will stick around a fair bit longer than combustion passenger cars. If we can reach a point where e-trailer systems like Trailer Dynamics’ are minimizing trucking fuel consumption at scale, though, we can still have a real net-positive impact on emissions while that transition occurs. And because this kind of system benefits both ICE and EV tractors (arguably, the latter even more so), this is a scenario where the hybrid step-transition makes much more sense. There’s nothing redundant being engineered here for the sake of ICE trucks; these trailers will retain their usefulness in the age of BEV trucking.
For BMW, the EV trucking side of the equation has an added bonus — the low-liner “mega trailer” configuration it uses for a large amount of its transport fleet greatly limits the range of available EV truck options. Using TD’s mega trailer solution as a range extender is thus an excellent way to work around that challenge. (Mega trailers are a high-capacity trailer class specifically developed for use in the EU, where they remain extremely popular. These space-maximized trailers require a particular class of truck chassis with a very low deck floor for towing, and that leaves very little room for a battery.)
As for the challenges of stuffing a massive battery in the bottom of an already super-heavy-laden trailer? They’re not nonexistent. According to BMW, TD’s solutions are best for shipping in “cubed out” configurations — that is, utilizing the maximum volume of a container, not its maximum weight. And sure, the battery cannibalizes some of the available space for cargo. But, over time and with the evolution and refinement of the system (weight reduction is one of TD’s immediate goals), greater and greater payloads will become feasible. Human behavior is another big factor to consider. Suppose a tractor operator is still driving like a leadfoot. In that case, it’s possible to mitigate a fair bit of the system’s fuel savings (BMW saw fuel consumption variability of up to 20% during testing based on driver). On the economics, BMW believes that e-trailers will significantly lower fleet operating costs, offsetting initially higher acquisition costs for the equipment.
Down the road, TD suggests it could also start using its tech to assist in the on-road safety of tractor-trailers, applying power or engine braking force for stability management (for example, if a truck is in danger of jackknifing). Right now, the company is just getting started, and currently has seven trailers in operation (an eighth was just delivered).
While cleaning up our passenger cars will have a real effect on global CO2 emissions, the impact of trucking transport is something we should all be considering, too. According to data from the IEA, road freight accounts for 30% of all global transportation emissions, making it the second-largest contributor behind passenger vehicles — and by a wide margin. (For comparison, all air and sea transit contribute just above 10% of global emissions each. Rail sits at a measly 1%.)
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will remove “safety monitors” from the passenger seats of Tesla’s Robotaxi vehicles in “about three weeks,” which would mean we’d see completely driverless Teslas in the Austin area potentially by the end of the year – if that timeline sticks.
Tesla has been working on a system that would allow vehicles to drive themselves, which has been in “beta” release for over a decade now. It calls this system “Full Self-Driving,” despite the fact that the system does not currently drive itself.
That has not stopped Musk from consistently promising more and more of the system, despite its stagnating capabilities. Over the course of the last decade, Musk has consistently promised driverless vehicles within the coming year, with deadlines consistently passing by without achieving that goal.
One of those promises has been the creation of a driverless taxi network, which Tesla used to call “Tesla Network” and is now calling “Robotaxi.” The idea originally came with the promise that owners could use their cars to make money by running them as taxis, but that hasn’t panned out.
Tesla did roll out its own version of a taxi network, though, in Austin, in June of this year. While it’s done a few cool things, the cars each have a “safety monitor” in the passenger seat who can take control at any time, which means the cars aren’t truly “driverless” since there is an operator, they’ve just been moved to the passenger seat.
In the time since Robotaxi’s rollout, it’s made quite a few mistakes and had a high crash rate. But Tesla also delivered one fully unoccupied vehicle from the factory to a local buyer, which was a cool (and, as yet, still unique) stunt.
Throughout the year, Musk has claimed loudly that the system would improve rapidly, stating that by the end of the year Robotaxis would be available to half of the US population (they are not) and that Tesla’s fleet would grow by more than 10x by the end of the year (it has not).
But now we have another bold prediction from Musk, stating that the safety monitors will be out of a job by the end of the year.
During a videoconference at a hackathon event for xAI, one of Musk’s other companies (which he is trying to get Tesla shareholders to bail out), Musk was asked a question about the barriers to unsupervised full self-driving. Musk answered:
Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. There will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them, not even anyone in the passenger seat, in about three weeks. I think it’s pretty much a solved problem, we’re just going through validation right now.
The “three weeks” timeline is familiar to longtime Tesla followers. Over the years, Musk has often promised fixes or software updates in “two weeks,” and they often take longer than that.
Three weeks is a lot closer than the “next year” promise that we’ve heard so many times for full autonomy, but given its proximity to the oft-inaccurate two-week timeline, we’re not sure these vehicles will actually be ready in time for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Nevertheless, it’s a closer timeline than Musk has usually given, so there may be truly driverless Teslas operating sometime soon™.
Also, reading the statement more closely, it sounds like they won’t necessarily remove safety operators from every vehicle, but some vehicles. This could be similar to the singular driverless vehicle delivery that Tesla did – a PR stunt, rather than a full rollout. We’ll have to wait and see.
Tesla’s main competitor in the robotaxi space is Waymo, which has been operating truly driverless vehicles for several years now. The company has also been operating autonomous, driverless vehicles in Austin since March of this year.
Musk went on to talk about future improvements to Tesla’s software and hardware in his answer.
The company is currently on hardware previously deemed HW4, though to cash in on the AI stock market bubble, it now refers to that system as AI4. He said that AI5 will be 10-40 times better than HW4 and go into volume production in 2027, with AI6 coming soon after.
Musk’s mention of future hardware improvements neglects one important aspect of these improvements, which is that for every hardware improvement Tesla puts into its fleet, the more vehicles it will have to upgrade later.
Tesla long promised that its vehicles had all the hardware for self-driving, which means it’s going to have to upgrade a lot of cars – and there are court cases around the world seeking to force the company to do so. Together, these lawsuits and other potential challenges could mean billions of dollars in liabilities for the company.
Musk then closed his statements by claiming that “our” goal is to “to understand the meaning of life and… propagate consciousness out to the stars,” which is not Tesla’s goal. Tesla’s actual goal is to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. He may have been referring to xAI’s goal, but given the answer was about Tesla, perhaps he was confused (or perhaps he doesn’t care about Tesla anymore, and isn’t a good CEO for the company as a result…)
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VW’s retro-tastic minivan hasn’t been the sales success the company might have wanted, and a lot of that has to do with the van’s sky high price tag. Now, VW is asking: will a $10,000 discount be enough to create some buzz for the ID.Buzz?
Volkswagen is offering $7,500 in Retail Customer Bonus cash this month – up from the $2,500 the company offered its Black Friday customers – that, along with an additional $2,500 unadvertised dealer cash incentive that CarsDirect is reporting absolutely, definitely exists, adds up to a stout $10,000 total discount on the all-electric VW ID.Buzz … and that’s before you start haggling with your dealer over the MSRP.
It’s a lot
As much as I like the the Volkswagen ID.Buzz, its starting MSRP around $61,545 (incl. destination) puts it at nearly twice what you’d probably expect a minivan to cost if the last time you shopped for one was at a Dodge store. Still, that hefty price tag is some $20,000 higher than the baseline Toyota Sienna hybrid or Honda Odyssey.
That 50% higher price is a lot to swallow even if you do buy into the nostalgia. Still, the ID.Buzz is capable enough, and with ~230 miles of range and 282 hp on offer from its battery/electric motor combo – plus Supercharger access – it’s at least able to keep up with the minivan competition.
So, while that $10,000 discount isn’t going to turn the ID.Buzz into the second coming of the affordable, family-hauling Caravan, it does bring VW’s electric people-mover a little closer to earth. In fact, with a $50K price tag, it’s right in line with the average transaction price of a new vehicles. So, if nothing else, that reduced price could finally gives electric minivan buyers something to buzz about (I tried so hard to work that in, you guys).
If you’ve been shopping for a family-hauler and dig the retro vibe over something like the (excellent) Kia EV9, click through the link below and set up a test drive at your local VW dealer.
SOURCE: CarsDirect; images via VW.
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Peterbilt has jumped into the MD truck ring with the launch three new medium-duty electric trucks that deliver zero-emissions power, ultra-fast 350 kW charging, and proven, versatile platforms for delivery, utility service, and vocational upfitting.
The new Peterbilt 536EV, 537EV, and 548EV medium-duty trucks slot into the same versatile medium-duty segments the company’s fleets already know, but swap diesel power for latest PACCAR ePowertrain, with up to 605 hp and 1,850 lb-ft of torque available at 0 rpm. That big motor draws power from a variety of LFP battery packs and be fitted with ePTO options rated for either 25 kW (two-battery option) or 150 kW (three-battery option), making them suitable for that can be sized for daily delivery routes, urban utility work, and municipal fleets looking to cut both emissions and maintenance costs.
What’s more, the new Peterbilt’s flexible architecture allows for integration with existing PACCAR suspension bits to make 4×2 and 6×4 configurations, and any wheelbase of 163 inches or longer, and up to 82,000 lbs. gross combined weight ratings possible.
“[The new trucks are] optimized for the demands of the medium duty segment, the next generation of Peterbilt electric vehicles deliver excellent efficiency, rapid charging and versatile configurations elevating customer productivity across a wide range of applications,” said Erik Johnson, Peterbilt assistant general manager, Sales & Marketing.
In addition to all those goodies, the PACCAR EV tech continues to be top-notch, with the previously-mentioned 350 kW charging, regenerative braking, and industry-leading ergonomics.
Peterbilt’s new MDEVs ship with a blue accented crown and grille for a distinctive exterior look, as well as EV-exclusive panels on the side of the hood. The interior design features laser-etched trim panels on the EV-exclusive Magneto Gray interior, just in case the driver in the quiet, smooth, and stink-free cabin forgets they’re in an electric truck.
Electrek’s Take
Ignore the headlines. The death of the commercial EV market simply hasn’t happened, and won’t happen any time soon.
If you believe the engineers and analysts at MAN Trucks and Orange EV (and, you should), an EV like this can pay for itself in reduced fuel and maintenance costs even without incentives, then you should already know what I’m about to say: the future of trucking is 100% electric.
SOURCE | IMAGES: PACCAR.
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