# Electric hwy for trucks **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [May 8, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964 "2019-05-08T03:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marnet](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/marnet/32/41_2.png) [@Marnet](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Marnet)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/1 "2019-05-08T03:48:37Z")
> **[Germany is opening its first electric highway for trucks](https://fox2now.com/2019/05/07/germany-is-opening-its-first-electric-highway-for-trucks/)** > > Trucks are guzzling ever more diesel, polluting towns and cities and fueling climate change. Germany thinks it may have found the answer by using overhead lines to power big rigs. > > A system that allows trucks to draw electric power from overhead... Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![old\_mopar\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/6bbea6/32.png) [@old\_mopar\_guy](https://community.cartalk.com/u/old_mopar_guy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 4:01am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/2 "2019-05-08T04:01:42Z")
Railroads have been doing this since the 1930’s ---
**Author:** ![Honda-Blackbird](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/honda-blackbird/32/3159_2.png) [@Honda-Blackbird](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Honda-Blackbird)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:21pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/3 "2019-05-08T12:21:26Z")
Perhaps they aren’t familiar with a company called “Tesla” ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:22pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/4 "2019-05-08T12:22:22Z")
What a HUGE eyesore and infrastructure install issue. And as @old_mopar_guy points out… seriously “old school” solution. I was born in a city that STILL uses electric buses powered by overhead electrics. It really stifles the choice of routes. They investigated add-on batteries to improve flexibility in the 1960’s. Didn’t pan out because the batteries couldn’t provide much range. Not the problem today. ---
**Author:** ![chunkyazian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@chunkyazian](https://community.cartalk.com/u/chunkyazian)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/5 "2019-05-08T13:22:50Z")
Trucks weight are limited by law. For every pound of battery you’re carrying, that’s a pound of goods you must leave behind. Also, every time you use regenerative braking, you’re contributing to the deterioration of the battery. Overhead lines can take the energy back from the braking to power another truck ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/6 "2019-05-08T13:40:37Z")
> [@chunkyazian](#): > > Also, every time you use regenerative braking, you’re contributing to the deterioration of the battery. Broadly true but what point are you making? Every action, discharge, re-gen or re-charge contributes to the deterioration of the battery. In practice, the life of the battery hasn’t been an issue a it’s life beyond 10 years on well engineered systems. ---
**Author:** ![Noelm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Noelm](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Noelm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/7 "2019-05-08T15:41:50Z")
Stockholm has been experimenting it for while. They installed the lines in the roads. ---
**Author:** ![chunkyazian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@chunkyazian](https://community.cartalk.com/u/chunkyazian)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/8 "2019-05-08T16:03:21Z")
I think Tesla bought a supercapacitor company because they want regenerative brake to charge the capacitors rather than the battery. I don’t know if this move has anything to do with extending battery life ---
**Author:** ![TwinTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TwinTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TwinTurbo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/9 "2019-05-08T16:10:24Z")
They will eventually replace the battery. The charge times for a capacitor are orders of magnitude faster than a conventional battery. You’d have a full charge in 10 minutes for example. We are already using capacitors in place of batteries in our electronics at work. Newer technologies promise greater storage capacity with smaller footprint and higher energy transfer rates… ---
**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/10 "2019-05-08T17:19:17Z")
> [@chunkyazian](#): > > Tesla bought a supercapacitor company because they want regenerative brake to charge the capacitors Probably but re-gen into Li-ion batteries is nearly as efficient as into a supercap. But, yes, supercaps can accept more energy in a short time and deliver it back in a shorter time than any current (pun intended!) batteries. ---
**Author:** ![Purebred](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/purebred/32/46796_2.png) [@Purebred](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Purebred)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/11 "2019-05-08T18:43:05Z")
![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/original/2X/5/5363ff877ca2a44d84ccbe5d41721e74627a395e.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![oldtimer-11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e79b87/32.png) [@oldtimer-11](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldtimer-11)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 3:46am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/12 "2019-05-09T03:46:15Z")
Since the 1930s??? The Buffalo History Museum has a 1901 film of President McKinley’s Funeral and in the film Electric Trolleys are seen discharging passengers. When Buffal first got its new light rail repid transit I was curious and went down to see the cars before they were running, I just laughed. They look like trolley cars to me, they run on rails and take ekectric lines overhead just like McKinley’s day. I got curious again and looked it up, the first two electric streetcar lines in Buffalo opened in 1881 and by McKinley’s time there were 20. ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/13 "2019-05-09T12:20:02Z")
What a great idea. When you compare light rail to diesel trains, light rail is quieter and cleaner, so why _not_ integrate it into over-the-road trucking? Light rail is also safer than heavy rail. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/14 "2019-05-09T20:09:14Z")
How do we fund light rail freight? We have trouble finding money for desperately needed for existing infrastructure improvements. I’d rather have water, sewer, and electrical grid updates than a new, extensive, and exceptionally expensive light rail system. It would be great if we could afford all of them, but we can’t afford much of anything these days. ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/15 "2019-05-09T20:59:36Z")
> [@jtsanders](#): > > How do we fund light rail freight? Why would we have to fund any fuel system for commercial trucks? Let the people who pay for the current fuel systems pay for it. It’s in their interest to increase efficiency. Even with a coal-friendly government, industry is moving from coal to renewable energy. Given the opportunity, the American trucking industry might want to do something similar. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/16 "2019-05-09T23:26:49Z")
> [@Whitey](#): > > Why would we have to fund any fuel system for commercial trucks? Because no trucking company is large enough to afford this. It seems like creating another public highway system. How can they afford to buy the land, lay the track, then buy the light rail cars to move the goods? Maybe something like this might eventually make sense, but the public highway system was designed to allow cross-country movement of freight, and it seems to be working. There’s a lot of pollution now, but I don’t see that changing with electrified light rail for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/17 "2019-05-10T02:52:12Z")
I only brought up light rail as an example of this kind of power delivery. In the original post there are no tracks, just overhead power delivery on highways. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 7:57pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/18 "2019-05-10T19:57:33Z")
OK. Overhead electric power delivery is still quite expensive. ---
**Author:** ![oldtimer-11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e79b87/32.png) [@oldtimer-11](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldtimer-11)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/electric-hwy-for-trucks/139964/19 "2019-05-12T06:47:04Z")
This infrastructure could ONLY be built by government. No trucking company could afford to build the roads they drive on now. They help pay for roads now by fuel taxes, ton mileage taxes and tolls. Electric overhead power sources would have to be paid for by user fees, either by electric usage or road tolls. The thought of trucking companies funding capital projects is ludicrous. Ever since trucking deregulation around 1980, profit margins in trucking have been almost nonexistent. I worked for 32 different trucking companies in my career and only one of them is still in business. I got very adept in filing claims for wages in bankruptcy court, not that is was very profitable. I had one $13,000 claim that took 12 years to settle and I got $240. They lawyers just keep churning the paperwork until there is almost no money left.