Recently in Electric trucks Category

Not (as you might think) a truck that's just been given a zero defect pass on a driver's daily checklist... Or indeed one that's just been strafed by a Mitsubishi A6M5 Type 0 Model 52 (one for all the WWII fighter plane buffs) but a rather nice little all-electric light truck that Biglorryblog drove around Hatfield today... And click through here for the full story!

It is with great pleasure and due modesty that Biglorryblog can bring you the exclusive scoop news that following demands from kiddies (and harrassed parents) for ever-more desirable gifts inside their Surprise Eggs, Kinder has now developed a GIANT surprise egg and is putting a free Iveco Electric Daily inside every one of them! Talk about a winner! And to prove it here's a spy-shot of the very first prototype units being tested in Brazil! Now click through here for more...

Prius? We don' need no steenkeeng Prius!

This video of a 300-tonne diesel-electric Euclid-Hitachi dumper with 'trolley assist' was sent in by BLB regular Dave Webster, who says:

Going uphill the truck hooks into the main grid and gets a boost uphill and coming down it hooks into the grid and through regen braking puts electricity back into the grid. Check the tone of the turbos when the grid kicks in.

Here's the spec sheet of the 255-tonne payload Euclid-Hitachi EH4500 hauler, which has a 2,700hp Cummins or Detroit Diesel engine and Siemens/Euclid AC electric drive - with trolley assist the traction power can be more or less doubled, increasing the speed uphill by as much as 80%. Incidentally, Hitachi has formally dropped the Euclid name, although it still appears in descriptions of components. Now click through here for a roll-out shot of the R210 gas-turbine powered dump truck....

He hasn't been in office long, but already President Barack Obama is clearly keen to be green. And here he is with Edison International CEO Ted Craver touring the company's Electric Vehicle Technical Center in Pomona, California---a facility in the electric utility industry that, so Biglorryblog is told, 'is accelerating the development of emerging electric vehicle and advanced battery technologies.' Edison operates the largest private fleet of electric vehicles in the nation, having driven more than 17 million miles on electric power. (And I'm grateful to Business Wire for the photo.)

Meanwhile, in case you were wondering about the vehicle they were looking at it was this 'plug-in' F-550 hybrid truck, the first of five "boom and bucket" pickups based on the F-550 chassis that will be provided by Eaton (who developed the hybrid system), EPRI and Ford to public and private utility fleets in the United States for use and evaluation.

Another world first on Biglorryblog! Well actually it's a 'world first' for Smith Electric Vehicles----at least that's what they're claiming only this time, it's for "...the largest electric truck with a tipper body ever produced in the world!"

Apparently this Smith Newton 7.5-tonner, based on an Avia chassis is being used by Balfour Beatty who is deploying it around the Houses of Parliament in London. The 7.5-tonner has a 120kW electric motor powered by an 84kW battery pack and it's capable of 50mph and 100+ miles on one battery charge.  The ultra-lightweight aluminium tipper body gives it a payload of 2,400kg---which is well on a par with the conventional diesel tippers that Balfour Beatty normally runs. 

Meanwhile, Smith Electric Vehicles says it will be "Launching production of a full range of commercial electric vehicles for North America later this year."

But the question on BLB's lips is: "Is this REALLY the largest electric truck with a tipper body ever produced in the world? " Were it not for the fact that they use diesel-electric drivelines I'd suggest the Liebherr T282R 600-tonner was just a little bit bigger when it comes to 'electric' tippers...

 

 What thinkest thou O Biglorrybloggers...?