There are several new energy heavy truck power modes
With the increasing emphasis on environmental protection in recent years, heavy diesel vehicles have gradually become the focus of relevant departments. The new energy of vehicle driving force has become a trend, and many heavy truck brands have begun to enter the field of new energy.
According to relevant statistics, the sales volume of new energy heavy trucks in the first half of 2022 has been rising steadily, in sharp contrast to traditional fuel heavy trucks. From January to May, the sales volume of new energy tractors increased from 46.4% to 60.2%, and the market share increased by 14.1 percentage points.
What are the main ways of driving new energy heavy trucks?
First, electric heavy truck
Electric heavy trucks refer to heavy trucks powered by electricity instead of conventional fuel.
Semi Trailer supplier says Under the premise of the current high fuel price, the operation cost of vehicles driven by electricity has decreased to a certain extent, and the energy consumption cost is about one third of that of fuel vehicles, so the economic benefits are relatively obvious. In addition, due to the replacement of fuel drive, the vehicle can basically achieve zero emissions, and the environmental benefits are considerable.
In addition, electric drive can also achieve noise reduction, convenient shift, vibration reduction and other advantages, improve the driving environment, to a certain extent also more conducive to the protection of cargo. At the same time, vehicle data is easier to collect and upload, which facilitates further grafting of technical services, optimization of energy supply in the transportation field, and realization of unmanned technology application.
Electric heavy truck can be subdivided into three types: charging type, changing type and fuel cell type:
1. Rechargeable type:
The plug-in vehicle is loaded with power batteries and relies on external charging piles for power supplement.
Generally speaking, the slow charging time of an electric heavy truck needs about a few hours, and the fast charging time also needs nearly an hour, so the charging speed and efficiency are the main bottleneck restricting its development.
In addition, charging piles in many cities are not sufficient, even for new-energy passenger cars, it is not particularly convenient to charge, especially on expressways, there are few charging piles, which also form a certain obstacle to the popularity of electric heavy trucks.
2, electric change type:
The electric-changing vehicle adopts the vehicle-electric separation mode and relies on the external changing station to replace the battery.
Compared with the charging vehicle, the electric replacement type heavy truck greatly reduces the charging time, and the owner can directly replace the battery at the changing station, which is relatively faster. However, the construction of the power changing station has high requirements for the site, technology and cost, and there is a certain difficulty in popularization.
However, we need to see that, under the collective exploration of the upstream and downstream of the industry, the barriers of electricity change difficulties are gradually overcome, and the number of laying of charging and changing power stations is also rising.
3. Fuel cell type:
Fuel cell heavy trucks, which can actually be considered as electric vehicles, are different from regular vehicle batteries. Fuel cells can be refueled, usually with hydrogen, in a matter of minutes, which is much faster than shutting down for a few hours and recharging.
Fuel cell heavy truck essentially belongs to a model with zero emissions. Especially when pure hydrogen is used as fuel, the exhaust gas generated is water. Even if other hydrogen-rich organic compounds are used, the pollutants in the exhaust gas are greatly reduced, and the environmental benefit is not to be said.
At the same time, the energy conversion efficiency of fuel cells is very high, almost 2-3 times that of ordinary internal combustion engines, higher mileage, more energy saving and environmental protection. The hydrogen fuel used in fuel cells can be obtained from a wide range of sources, even from renewable energy sources, reducing the dependence on petroleum resources and optimizing the composition of transportation energy.
However, compared with ordinary vehicle batteries, fuel cells have more complex structure and higher technical requirements.
If we put aside the differences in the way of replenishing electricity, simply from the level of electric heavy truck, in order to achieve large-scale application of electric heavy truck, the following problems need to be solved:
1. The vehicle is heavy. Because most heavy trucks are used in the freight field, some of them also need to be used as tractors to power semi-trailers, so the battery life is relatively high. Correspondingly, the weight of the heavy truck is also relatively large with the weight of the battery, and can even be about 3t more than the fuel car of the same specification. This is almost the opposite of the current industry trend of lightweight.
2. Limited range. This is also one of the constraints of most electric heavy trucks, especially for long-distance freight owners, the battery capacity is directly related to the efficiency of transportation, if the halfway need to charge frequently, but not as convenient as fuel car.
3. The cost of buying a car is too high. As a relatively new model, the price of electric heavy trucks is higher than that of traditional fuel heavy trucks, which to some extent dissuaded some owners. It is worth noting that, driven by policies and international trends, more and more car purchase benefits have been introduced, which may solve this problem to some extent.
Two, natural gas heavy truck
Natural gas heavy truck refers to a type of vehicle fueled by natural gas as an alternative fuel. Its fuel can be generally divided into LNG (liquefied natural gas) or CNG (compressed natural gas).
I. Advantages of natural gas heavy truck:
1. Cheaper fuel. Natural gas is generally cheaper than diesel. Under the current condition of rising fuel price, the vehicle fuel alone, natural gas heavy truck can save a lot than the traditional fuel vehicle.
2. Protect the engine. Natural gas combustion in the engine is more complete, clean, not easy to produce carbon deposition, can greatly reduce the degree of wear in the engine cylinder parts, extend the service life of the engine, reduce vehicle maintenance or repair costs.
3, low temperature starting performance is better. Especially owners of northern cities of our country, car in the morning need not hot car baking car, unlike diesel will freeze.
4, more environmental protection. Needless to say, as a new energy heavy truck, this is the most basic point.
5, not afraid of "gas rats" steal oil. You can't steal natural gas if you want to. When you are tired, you can just stop and rest. You don't have to worry about fuel being stolen, and you don't have to sleep on the tank in cold weather.
Two, the disadvantages of natural gas heavy truck:
1. Poor coverage of filling stations. At present, the coverage rate of gas station is far less than that of gas station. Once the car owner runs the line far, it is necessary to calculate the fuel mileage and plan the route.
2. The price of natural gas heavy truck is high. It has to be admitted that the price of natural gas heavy trucks is generally higher than that of fuel vehicles. Even if the modification, replacement of the engine, installation of air storage tank, reducing valve, mixer, etc., the price probably needs tens of thousands of pieces.
3. High maintenance cost. According to the reflection of some owners, natural gas heavy card repair will cost more than one thousand pieces at least once, and the maintenance cost is higher.
4. Lack of power. Especially at present, most of the natural gas heavy truck engine is modified from the original diesel engine, and the power will often drop by about 10%-20% after switching to natural gas, which to a certain extent leads to the phenomenon that the owner says that the climb is boring and the acceleration response is slow.
5, not suitable for long-distance transportation. It is not a problem to run more than one or two thousand kilometers after the fuel heavy truck tank is full, but the same specification of natural gas heavy truck can run about a few hundred kilometers even if it is full, the distance is not a little bit different.
In summary, the production technology of natural gas heavy truck is relatively mature, and it has been widely applied to short-haul transportation and some long-distance transportation lines in different scenarios. In contrast, electric heavy trucks are currently more active in urban distribution, port transportation and other closed transportation scenarios.
Of course, there are still some hybrid heavy trucks in the current market, such as gas-electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid, extend-range electric, dual-fuel natural gas heavy trucks. These models can reduce exhaust pollution to a certain extent, but also can make up for the lack of new energy power or driving range, which has won the favor of many car owners. It is worth noting that hybrid power does not get rid of the dependence on traditional energy after all, but is ultimately a form of transition, and the ultimate goal is still a new energy with zero emissions.
Although there are still many technical problems to be solved at the present stage of new energy heavy trucks, it is undeniable that energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection are international trends. Many regions have introduced relevant policies to limit the number of fuel heavy trucks and carbon emissions. Therefore, new energy heavy trucks are the general trend, and with the continuous conquering of relevant technologies, their application scenarios will be more and more extensive.
What are the main ways of driving new energy heavy trucks?
First, electric heavy truck
Electric heavy trucks refer to heavy trucks powered by electricity instead of conventional fuel.
Semi Trailer supplier says Under the premise of the current high fuel price, the operation cost of vehicles driven by electricity has decreased to a certain extent, and the energy consumption cost is about one third of that of fuel vehicles, so the economic benefits are relatively obvious. In addition, due to the replacement of fuel drive, the vehicle can basically achieve zero emissions, and the environmental benefits are considerable.
In addition, electric drive can also achieve noise reduction, convenient shift, vibration reduction and other advantages, improve the driving environment, to a certain extent also more conducive to the protection of cargo. At the same time, vehicle data is easier to collect and upload, which facilitates further grafting of technical services, optimization of energy supply in the transportation field, and realization of unmanned technology application.
Electric heavy truck can be subdivided into three types: charging type, changing type and fuel cell type:
1. Rechargeable type:
The plug-in vehicle is loaded with power batteries and relies on external charging piles for power supplement.
Generally speaking, the slow charging time of an electric heavy truck needs about a few hours, and the fast charging time also needs nearly an hour, so the charging speed and efficiency are the main bottleneck restricting its development.
In addition, charging piles in many cities are not sufficient, even for new-energy passenger cars, it is not particularly convenient to charge, especially on expressways, there are few charging piles, which also form a certain obstacle to the popularity of electric heavy trucks.
2, electric change type:
The electric-changing vehicle adopts the vehicle-electric separation mode and relies on the external changing station to replace the battery.
Compared with the charging vehicle, the electric replacement type heavy truck greatly reduces the charging time, and the owner can directly replace the battery at the changing station, which is relatively faster. However, the construction of the power changing station has high requirements for the site, technology and cost, and there is a certain difficulty in popularization.
However, we need to see that, under the collective exploration of the upstream and downstream of the industry, the barriers of electricity change difficulties are gradually overcome, and the number of laying of charging and changing power stations is also rising.
3. Fuel cell type:
Fuel cell heavy trucks, which can actually be considered as electric vehicles, are different from regular vehicle batteries. Fuel cells can be refueled, usually with hydrogen, in a matter of minutes, which is much faster than shutting down for a few hours and recharging.
Fuel cell heavy truck essentially belongs to a model with zero emissions. Especially when pure hydrogen is used as fuel, the exhaust gas generated is water. Even if other hydrogen-rich organic compounds are used, the pollutants in the exhaust gas are greatly reduced, and the environmental benefit is not to be said.
At the same time, the energy conversion efficiency of fuel cells is very high, almost 2-3 times that of ordinary internal combustion engines, higher mileage, more energy saving and environmental protection. The hydrogen fuel used in fuel cells can be obtained from a wide range of sources, even from renewable energy sources, reducing the dependence on petroleum resources and optimizing the composition of transportation energy.
However, compared with ordinary vehicle batteries, fuel cells have more complex structure and higher technical requirements.
If we put aside the differences in the way of replenishing electricity, simply from the level of electric heavy truck, in order to achieve large-scale application of electric heavy truck, the following problems need to be solved:
1. The vehicle is heavy. Because most heavy trucks are used in the freight field, some of them also need to be used as tractors to power semi-trailers, so the battery life is relatively high. Correspondingly, the weight of the heavy truck is also relatively large with the weight of the battery, and can even be about 3t more than the fuel car of the same specification. This is almost the opposite of the current industry trend of lightweight.
2. Limited range. This is also one of the constraints of most electric heavy trucks, especially for long-distance freight owners, the battery capacity is directly related to the efficiency of transportation, if the halfway need to charge frequently, but not as convenient as fuel car.
3. The cost of buying a car is too high. As a relatively new model, the price of electric heavy trucks is higher than that of traditional fuel heavy trucks, which to some extent dissuaded some owners. It is worth noting that, driven by policies and international trends, more and more car purchase benefits have been introduced, which may solve this problem to some extent.
Two, natural gas heavy truck
Natural gas heavy truck refers to a type of vehicle fueled by natural gas as an alternative fuel. Its fuel can be generally divided into LNG (liquefied natural gas) or CNG (compressed natural gas).
I. Advantages of natural gas heavy truck:
1. Cheaper fuel. Natural gas is generally cheaper than diesel. Under the current condition of rising fuel price, the vehicle fuel alone, natural gas heavy truck can save a lot than the traditional fuel vehicle.
2. Protect the engine. Natural gas combustion in the engine is more complete, clean, not easy to produce carbon deposition, can greatly reduce the degree of wear in the engine cylinder parts, extend the service life of the engine, reduce vehicle maintenance or repair costs.
3, low temperature starting performance is better. Especially owners of northern cities of our country, car in the morning need not hot car baking car, unlike diesel will freeze.
4, more environmental protection. Needless to say, as a new energy heavy truck, this is the most basic point.
5, not afraid of "gas rats" steal oil. You can't steal natural gas if you want to. When you are tired, you can just stop and rest. You don't have to worry about fuel being stolen, and you don't have to sleep on the tank in cold weather.
Two, the disadvantages of natural gas heavy truck:
1. Poor coverage of filling stations. At present, the coverage rate of gas station is far less than that of gas station. Once the car owner runs the line far, it is necessary to calculate the fuel mileage and plan the route.
2. The price of natural gas heavy truck is high. It has to be admitted that the price of natural gas heavy trucks is generally higher than that of fuel vehicles. Even if the modification, replacement of the engine, installation of air storage tank, reducing valve, mixer, etc., the price probably needs tens of thousands of pieces.
3. High maintenance cost. According to the reflection of some owners, natural gas heavy card repair will cost more than one thousand pieces at least once, and the maintenance cost is higher.
4. Lack of power. Especially at present, most of the natural gas heavy truck engine is modified from the original diesel engine, and the power will often drop by about 10%-20% after switching to natural gas, which to a certain extent leads to the phenomenon that the owner says that the climb is boring and the acceleration response is slow.
5, not suitable for long-distance transportation. It is not a problem to run more than one or two thousand kilometers after the fuel heavy truck tank is full, but the same specification of natural gas heavy truck can run about a few hundred kilometers even if it is full, the distance is not a little bit different.
In summary, the production technology of natural gas heavy truck is relatively mature, and it has been widely applied to short-haul transportation and some long-distance transportation lines in different scenarios. In contrast, electric heavy trucks are currently more active in urban distribution, port transportation and other closed transportation scenarios.
Of course, there are still some hybrid heavy trucks in the current market, such as gas-electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid, extend-range electric, dual-fuel natural gas heavy trucks. These models can reduce exhaust pollution to a certain extent, but also can make up for the lack of new energy power or driving range, which has won the favor of many car owners. It is worth noting that hybrid power does not get rid of the dependence on traditional energy after all, but is ultimately a form of transition, and the ultimate goal is still a new energy with zero emissions.
Although there are still many technical problems to be solved at the present stage of new energy heavy trucks, it is undeniable that energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection are international trends. Many regions have introduced relevant policies to limit the number of fuel heavy trucks and carbon emissions. Therefore, new energy heavy trucks are the general trend, and with the continuous conquering of relevant technologies, their application scenarios will be more and more extensive.