Fast E.V. Charging.

A significant infrastructure rethink will be needed to meet the current targets using electric lorries  - as is obvious from looking at the same consideration the other way - the rate of delivery of chemical potential energy at a conventional  fuel station at a motorway services compares with a small power station. (assume the calorific value of diesel or petrol is 45 Mega joules per litre,and then ask how many seconds to pump a litre of fuel, and how many pumps are running.)  There is an advantage that electric vehicles convert less of their fuel into waste heat, but it is only a factor of 2 or 3, not tens or hundreds.


The obvious short term solution is to put the electricity generation locally to the refueling point if at all possible. A regulatory rethink to permit higher voltages may be in order. Designs using 1000V cables with 400A/pin  and pumped liquid cooling down the cable to the connectors are interesting, but I sense desperation pushing at the arbitrary 1000V limit, and the connectors are always going to be a fire risk.


Allowing  few kV in shielded cables with sensible interlocking would be far safer, after all the death from a 1kV shock is not much different from a 2 or 3 kV shock - the key is not to make it possible to have the accident in the first place.


It is going to be worth getting this right, as the numbers are mind boggling.


There are roughly quarter of a million HGVs (i.e. over 7.5 tonnes) registered in the UK, or which about half are articulated lorries, and it is a fair bet the economics means they are mostly worked pretty hard and fuel up daily, we could  assume they may burn 250 litres per day each. The miles got estimated per gallon are interesting https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/749248/env0104.ods .I know of a few SUVs that appear to do worse than the average 'Artic' in that official list. I also think a lot of the heavy vehicles are a lot worse - as in more like 1 or 2 miles to the gallon for  recovery truck.

A significant infrastructure rethink will be needed to meet the current targets using electric lorries  - as is obvious from looking at the same consideration the other way - the rate of delivery of chemical potential energy at a conventional  fuel station at a motorway services compares with a small power station. (assume the calorific value of diesel or petrol is 45 Mega joules per litre,and then ask how many seconds to pump a litre of fuel, and how many pumps are running.)  There is an advantage that electric vehicles convert less of their fuel into waste heat, but it is only a factor of 2 or 3, not tens or hundreds.


The obvious short term solution is to put the electricity generation locally to the refueling point if at all possible. A regulatory rethink to permit higher voltages may be in order. Designs using 1000V cables with 400A/pin  and pumped liquid cooling down the cable to the connectors are interesting, but I sense desperation pushing at the arbitrary 1000V limit, and the connectors are always going to be a fire risk.


Allowing  few kV in shielded cables with sensible interlocking would be far safer, after all the death from a 1kV shock is not much different from a 2 or 3 kV shock - the key is not to make it possible to have the accident in the first place.


It is going to be worth getting this right, as the numbers are mind boggling.


There are roughly quarter of a million HGVs (i.e. over 7.5 tonnes) registered in the UK, or which about half are articulated lorries, and it is a fair bet the economics means they are mostly worked pretty hard and fuel up daily, we could  assume they may burn 250 litres per day each. The miles got estimated per gallon are interesting https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/749248/env0104.ods .I know of a few SUVs that appear to do worse than the average 'Artic' in that official list. I also think a lot of the heavy vehicles are a lot worse - as in more like 1 or 2 miles to the gallon for  recovery truck.