Um, while they have electric AC drivetrain, they are powered by diesel generator, arent they ? So like diesel series hybrid ( like many trains ) , not battery electric.

These are trucks for mining operations which means they are used only in a local area. Consequently, the electric versions do not need a range extender or diesel generator. Instead, they can use large swappable batteries that they can swap in a few minutes at a local swap and recharging station. A 300 tons miming truck should easily be able to fit in two 2 ton battery modules with a total of 400 kWh of power. The world record until now for electric trucks is this 30 tons electric container terminal truck from http://www.balqon.com/index.php

I am convinced the economics of heavy duty local service trucks is very promising as it is now with $100 oil and these new very durable and high power lithium batteries.

The economics don't seem to work out Henrik, at least not yet. While I imagine there is some optimization wrt battery pack size and operating time, if we simply replace all the diesel carried with A123 cells, the hauling capacity would drop by about a third. Even if the cells are used down to ~50% of capacity, at roughly 10,000 equivalent full cycles, they will still cost ~$.15/kWh. Tack on electricity at ~$.05c/kWh and we're at ~$.20c/kWh. With diesel fuel at $4/gallon, that's ~$.10c/kWh, or ~$.25c/kWh delivered to the wheels given the relatively high efficiency of larger diesels. The problem is that since battery weight decreases capacity by a third give or take, the vehicle will need to operate 1.5 times more than it would have as a diesel, so the cost of an electric (batteries/electricity) would then be correspondingly higher at around $.30/kWh. That being said, there's probably some combination of pack size/charging window that's optimal, so it's probably less than this. In any event, from what I've read, in the volumes needed for this sort of work, synthetic fuels are economically viable at these prices, so I'm not sure if we'll ever see all electric HDVs like mining trucks outside of specialized roles.

The quote mentions some vehicles are used for downhill operation. If a truck is filled-up at the top of a hill, could it use the weight of its load to help recharge supercaps or batteries, and then go up hill on electricity when it is lighter as it has no load?

These are electric drive not bev as in a generator provides all the power all the time and not any battery. These behemoths use gargantuan motors and a rather massive generator is used to provide the power.

Knowing the weight of fully loaded trucks (250 tons - it's about half the weight of smaller passenger train), the most natural choice seems to be something like Diesel-Electric locomotive drivetrain.

It drops mechanical transmission for more reliable AC drive with inverter.

Plug-in or battery swapping don't seem very likely at this stage of batteries development (and availability).

Electric drive trucks may have advantage at sites where load is mostly driven downhil - by applying e-motor braking it greatly reduces brake wear and therefore downtime (for mainteinance)) of the very expensive trucks.

These trucks often operate at mining sites in wilderness where diesel generators are used for electricity - for them any plug-in is not an economical option, would mean waste of diesel fuel.

Considering that many of these trucks operate 24/7, and diesel heat is freely available, Zebra batteries could be suitable.

I donn't think that these designs use any form of regen.

Seems as though the time is riht a 100 a barrel. They really pump out the power going down hill.

Mike

Almost forgot. As for A123's prices dropping, I'm not sure if that would be passed onto the consumer, at least until there is sufficient production for the market. As of right now people will pay more for a better battery.

There are NO batteries and NO regeneration here. These are electric transmissions, like in the Diesel-Electric locomotive and many, many applications where it is impractical to design and manufacture a huge mechanical transmission.
Just as stated by:
Reality Czech 'The article says "electric drive", not "electric power"'.
and
wintermane "These are electric drive not bev ...."
and
Mikey "I don’t think that these designs use any form of regen. .."
And it’s NOT about time the heavy hauling mining, and material industries caught on - electric drive is just another type of transmission.

These trucks have a huge variation in power requirement, so in theory some from of energy storage (super caps?) could significantly reduce the size of the required diesel generator and allow the generator to run at an optimum speed.

A smaller diesel could be a lot cheaper.

This is really a power requirement. What's needed? 500KW for 5 minutes?

How much gas oil consume these 797 normaly ?

http://www.ecolo-trader.fr/Mega-structures-et-mega-consommation-energetique--vtptc-120.php

...and these mega boat ?

The“ ...