Port of Long Beach and Vision Motor Corp. to develop and demonstrate two fuel-cell-powered heavy-duty trucks
17 November 2010
The Port of Long Beach and Vision Motor Corporation of El Segundo, California have entered into an agreement to develop and demonstrate one hydrogen fuel cell/plug-in electric TYRANO class-8 on-road truck (earlier post) and one hydrogen fuel cell/plug-in electric zero-emission terminal tractor (ZETT) (earlier post), which is produced jointly by Vision and Capacity of Texas.
Vision’s heavy-duty vehicles will be tested to evaluate their suitability for short distance drayage and terminal operations. Vision trucks will be put into service and evaluated by Cal Cartage and TTSI, two trucking companies that operate at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles.
The Port of Long Beach is contributing $425,000 to assist in the project development and demonstration. The Port of Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners is planning to consider cost-sharing this demonstration project in the amount of $212,500 at an upcoming board meeting.
What's will this study demonstrate?
Will it demonstrate that class-8 on-road trucks are/are not useful ?
NO, they are.
Will it demonstrate that H2 class-8 on-road trucks will/will not emit CO2 ?
NO, they will not.
Will it demonstrate that terminal tractors are/are not useful ?
NO, they are.
Will it demonstrate that ZETTs will/will not emit CO2 ?
NO, they will not.
Will it demonstrate that H2 will/will not be available for a fleet? NO.
Will it demonstrate that H2 powered vehicles will/will not be viable when in production ? NO.
Will it demonstrate that most California bureaucracies do not care if the state is bankrupt ? NO, we already know they don’t.
Posted by: ToppaTom | 17 November 2010 at 08:24 PM
Ports want ships offloaded and the cargo MOVED ASAP. They need the space to stage and load the freighters for departure. That means they need tractors to get the cargo to and from warehouses in the vicinity.
They have been using diesel, but with all the pollution they figured there has to be a better way. The truck tractors have a well defined mission and it is limited distance and lot of trips. This applies to almost every sea port in the world.
Posted by: SJC | 17 November 2010 at 10:21 PM
Plug-in-hybrids with ZEBRA batteries would work very well. General electric has demonstrated such as heavy mining trucks and rail locomotives. Capstone turbine chargers could even purify the air from other tractor exhausts whilst burning diesel fuel itself. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 17 November 2010 at 11:39 PM
No henry it wouldnt. These buggers drain far too much power to be run off zerba batteries. They were talking 270 kwh packs and that for smaller trucks working less then these do... so you might be talking 5-700 kwh packs maybe even mwh packs.
Thats the kind of power h2 can provide but batteries cant.
Posted by: wintermane2000 | 18 November 2010 at 02:56 PM