TECHNOLOGIES TO EXPLORE

August 11, 2010 Vol. 6, No. 16

Well, after writing a veritable novel last time about the EPA/CARB hearings in California, I'm going to keep it relatively short and possibly even sweet with this one. It's summer, after all, and with the exception of that gnarly debate between the SCR camp and Navistar, things have been a bit quiet on the hardware front.

Quiet they may be, but I still find myself wishing I had more time to explore some emerging technologies. Like many or more likely most of you, there's never enough time to do what I want to do. In fact, though I buy the odd lottery ticket and would be overjoyed to win a million bucks or three, I'd rather be paid in hours.

I had exactly that feeling today when I read a piece in The Economist -- aside from Today's Trucking, probably the best magazine on the planet -- about Goodyear working with a biotech company called Genencor to make a variation of isoprene. That's the key ingredient in synthetic rubber, which is used in combination with natural rubber to make many of our tires, in a 60/40 ratio. As the name suggests, isoprene is yet another by-product of petroleum.

But now we have BioIsoprene, not made from oil at all, rather from -- and I love this -- E-coli bacteria and plant sugars or other non-food biomass. This work is actually quite advanced, so much so that Goodyear has already made and tested prototype tires made from the stuff. Genencor has just finished building a pilot plant in California, and the two companies figure a commercial, mass-production factory could be up and running by 2015.

This is no small deal when you figure that it takes about 26 litres of oil to make even a little car tire. And how many tires are made around the world each year? More than a billion. Do the ugly math, and you won't have to be a tree-hugger to see the downside there.

STICKING WITH TIRE COMPANIES, MICHELIN is up to some interesting stuff too, according to another story in that same issue of The Economist (April 24-30, 2010).

I'm not being lazy here by citing work that other journalists have done, by the way. It's just that I'm mighty intrigued by this stuff -- and haven't yet had the time to delve into it on my own. Figured you lot would be interested too in the meantime.

Anyway, the Michelin effort is actually a mighty interesting new variation on an old theme: the hub motor. Actually invented by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche -- yes, THAT Porsche -- and applied in a hybrid car that made its debut at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, the hub motor may be an idea whose time has finally come. It's a simple idea, namely about powering a vehicle by placing individual electric motors at each wheel. Among the advantages is the fact that no complicated drivetrain is required because each wheel is driven directly by its own little powerplant, all this propulsion being co-ordinated these days by an electronic controller. Lord only knows how old Ferdinand managed to keep from going in circles with motors on every corner.

Michelin's idea is to produce what it calls the Active Wheel, a system with an electric motor to drive each wheel but more besides -- namely, an active suspension built into the hub and powered by a second electric motor. Say goodbye to struts and shocks and the like. It's in testing now.

ArvinMeritor applied this basic technology on a very interesting all-electric courier van developed jointly with Toronto body-builder Unicell and Purolator a couple of years ago. Called the Quicksider, a prototype worked in revenue service in Toronto for some time, and successfully by all accounts. I'll have to admit ignorance about its current status but will check and come back to you. It seemed to me to hold much promise.

The lightweight vehicle (pictured here) was designed for urban routes with 80 to 150 stops, and it has a range of roughly 65 km (40 miles) on a single charge. Purolator also runs more conventional hybrid electric vehicles on extended routes. The company originally figured the Quicksider could deliver a two- to three-year payback through greater productivity, despite a significantly higher purchase price.

The little truck's electric powertrain consists of hub motors on each of the rear wheels, producing a combined 187 hp and 'fuelled' in part by regenerative braking, of course. Each motor module includes a traditional wheel-end package with disc brakes, along with an electronically controlled pneumatic suspension. The foundation here is sodium nickel chloride batteries, with lithium-ion batteries coming, last I knew. With the motors at each wheel, there's no driveline, transmission, or rear-axle differential, and that delivers advantages like a floor that was lowered from 31 to only 14 inches off the ground. This eliminates something like 200 steps a day for the driver, no small deal, and also allows for a more aerodynamic body design. The pneumatic suspensions have 9 inches of travel so the vehicle can 'kneel' to curb level, thus allowing the driver to roll dollies and carts and such in and out of the cargo area without steep ramps or steps.

ArvinMeritor figured at the outset that the lack of an engine, differential, or transmission, combined with regenerative braking, would reduce maintenance costs by "at least 33%." Combined with net fuel savings in the 20-30% range after you factor in the energy required to charge the batteries, you have a compelling case for electric commercial vehicles in the lighter classes.

And quite possibly for hub motors, 110 years after we saw the first one.

AND FINALLY, AN INTERESTING MILESTONE was reached a week or so ago when Max Fuller, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress, took delivery of his 50,000th Freightliner truck. Think of it, because that's a mighty big number. He bought his first one in 1974 when he was put in charge of purchasing for his father’s company, Southwest Motor Freight.

Number 50,000 is a Cascadia with a 72-inch raised-roof sleeper pulled along by a Detroit Diesel DD15 engine. The truck, which features a commemorative plaque on the driver’s door, was formally delivered during a ceremony at U.S. Xpress headquarters in Chattanooga, Tenn. on August 5.

What I like about this is the simple longevity of the business relationship between Fuller and Freightliner. Nothing lasts so long these days. But this connection is real and solid and unlike most others. For example, not long after Fuller and co-chair Pat Quinn launched U.S. Express in 1985, they signed a 12-year exclusive agreement that saw them buy only Freightliners through that period. Nowadays, they buy 3000-4000 tractors a year -- an astonishing number in itself to a modest Canadian -- but even the very first order for 150 trucks was sizeable. And at the time that represented half the fleet.

Fuller and Quinn are never afraid to think and then act outside the box, and it's obviously served them well. At this point U.S. Express is the third largest privately-owned truckload carrier on the continent.

Interestingly, Fuller says one simple and actually pretty conventional idea is at least partly responsible for that success: keeping the truck spec consistent prevents an awful lot of headaches on the maintenance and purchasing fronts.

Simplicity is always best.

THIS NEWSLETTER IS PUBLISHED every two weeks. It's a heads-up notice about what's going on with trucking technology as well as what you can see at www.todaystrucking.com where you'll find in-detail coverage of nearly everything that's new. Plus interesting products that may not have had the 'air play' they deserved within the last few months. Why not subscribe today?

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I should remind you that I don’t endorse any of the products I write about in this e-newsletter, nor do I have the resources to test them. What you’re getting is reasonably well educated opinion based on three decades in trucking. And in the case of the individual product items, I’m mostly presenting simple news from the manufacturer or service provider, with the hyperbole mostly removed and clarification applied.

If you have comments of whatever sort about Product Watch, or maybe a gizmo I should know about, please contact me at rolf@newcom.ca.

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