The World’s Largest Electric Vehicle Is Ready For Its Closeup
The World’s Largest Electric Vehicle Is Ready For Its Closeup
An electric vehicle makeover for the US locomotive fleet has been slow in coming, but signs of activity are beginning to bubble up.
Wouldn’t it be more energy efficient to just electrify the line rather than charging & hauling around batteries? The technology has been around since *checks notes* the late 1800s.
Not to mention trains are a particularly good candidate for hydrogen fuel cells.
Hydrogen has a major efficiency problem. Unless the electricity to create the hydrogen is practically free (i.e. grid price is zero, you're turning off generators) it's not worth it. You're at like 30% round trip efficiency whereas batteries and overhead lines are well above 90%.
Using hydrogen also prevents regenerative braking, which is one of the big advantages of battery or overhead electric.
[...] “world’s largest battery electric vehicle.”
No overhead wires, it looks weird.