Debunking myths about electric vehicle limitations in longhaul
Will it eventually be possible to carry out heavy-duty long-distance transport with electric trucks powered by batteries?
That’s a question the HVTT18: Trucking toward S2MART global summit, held at Laval University, Eddy Zuppel, program leader, clean and energy-efficient transportation at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), set out to answer.
HVTT18 shared findings of a report produced in 2023 by the NRC for Transport Canada’s Zero-Emission Transportation and Trucking Program. It is divided into sections: basic battery technologies; minerals used in batteries; charging infrastructure; and battery adoption.
Transportation is an important sector to decarbonize, but this presents significant challenges due to the extreme payloads and the energy requirements of vehicles.
“Many different technologies are being considered to decarbonize this sector, such as hydrogen and alternative fuels. And one of the key technologies is the battery, which stores energy and therefore replaces the diesel fuel tank,” said Zuppel.
It goes without saying that heavy-duty trucks require much larger batteries than those found in light-duty vehicles. We’re talking about batteries of 1,000 kWh and more, compared to 60 to 75 kWh for passenger cars. “This difference poses considerable technical challenges, particularly with regard to energy management, component durability, and system integration,” says Zuppel.
When it comes to batteries, two main families dominate today: high-density chemistries (NMC, NCA) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
The former offer high capacity, but are expensive due to the presence of cobalt, a material with unstable supply. Their durability is also limited, especially with high nickel concentrations. LFP batteries are more affordable, safer, and more durable (more than 2,000 cycles), and do not contain cobalt. On the other hand, their energy density is lower, which limits their use to short or medium-distance trips.
Performance objectives: Where are we?
The industry is seeking to achieve certain targets for batteries used for long distance.
The energy density of current NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) or NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) batteries offers approximately 150 Wh/kg. The goal is to reach 250 to 300 Wh/kg to limit range and weight issues.
Regarding lifespan, Zuppel noted that current NMC batteries offer between 1,000 and 2,000 cycles. However, long-distance transport requires greater durability.
And there’s also the issue of battery pack purchase price, which must come down to offer buyers an acceptable total cost of ownership. Currently, the cost of a battery is around $135 per kWh. The goal is to get it below $100, which could happen within the next three to four years.
Payload penalties and cold climate
The reduced payload due to the weight of the batteries is an often-mentioned drawback. “For a range of 500 km, this can represent a penalty of around 10%. If the distance traveled is greater than 500 km, this penalty will increase,” said Zuppel.
Cold climates, on the other hand, pose a real challenge — especially in Canada. At -8°C, range loss can reach 8%. At –25°C or –30°C, this loss climbs to 40 or 50%. Energy is used not only to heat the cabin, but also to keep the batteries at an optimal operating temperature (between 15 and 20°C).
“Advanced thermal management strategies and new materials will be needed to reduce the impacts of cold and take advantage of new battery chemistries that are more resilient to extreme temperatures.”
Debunking preconceived ideas
Zuppel wanted to deconstruct certain preconceived ideas surrounding electric trucks:
Batteries are too heavy: Although they add weight to the vehicle, most cargo is not limited by weight but rather by volume. Some jurisdictions in the U.S. and Europe allow electric trucks to exceed prescribed weight limits in an effort to transition to new clean technologies.
Long-distance travel is the norm: More than 90% of heavy-duty truck trips in the U.S. and more than 97% in the European Union, are less than 800 km, which modern batteries can already cover.
In fact, the rise of e-commerce has reduced the average transport distance by around 40% in 20 years, making journeys shorter and more practical for electrification.
In the short term, manufacturers are seeking to reduce battery costs by modifying the composition of the cathodes and favoring more nickel and manganese. On the anode side (usually graphite), the addition of silicone increases energy density.
“In the long term, increasing the concentration of metallic lithium in the anode would increase energy density, but this would require solid electrolytes to stabilize this more volatile material,” said Zuppel.
Among other promising solutions, Zuppel mentioned lithium-sulphur or sodium-ion batteries, which use more abundant and less expensive materials. However, their energy density and lifespan still need to be improved.
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This didn’t debunk anything.
One benefit would be that it also solves the problem of driver rest, since a driver would have to stop for 8 hours every 500 km to charge their batteries. so log book issues go away. But then, who would want to sleep in a charging truck that could become an inferno at any second. I see too, that they didn’t discuss the rapid increase in demand for power, and how this will be addressed, and then transmitted to the truck stops. What does this do to the cost of fueling, since dedicated lines will need to be built to get to the charging/rest stops. The trip from Toronto to Calgary would require minimum7 charging stops with a 500 km range (double that in winter), so we would need twice as many trucks on the road during winter. For a truck doing round trips between these two cities, saying that it was averaging 500 km/charge for half of the year and 300 km/charge for the other half, the trip would average almost 9 days with charging.
So a round trip would be 18 days, and at 2500 cycles for the batteries, a truck would last 138.8 trips or 6.9 years, as compared to 10 or more years for a current tech truck. This is all perfect world calculations. But what do we do with all of the materials from these batteries and trucks, as they wear out?
And once all of the protesters who have been attacking the petroleum industry see the scars from open pit lithium mining and increased copper mining, their focus will change to those industries. We have to consider the long term impact of these choices. Zero tailpipe does not mean zero emissions or zero negative impact.
Hopefully LFP batteries will become the main choice. That’s what I have in both my cars. I like the safety, durability and easy charging. More important will be quantity and spacing of charging stations. And training for drivers, especially for winter operation.