Zero Effect

In the right application opportunities will arise to maximise the full potential of PBS and take productivity to the next level as industry confronts the challenge posed by Zero Emissions Vehicles explains Tiger Spider Managing Director Marcus Coleman.

Australian High Productivity Vehicles like B-doubles, roadtrains and PBS combinations have a unique set of challenges and opportunities when it comes to Zero Emissions.

Compared to smaller urban trucks and buses HPVs travel long distances and consume huge amounts of energy.

Battery electric powertrains have proven to work for buses and show promise for urban delivery and garbage trucks which travel less than 250 km per day and return to base for overnight charging.

Elon Musk is promising an affordable Tesla prime mover with 500 km to 800 km range.

It remains to be seen if this will hold true towing an Australian tri-axle semi reefer van let alone an 85-tonne PBS A-double.

We’ve modelled various heavy electric powertrains using available electric motor, battery, and fast-charge technology and certainly some applications are feasible.

But long distance electric High Productivity Vehicles are still some time away without significant battery improvement, massive fast charger deployments or advances in hydrogen based product options.

However, the bevy of new EV technologies does provide ways to improve high Startability, Gradeability and Acceleration Capability performance.

These PBS standards will become increasingly relevant as we progressively overcome road infrastructure limits.

On-highway engine power has been constrained by emissions regulations and Australia’s reliance on overseas suppliers. While engine manufacturers have larger options available, they don’t support on-highway emissions beyond 600hp and 700hp.

This is critical for PBS since speed on a 1 per cent grade performance caps GCM. The NHVR has been negotiating with road managers to remove the prescriptive pavement horizontal loading requirement which limits GCM of tandem drive prime movers to 70 tonnes (Level 1), 85 tonnes (Level 2), 110 tonnes (Level 3) and 150 tonnes (Level 4).

This follows recommendations made by the 2015 Austroads PBS Level 3 and Level 4 Standard Review.

It is a useful change but only helps a little with existing prime movers. PBS vehicles are supposed to offer equivalent or better performance to the existing fleet, but this is impossible if we add an additional axle group or two (often between 15 to 50 tonnes more payload) and don’t increase power and tractive effort for Gradeability (A) – maximum grade percentage and Gradeability (B) – speed on a 1 per cent grade.

PBS driveline requirements are already difficult to achieve for PBS Level 3 and Level 4 vehicles. Main Roads WA overcame this for remote and regional areas by relaxing the Level 4 standards and requiring only that a more appropriate prime mover is not readily available on the market.

This is a pragmatic approach, which works for remote areas, but won’t be accepted by the Eastern states and in higher traffic areas.

Ultimately, more power is required and that’s been too difficult to achieve with on-highway emission requirements. But electric motors don’t have these constraints and are already available with peak power ratings over 250kW per axle.

With this technology we could soon see 1000+hp powertrains on a PBS combination. Of course, an electric motor is only as good as the energy source supplying the electricity. This is where the current technology is lacking, and the costs mount up.

Nevertheless, in the right application there is no doubt opportunities to maximise the full potential of PBS and take productivity to the next level.

Marcus Coleman.

With the right government support and incentives combined with freight industry ingenuity, there’s no reason we can’t accelerate the introduction of High Productivity Zero Emissions Vehicles in Australia. The 80/20 rule applies.

Australia’s fleet is 80 per cent passenger cars and 20 per cent commercial vehicles. Again, 80 per cent are light commercial and 20 per cent heavy commercial; 80 per cent are rigids or buses and less than 20 per cent articulated trucks.

But despite making up less than 0.5 per cent of fleet numbers, articulated trucks are responsible for 80 per cent of tonne-km travelled within Australia. Passenger cars and light commercials consume around 80 per cent of Australia’s transport fuel where Heavy vehicles consume around 20 per cent.

It makes sense for High Productivity Vehicles to be the last heavy vehicle class to make the transition to zero emissions. The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) and the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) have announced a target of 30 per cent of new truck sales to be Zero Emissions by 2030.

Buses will be the first heavy vehicle category to move in a serious way with most Australian State governments setting goals for all new buses by around 2025 and NSW promising to transition their 8000-vehicle city bus fleet by 2030.

This is well behind China, who established electric vehicles as a key national science and technology industrialisation project in 1995.

In 2004 China’s National Development and Reform Committee specified R&D focuses in three electric drive technologies (fuel cell, electric, and hybrid vehicles) and three associated components (battery, electric motor, and electronic control system) with funding in the order of $USD290 million.

From 2006 to 2010 the focus moved from R&D to scale production and investment in the sector exceeded $USD1.5 billion.

In 2007 China defined New Energy Vehicles (NEV) to include Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), Fuel-Cell Vehicles (FCVs), hydrogen Internal-Combustion-Engines (ICE), and other vehicles with new fuels (National Development and Reform Commission, 2007). In 2009 the Chinese central government announced subsidies for New Energy Buses of up to CNY 500,000 (≈AUD 80K) for battery electric buses and CNY 600,000 (≈AUD 100K) for fuel-cell electric buses.

Further subsidies were provided by provincial governments and additional financial support was provided through the Asian Development Bank (ADB) who in 2013 approved the Clean Bus Leasing Program for up to $USD275M to support up to five financial leasing companies to provide leases for clean buses in the Peoples Republic of China.

Consequently, China now has over 500,000 electric buses in operation. With the adoption of electric vehicles, new entrants like BYD and Tesla have emerged as market leaders. Australia leads the world in High Productivity Vehicles and we can lead the World in High Productivity Zero Emissions Vehicles.

But if the Chinese model is anything to go by, it will take time, coordination, and serious government support to achieve.

Send this to a friend