Trucking News: Ask the Expert

News: North America

2020-07-26

Trucking News: Ask the Expert

The Current Status of Electric Commercial Vehicles

During the past decade, PSR has followed the progress of alternative fuels and technologies such as gas and diesel hybrid, natural gas, and electric along with other renewable fuels.  To date, alternative fuels have been relegated to more niche segments and have not penetrated the larger end of the market.

Chris Fisher
Chris Fisher

Segments such as transit and school buses along with short distance segments like refuse have been the primary adopters of natural gas since they tend to be close to their terminals for refueling and recharging.  The bus market along with pickup and delivery trucks are the target segments for electric vehicles in the near term.

Late last year, Amazon placed an order for 100,000 light commercial “Prime” vans from Rivian that will likely be the beta test for the viability of light electric commercial vehicles.  These vehicles are expected to begin deliveries next year.

Read More»

On-Highway Batteries Serve as Emergency Backup Power

Audi and the utility EnBW are pioneering an energy storage facility built on retired electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This partnership is being billed as the solution to a major problem in each industry.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

For automobile manufacturers, the question of how to recycle retired batteries has been pressing for some time. Utilities have been struggling with the perverse problem that excess generation from renewable sources has been slowing adoption, as surges from those sources can disrupt the stability of power grids.

EV batteries have a functional life of 3-10 years after they are retired from vehicle use, making them a ready tool for use by utilities.

Portland General Electric Company (PGE) also is seeking to create a more resilient grid for the utilization of renewable energy sources. They are launching a pilot program to incentivize the installation of home battery systems to act as a virtual power plant.

Read More»

2020-07-25

Daimler Pursues Fuel Cells on Multiple Fronts

In a statement released June 30, Daimler announced it will be investing “a very substantial sum” in achieving a CO2-neutral future for the transportation sector. Hydrogen fuel cell production facilities are currently in development, with an eye toward mass production of fuel cells and their component parts.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

Some of the hurdles Daimler is working to overcome are the needs for highly-filtered air and stable ambient temperature and humidity. The materials and components used in fuel cell production do not allow for an easy transfer in process from conventional engine manufacturing.

Read More»

2020-06-22

COVID-19 2020 North American Impact: Ag, -12%, Construction, -14%

HDMA-PSR COVID Webinar Presentation

COVID-19 continues to batter production of off-highway equipment as we continue to move through 2020. The effects of the virus on Agricultural and Construction equipment production in North America were analyzed in a June 17 webinar presented by the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association (HDMA) and Power Systems Research (PSR). The webinar updated information presented in PSR’s webinar in April.

Jim Downey
Jim Downey

The PSR webinar team was Jim Downey, PSR vice president-global data products , and Yosyf Sherementa, PhD, PSR director-product management and customer experience.

PSR projects AG to be down 9.4% and CN to be down 11.3% when comparing global production for this year (2020) to last year (2019).

China and India which have the largest volumes for ag machinery are the lower side for production percentage drops this year. China which is also the largest producer of construction equipment is not expecting a decline this year.

Yosyf Sheremeta
Yosyf Sheremeta

A slight recovery for Construction equipment is expected in 2021, but not until 2022 for Agricultural machinery. Ag sector recovery will ultimately depend on overall economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The construction segment will not return to pre-virus production volumes for another few years, at best. We’re looking out to 2024 or possibly 2025 to get back to 1.48 million units.

We don’t see a V-shaped type scenario on the horizon in North America, but rather recovery will look like something between a “U” and an “L.” Somewhat of a swoosh shape or upward sloping L.  Economic activity will slowly return to a sense of normalcy as the curve of new COVID-19 cases flattens.

Government support and intervention will be needed, and stimulus will provide an economic backstop. We expect modest growth in 2021. Pent-up demand and continued economic stimulus should also help with rebound.

Read More»

2020-06-13

DATAPOINT: US Lawn & Garden Tractors, 2020 Forecast: 681,500 Units

681,500 units is the estimate by Power Systems Research of the number of Lawn & Garden Tractors to be produced in the United States in 2020.

This information comes from industry interviews and from two proprietary databases maintained by Power Systems Research: EnginLink™ , which provides information on engines, and OE Link™, a database of equipment manufacturers.

Read More»

2020-06-09

Samuel Libaire Wins Power Systems Research $2,500 Eagan Scholarship

Samuel Libaire, a senior at Eagan High School, Eagan, Minnesota, has received the 2020 Power Systems Research $2,500 academic scholarship.

He will use the scholarship to study Computer Science at Vanderbilt University.

“My favorite subject is computer science,” says Samuel. “It is one of the only subjects that can have multiple solutions to a single problem while also proving instantly that some don’t work. In many sciences, theories are never 100% true, but in computer science, a program either works perfectly or it simply doesn’t.”

Read More»

2020-06-05

Pandemic Disruptions Hinder Auto Battery Adoption

My other article in this month’s issue of PowerTALK News describes how home battery systems, even though they are not themselves viable products for most consumers, still benefit from a virtuous cycle of product improvement and investment because of the relative success of battery-powered vehicles and other battery-powered products.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

But the COVID-19 pandemic has not missed those drivers. Venture Beat magazine reports that investors are largely avoiding lithium this year, preferring to safeguard cash until the economy starts to improve. The delay in funding could have several knock-on effects.

One is consolidation in the industry. Ganfeng Lithium is picking up a lithium project from Lithium Americas, a smaller operation. Fewer, larger players in the market later on might have price consequences for lithium adoption after the economy improves and demand for those goods increases.

Read More»

2020-06-03

The Lithium Revolution Has Yet To Come Home



This article is being written the week after SpaceX successfully brought two astronauts to the International Space Station, which has been celebrated across the country as a great achievement for the United States Space program.

I certainly share the feeling that it is good to be back in space, but there is also this lingering feeling that 50 years after we landed on the moon, we might be somewhere further along than just getting back into space on American-piloted rockets.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

Combining that with a pandemic that has brought us to a public health and economic situation more appropriate for the early 20th century than the early 21st century, and protests over racial inequality issues that many hoped we’d be further along with 60 years after the Civil Rights movement, it feels appropriate to reflect on the phenomenon of future-hype.

The blog article Why Have Home Battery Forecasts Been Staggeringly Wrong for Years? examines the future-hype specifically around home battery systems. Specifically, why were predictions made only four years ago, not 50 or 60 or 100 years ago, so wrong about where home battery systems would be now?

Read More»

2020-05-23

DATAPOINT: NA Personal Watercraft (PWC) 2020 Forecast: 88,300 Units

The 88,300 units is the estimate by Power Research of the number of Personal Watercraft (PWC) to be produced in North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States) in 2020.

This information comes from industry interviews and from two proprietary databases maintained by Power Systems Research: EnginLink™ , which provides information on engines, and OE Link™, a database of equipment manufacturers.

Read More»