Very cool! It's a pretty specialized use case, but still awesome to see.
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Cool EV bruh, but can the horn make a fart noise?
Very interesting use case but kind of dependant on this very specific setup? I feel like an even more efficient and low maintenance method would be like... a ramp.
Well sure but if you just dump ore onto a ramp/chute then you're constained to high angles and material so it can't also double as a drivable road.
2017
At 50 tons and 700 kilowatt-hours, this truck is the biggest EV in the world Each round trip will generate 10kWh of spare electricity for the grid.
I hope OpenTTD devs consider adding gravity-based electric transportation of heavy loads as an option
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
Does it discharge extra energy into anything else? Does it burn off extra energy as heat to maintain regenerative braking?
Great question.
That is definitely one of the big caveats of BEVs over diesels. A battery on an EV can only take in so much energy. Once you hit that ceiling, the battery won't take in any more current. Fun fact, having a super charged battery in a BEV causes all sorts of headache and can cost you performance.
You either have to switch back to service brakes or, as you mentioned, burn off energy as heat. Not sure how they're doing it with this truck, but on other BEV loaders which I've worked on, we add a hydraulic valve whose only purpose is to create flow, pressure, and subsequently heat. It basically just adds a dummy load. I suspect they tapped into the dump hydraulics and added such a valve for this truck.
Stupid title. It recharges every trip.
It is very obvious they meant it draws no power from the grid. And it doesn't, indeed, acting fully autonomously.
But it does recharge. And does need to be recharged.
Esisyphus
It's slightly less impressive when you realise they could have built a massive slide instead and got mostly the same result.
Guess it's better than a massive diesel truck though.
I'm no phycisist but I'd bet that the claim "it consumes no energy" is almost certainly false. I get what they mean but this isn't exactly a honest way to describe it.
I think it means that the net energy consumption is zero. It can use energy, but it generates enough to offset it.