The TechMobility Podcast
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The TechMobility Podcast
Are Hybrids Trucking's Answer to the "Messy Middle"; More Robots, Less Humans; Traffic Math Destroy Neighborhoods; What is an EERV?
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What happens when the transportation industry is caught in what truckers call "the messy middle" - that challenging space between today's fossil fuel reality and tomorrow's zero-emission future? This thought-provoking exploration takes you into the heart of commercial trucking's dilemma, where battery electric vehicles face significant hurdles for long-haul operations while hybrid solutions struggle to gain traction despite their success in passenger vehicles.
The economics tell a compelling story: with each commercial truck representing a six-figure investment and entire business infrastructures built around specific engine technologies, the transition to cleaner alternatives faces substantial barriers. Regional operators might find plug-in hybrids viable, but cross-country haulers confront a complex calculus involving infrastructure availability, route planning, and load requirements. With the elimination of commercial truck credits worth up to $40,000, financial incentives have further diminished.
Meanwhile, Amazon's warehouse revolution signals a profound shift in how goods move through our economy. With over one million robots already deployed and 75% of deliveries receiving robotic assistance, we're witnessing the early stages of an automation transformation that could fundamentally reshape employment patterns in logistics. Despite claims that these machines complement rather than replace human workers, the trajectory points toward increasingly automated operations.
Urban planning failures receive critical examination as we explore how the "level of service" metric - essentially prioritizing vehicle throughput over human livability - has damaged neighborhood connectivity and pedestrian safety. Major highways constructed through urban centers have permanently altered our cities' character, with communities of color and lower-income neighborhoods bearing the heaviest burden. Recent efforts to reclaim these spaces represent a potential correction to decades of car-centric planning.
Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs) emerge as a fascinating alternative, offering electric propulsion with small gasoline engines that only activate to recharge batteries when needed. This configuration addresses range anxiety while significantly reducing emissions compared to conventional vehicles, potentially bridging the gap between today's transportation reality and tomorrow's cleaner vision. The journey forward remains uncertain, but the transformation of how people and goods move through our world is unmistakably underway.
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Speaker 2:I'm Ken Chester On the docket. More robots, less humans, the Amazon way. Old math destroys neighborhoods. And what exactly is an EREV? From the TechMobility News Desk.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about trucking for a moment and ask a basic question. Ask one basic question Are hybrids the solution for what trucking calls the messy middle? In case you're not familiar with the term messy middle, let me explain. You have two different goals Right now trucking industry as it is, which is gas and diesel powered, and at the other end, a zero emissions trucking industry. The difference between the two is what trucking calls the messy middle. Here's why they call it the messy middle.
Speaker 2:For a minute, every trucking fleet, large or small, from a single owner operator to a company-owned fleet of hundreds of trucks, they have different requirements based on different loads, different categories, different haul, everything different. We've spent a lot of time here talking about the potential of battery electric trucks and why they are not applicable or work well or would be reasonable to expect truckers to adapt for long distance trucking. They're heavy, they take a long time to recharge and for the weight that they have to displace, to carry means less fare generating or money generating loads in absolute weight. If you've got 60. If you've got a truck that weighs 60 tons and you have batteries that weigh 10 tons, that's 10 tons of freight you can't carry, that's 10 tons of freight money that you're not getting and and that makes it real unattractive, real fast. So the question while hybrid powertrains have gotten traction in the automobile industry due to infrastructure challenges, costs and rain limitations associated with battery electrics, however, why is their adoption in the commercial vehicle space limited?
Speaker 2:Let me take this a little further. Trucking, like any major industry, is capital intensive. What I mean by that, every single trucking rig, every single class, eight big rig over the road, big truck, you see, is a six-figure investment, every single one of them. And that's just to buy it. Then you've got to do the training, you have to stock the parts, you have to basically build an infrastructure around that truck, that engine and those performance, the software, the whole bit. So you're invested, if you're a trucker, in hundreds of thousands or if you're a big trucking company, millions of dollars into that genre.
Speaker 2:If you're going to go hybrid, it means that you have to rethink things. It also means that, depending on the type of hybrid, it is because there are different types. The typical hybrid is a gasoline electric. You can have either a non-chargeable one or a plug-in hybrid.
Speaker 2:And plug-in hybrids could hold some attraction for what you call regional trucking, that is, trucking particularly that starts and ends at the same terminal. They may travel up to 200, 250 miles a day, but they start in that terminal and they come home to that terminal. They may travel up to 200, 250 miles a day, but they start in that terminal and they come home to that terminal. And what would make sense at that terminal is to have an infrastructure of plug-ins for their trucks overnight, when they're not rolling, to recharge. Also, when the cost of electricity is lower, that makes sense. But, like I said, if you are traveling coast to coast, if you're running 500, 1,000, 1,500 mile runs, then battery electrics don't make sense. They don't make sense because or even plug-ins don't make sense because, again, infrastructure you need to pull in and plug it in if you're going to get the fullness of the hybrid, otherwise you're just running a diesel, otherwise you're just running a diesel.
Speaker 2:The beautiful part, at least in the automotive field, in the gasoline automotive field, is that hybrids, the way they're configured now, give you way more range and under certain circumstances an automotive hybrid is designed to run on pure electricity or as a pure electric for short stretches, which further extends its range. Not to mention the added power that you get because hybrids are more powerful. Hybrids have, I have found to have, better acceleration, have a bigger range. Typically they're north of 500 miles, pretty much every one of them that I've driven, regardless of whether it's a car or even an SUV. So right there, it makes it attractive, not to mention the power boost that you get, the way that they're engineered to come online and to assist the gasoline engine. So you've got that going on.
Speaker 2:But if you're a trucker and you're looking at what is best for your situation, it's not like you have an additional amount of money to invest over and above replacement costs. And, as we've reported earlier here on this program, we talked about the elimination of the commercial truck credit, which would also apply to hybrids, and that was upwards of 40 grand. A truck that goes away, that goes away. That makes it a lot less economically feasible to do so. Again, if you are a trucker looking to go to zero emissions, how do you get there? Well, again, it depends on the size of your fleet, it depends on the amount of your investment, it depends on your replacement cycle, it depends on the size of your fleet, it depends on the amount of your investment, it depends on your replacement cycle, it depends on what you're hauling, it depends where you're hauling, because if you're along, maybe in the southwestern part of the United States again, we've reported here extensively about autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles there's a lot of infrastructure for alternative fuels and alternative trucking built in the southwest part of the United States because of all the activity towards autonomous trucks, electric trucks, hybrid trucks going on down there in that space. But if you're hauling in the middle part of the country, if you're hauling in the upper Midwest, if you're hauling in the Northeast or the upper Atlantic states whole different thing, because now you have to take into consideration weather, temperature, extremes, the availability of infrastructure, the capability of the roads and your distance between where you're going. All of that figures in or whatever you're delivering, but you're delivering maybe in a 200 mile radius of your terminal, but you come back to the same terminal. Then hybrids make more sense because you can also, depending on what you want to do, build the infrastructure at the terminal or terminals if you are frequenting the same group of terminals owned maybe by the same company or related companies.
Speaker 2:They look at the numbers. They constantly look at the numbers. Trust me on this, constantly look at the numbers. Trust me on this. The average diesel truck, class 8, big rig diesel truck does well to get 5 miles to the gallon. They go crazy if they get 7 to 9 miles to the gallon, because every mile to the gallon that they get is less operating cost overall and it adds up when you're running thousands of miles, hundreds of thousands of miles that these trucks run.
Speaker 2:You might ask well, what about fuel cells? Well, you still have this. You have the same problem. It's an infrastructure problem. A fuel cell would make way more sense for an over-the-road long-distance trucker.
Speaker 2:However, activities that were going on, led by Nikola, which is no more, to build a trucking infrastructure of hydrogen stations across the country, at least close to major interstates, has largely gone away. It doesn't seem to be the appetite for the oil companies or the big trucking firms to build this infrastructure out. If they don't and now again, with the elimination of a lot of the incentives from the government to do it, the chances of building that kind of infrastructure for zero emission trucks using fuel cells and hydrogen goes away. So, again, truckers are looking at this. They know, because of requirements and operating costs, that they've got to do something. Some are looking at natural gas, some because that's technology that's been out there for years. A number of trucks have used it. There's some infrastructure for it, depending on where you're going, and it's got less in cost. More robots, less humans. That is the Amazon way. You are listening to the Tech Mobility Show.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the main place to be these days, and we are no exception.
Speaker 2:I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show.
Speaker 2:If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Facebook videos, from my latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary of a variety of mobility and technology-related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you. Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Facebook. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to our Facebook page. Social media is the place to be these days. We're no exception. I'm ken chester, the tech mobility show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly instagram videos, from the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:For those of you that listen to podcasts, we have just the one for you. Hi, I'm Ken Chester. Tech Mobility Topics is a podcast where I upload topic-specific videos each week, shorter than a full show. These bite-sized programs are just the thing, particularly if you're interested in a particular topic covered on the weekly radio show. From Apple Podcasts to iHeartRadio and many podcast platforms in between, we got you covered.
Speaker 1:Just enter Tech Mobility Topics in the search bar, wherever you listen to podcasts. All-new Dodge Dakota is the midsize pickup designed to give you more. Whether you choose a club cab or quad cab, a fuel-efficient V6, or the only available V8 in its class, you're going to get more room, more power and more style. You're also going to get a five-star frontal crash test rating and our 770 powertrain limited warranty. The all-new Dodge Dakota, it's a lot more truck. Hit it.
Speaker 2:My how commercials have changed. That was the midsize Dodge Dakota back when the Dodge division actually still had trucks and that they had marketed a midsize truck since the 1980s called the Dakota the 2005,. And I remember it was their new, latest generation and, as it would turn out be, their last generation of the truck that came out, like I said, in 05. So this is 20 years ago and you notice how they talked about advantages power, safety and affordability all things that they're talking about now, unlike what they were talking about maybe 20, 30 years prior, when they optimized safety and look and features and basically, I guess, position in life more or less as opposed to capabilities. Again, how things have changed. That was in 20 years. That was 20 years ago. Dodge currently does not offer and Ram doesn't either offer a mid-sized pickup, although word on the street is that they may get one before the end of this decade. We will see. I wonder if they'll name it Dakota. Time will tell.
Speaker 2:A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon, the e-commerce giant, counts more than a million robots at its warehouse facilities. E-commerce giant counts more than a million robots at its warehouse facilities and it's on track to have as many robots as humans working within. Hmm, is this the future? Welcome to Topic A. One million robots Hmm, let me give you some more numbers. The average number of employees Amazon had per facility last year 670. And that was the lowest recorded in the last 16 years. That's a total of 1.56 million people working for Amazon in their warehouses.
Speaker 2:Their argument right now for employing an increasing number of robots is to solve problems such as heavy staff turnover as fulfillment centers. Let me put it to you another way. If you've never worked in a warehouse, if you've never had to deal with the requirements typically in a warehouse, if you are a blue-collar employee in a warehouse and you are either picking items from the warehouse or stocking, chances are you have what is known as a pick rate. Pick rate means they expect you to move or touch so many items per hour and it's very demanding. In some cases, particularly with these online grocery stores, they expect you to put your hands on something. Every 15 seconds is what it works out to 180, 200 items an hour. You can only imagine the pick rate in some place like Amazon, where it's even higher, where they have performance guidelines. They expect you to move so many or handle so many items per hour consistently for eight hours. Hence the heavy staff turnover, because if you've worked in a warehouse moving stuff around, it's very physical, very demanding and, at times, very mind-numbing. So what else do we know about this? Let me give this to you, you can appreciate this. This Let me give this to you, you can appreciate this.
Speaker 2:Something else that they said and that kind of caught me, and they said that 70, now 75% of Amazon's global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics, and this growing automation has helped them improve productivity. It's what they said. Here's my concern In the capitalistic environment that we live in, companies exist to make a profit. Profit's not a dirty word, but their incentives to do it sometimes are above and beyond anything else. Where they get tunnel vision, the profit is the only goal.
Speaker 2:So, while Amazon Robotics Chief Technologist, ty Brady, said in an interview that the company will continue to need as many workers and that the new robots are meant to make their jobs easier, not displace them forgive me, ty, if I disagree with you. Forgive me, ty, if I disagree with you, I think. On the other hand, with the increasing sophistication of robots and the joining of AI together, I think there is a tipping point in the next 18 to 24 months where he's going to retract that statement, where I think in terms in some of these warehouses that it may be completely automated, and I do mean completely where there are precious few humans and definitely way fewer than 670. Why? Robots don't need bathroom breaks, they don't need lunch breaks, they don't have hours of service requirements, they don't. They don't get hurt, they go. You give them eight hours, you get eight hours, 10 hours. They can run 24, seven other than a maintenance update or whatever, and you need to improve them, which they can't be improved, typically an over the air update. So as they figure out new stuff to add to the computer, unlike retraining a human being, they just send it to the software and update the computer in real time right now, and the computer makes the change flawlessly. We've done a lot of reporting here over the last two years about AI and if anything is true, if I could tell you anything, it is that AI and its applications and its level of sophistication the adoptions are speeding up, but the sophistication of the AI being used is also speeding up and as they join robots with AI and as they get specific applications like warehouse work and the things that it needs to pay attention to, and all the millions, if not billions, of data points over years and years of what they know is to be standard and expectation. The day will come where Amazon will design a warehouse specifically to optimize their AI robots from loading, unloading, sorting, stacking, filling orders. All of that Because, ironically, the more automation you use, the more automation it begets.
Speaker 2:It becomes easier to use it. Let's take a step back. Let me take you into the auto industry, for example. With everything getting electronic in the auto industry as opposed to electrical, mechanical and mechanical before that, it becomes easier to add electronics to electronics because they're speaking the same language, and it becomes easier to update stuff and manipulate stuff. Stuff that was mechanical 30 years ago is electronic now, from braking, steering, acceleration, your gas pedal. Most of that's all electronic. There are no wires, there are no cables anymore. It's not mechanical anymore. It's been electronic. Actually, your accelerator has been electronic for over 20 years. You probably didn't know that They've even gotten down to the point where the thermostat that regulates the temperature of your radiator fluid now, instead of being mechanical, is now electrical. I fully expect that, as Amazon continues to do this, particularly since they bought a robotics company back in 2012,. So they have a captive robotic company designed to optimize what's going on in Amazon warehouses. And as long as e-commerce exists, as long as consumers want it like yesterday, I want it five minutes before you realize that I want it. That's where we are in this world and as long as that happens and customers are willing to pay for it, amazon will continue to automate, automate, automate, and what that means at the end of the day is that that million are willing to pay for it. Amazon will continue to automate, automate, automate, and what that means at the end of the day is that that million, that 1.56 million currently working for Amazon, will be a fraction of that amount in 10 years, if at all. For years, the way city planners and road engineers calculate success was killing neighborhoods.
Speaker 2:This is the Tech Mobility Show. Do you listen to podcasts? Seems that most people do. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. If you missed any of our weekly episodes on the radio, our podcast is a great way to listen. You can find the Tech Mobility podcast just about anywhere. You can enjoy podcasts. Be sure to follow us from Apple Podcasts, iheart Radio and many platforms in between. We are there. Just enter the Tech Mobility podcast in the search bar. Wherever you listen to podcasts, social media, it's the place to be. We no exception. Hi, I'm ken chester, host the tech mobility show. Several times a week. I post to tiktok several of the topics that I cover on my weekly radio show. It's another way to keep up on mobility, technology news and information. I've built quite a library of short videos for your viewing pleasure, so be sure to watch, like and subscribe. That's the tech mobility show on tiktok. Check it out.
Speaker 2:So how did modern American cities turn against its residents? It boils down to how city planners and road engineers calculate success. And here's a hint it has everything to do with motor vehicles and traffic, not so much with multimodal transportation and quality of life. This is Topic B. So what exactly is this old math? They're talking about this math that leveled neighborhoods and divided neighborhoods and made it dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. It's something they call level of service, and it's a report card with grades from A to F describing how freely cars move. But this grade has nothing to do with safety, quality of life, economic productivity or human flourishing. It is entirely about how long a vehicle waits excuse me at an intersection or slows down during rush hour. The built environment is shaped around that metric. That explains major highways through cities throughput four lanes, six lanes. That is not environmentally friendly. That is not environmentally friendly. That is not neighborhood friendly.
Speaker 2:Under the guise of urban renewal and under the guise of interstate expansion and moving traffic through cities in the 1960s, city planners and roadway engineers leveled whole neighborhoods, typically poorer neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color, bore the brunt. Poorer neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color bore the brunt. At best they were separated or broken in half. At worst they were completely wiped out. In Des Moines, when they built Interstate 235 to get you from the western suburbs to the eastern suburbs and get you downtown, they wiped out a whole black neighborhood called Center Street, gone. Nothing left of it, and if you didn't know it was there, you'd never know it was there. Gave it up in a way to help people save an extra few minutes getting to downtown Des Moines, which we have two things called the Mixmasters at either end of town and they time it from there. Typically right now, on a good day seven minutes. They cover 13 miles To save that extra time. They eliminated a number of neighborhoods when they re-engineered 235 back about 20 years ago. They took another 120 houses and about 10 to 15 businesses in addition to what they'd already taken, in order to perfect off ramps on on-ramps, widen the road, eliminate the median strip.
Speaker 2:If you are a pedestrian and I'm using Des Moines as an example, but you can magnify this in larger metropolitan areas I'm thinking Houston, chicago, new York, la If you're looking at a pedestrian trying to traverse a city these wide lanes typically encourage faster traffic. Faster traffic tends to discourage pedestrian safety. You ever tried to cross a six lane road at traffic light and hope that you didn't get caught with the right hand turn folk or somebody wanting to jump it early or or break late? Uh uh. When we first covered this subject about seven years ago, my then partner in in a recording studio had a bird. How dare you make us share the road with bicycles? He was livid. He was livid.
Speaker 2:But here's a hard fact, at least in metropolitan areas. It's not always all about the car. Metropolitan areas it's not always all about the car, the way that they've been engineering neighborhoods for years and sacrificing neighborhoods to satisfy the unending thirst to get from point A to point B in less and less time. And oh my God, should you have to sit 30 seconds at a traffic light? Are you going to have a bird? But if that 30 seconds made quality of life just a little better in that neighborhood. Less traffic, slower traffic, fewer pedestrian injuries or deaths.
Speaker 2:What about cyclists? That's a whole nother conversation. And we ain't even talking about bike lanes, because these roads that they've been engineering for the last 60 years did not include any of that. Pedestrians, cyclists, uh, folks on scooters, none of that. Bike lanes are only a last 15 to 20 year thing and it's only really caught on in the last 10 years where they're making strides out. Here here in Iowa we have bike trails, even in rural areas for miles. Cities it's a mixed bag and they usually use former rail lines to do it, and we have a ton of them here in Iowa.
Speaker 2:They're killing neighborhoods in the quest for a better level of service, and all that means is wait time for cars, trucks, suvs, as opposed to above everything else, and they only measure it If this is not bad enough. They only measure it during the busiest time of the day, rush hour. They don't care about the other 23 hours of the day, they only care about the quality and level of service during rush hour? How long do you have to wait at the heaviest part of the day when traffic is the thickest? And do we need to build another turn lane? Do we need to build another traffic lane or two in order to improve the level of service for this road? Forget the neighborhood, forget the safety, forget the noise, the pollution, quality of life and all that cement which gets hot in the summertime and it's hard to cool but it's there long after folks have gone home and gone out to the suburbs or wherever they live. If you live in the city having to deal with that, how can you fix something like this? The question is and I know some cities are starting to tackle this, in fact to the point where they are removing whole segments of intercity interstate, where they are basically tearing up the interstate within the city.
Speaker 2:Boston re-engineered theirs near the waterfront. They put it underground instead of above ground, so you have a whole oasis now where it used to be traffic. What a change, total change. Traffic went underground, the noise, the heat, all of that. And they improved the neighborhood, the walkability, the pedestrian friendliness of that area between Haymarket Square, government Square and the seafront or the seacoast North End Aquatic Center got better because traffic was moved. People get excited about traffic smoothing.
Speaker 2:We just had a $4 million project on one of our major streets here in Des Moines where they eliminated they took four lanes down to basically three, with the middle lane being a turn lane Slow traffic down because the narrower the road, the slower people tend to go, which is exactly what you want to improve safety, reduce noise. There was a question of whether or not it would impact businesses. So far it doesn't seem to do it. They did the same thing out in front of this studio. They took it down from four lanes to three due to a death of a 14-year-old trying to cross the street about two years ago. The city it took that for the city to re-engineer this piece of road about a mile, mile and a half worth, and while you would think, because it's a major thoroughfare in Des Moines, that it would be a major issue, it's not really that bad, in fact, way less bad than you would expect for all the traffic that it carried as four lanes in the city, it is now three lanes and the traffic moves slower and they enforce it. So maybe we need to rethink this thing and consider other forms of transportation and folk as opposed to level of service in the car. Above everything, I'd be curious to know what you think about it.
Speaker 2:Just what is an EREV and why is the automotive market turning to them? We are the Tech Mobility Show. To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. Start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country.
Speaker 2:Keep up with the happenings of the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. That's techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow. Did you know that Tech Mobility has a YouTube channel? Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. Each week, I upload a few short videos of some of the hot topics that I cover during my weekly radio program. I've designed these videos to be informative and entertaining. It's another way to keep up on current mobility and technology news and information. Be sure to watch, like and subscribe to my channel. That's the Tech Mobility Show on YouTube Check it out.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the place to be these days, and we're no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Instagram videos From the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology-related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you. Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:Range anxiety. If you're driving an alternative fuel or electric vehicle, it's more often than not a top of mind issue, especially if you're planning a long trip. Enter into the marketplace the Extended Range Electric Vehicle, or EREV. It resolves much of the concern over the availability of charging stations or getting stranded, and believe me when I tell you it's no joke that these vehicles will meet a need. This is Topic C.
Speaker 2:Let's be brutally honest here for a minute and take a step backwards. Let's look at the current environment right now. If you are looking for a vehicle today, you have your regular gasoline vehicles. You know what to get, been around for over 100 years and they've been perfected. But maybe you want to be a little greener, maybe you feel that I could do better. But you look at EVs and you go, yeah, not really feeling the price and with the elimination of the EV credit, it's not going to work for my budget. You look at a hybrid and you go, yeah, hybrid would carry a lot of that, but it's still too dirty for what I want. I want to do better.
Speaker 2:Enter the extended range electric vehicle. What is it, instead of an electric motor assisting a gasoline motor in the case of traditional hybrids, existing a gasoline motor In a case of traditional hybrid, where you would plug when you may or may not plug in the batteries to recharge, to run the electric motor, this flips the whole model on its head and it says, hey, we have A battery operated Electric motor that the batteries get recharged by a much smaller gasoline engine only as needed. The gasoline engine does not necessarily run in tandem with the EV motor. So what does it mean? It means that the smaller motor doesn't work as hard, doesn't produce as much pollution and goes a lot, lot further because it is not driving the wheels directly. Have we had one of these in the United States? The answer is yes, believe it or not. We have. You may not realize that. The Chevy Volt, that's V-O-L-T.
Speaker 2:Gm's first electric vehicle was actually an extended range electric vehicle. What it was is exactly what this is. It was an electric motor that had its batteries recharged by a gasoline engine a much smaller gasoline engine, which made a lot more sense. I have a friend of mine in local media who owned one, and what he told me is that for his driving he was lucky if he put gas in the thing once every three months. But yet for most of his travel it was all electric operated because motor. The gasoline motor in his vehicle didn't drive the wheels. It recharged the batteries so it only operated when the batteries fell below a certain charge. Then it kicked in, recharged them and shut off. That's it.
Speaker 2:What a brilliant idea. What a better way to utilize gasoline in a more effective way. That you're not totally weaned from gasoline not yet but you're not subject at all to the requirements of having charging stations and waiting all that time. That you could go for days, maybe thousands of miles on a trip before you'd even have to put gas in for the gasoline engine to recharge the batteries. And of course, in these vehicles you could always recharge the batteries directly if that was something you wanted to do. I think it's a genius idea.
Speaker 2:However, ironically enough, in the United States it really hasn't caught on until now, with the price tag of the EV, itself a major concern for consumers considering a purchase of an electric vehicle. Not so much For prospective owners who live in apartments or homes without access to overnight charging yeah, that would be me, as well as those who would take long distance trips. The potential lack of public charging stations can be a concern. Let me go a little bit further. The lack of fast charging level three stations along your route is a point of concern. And even then because if you've been with me any point of time now it's been a year and a half a year and a half ago I chronicled my trip in an EV from Des Moines to Chicago.
Speaker 2:I chronicled my trip in an EV from Des Moines to Chicago and that trip convinced me why I was not ready to buy an EV yet. And that was me hitting three different level three chargers that in each case they were working, they were available and I had to spend an hour at each one. And oh, by the way, because of where they were, I couldn't take my preferred route into Chicago. I had to go 40 miles out my way to make sure I hit them, and I had to double check the mileage to make sure I had the range necessary, because the vehicle I was driving only had a range of 175 miles. And did I add, it was january in the upper midwest and fortunately it wasn't really really cold and I still had that challenge extended ev. I could have made that whole trip.
Speaker 2:Electric power I don't think the gasoline engine would have even run, and if it did, you would measure it in minutes, not miles, because, again, it's not driving the wheels Right now, and this doesn't surprise you. China's the only market where these extended range EVs are currently available at scale and, like I said, chevy Volt was the one In the American market. I think, though, as automakers are looking at this and let me insert here the new Ram that has now been deferred A couple more years Pickup truck Was going to be an extended range EV. They had developed EV motors, ev batteries, a smaller gasoline engine. Let's take this to another level.
Speaker 2:What if you went with oh, I don't know what if you went with a dual mode engine? That could either be, could either run on gasoline or diesel, gasoline or hydrogen maybe, which gave you even more choice, depending on how clean you really want it to be, because we've talked at length about burning hydrogen and how it takes very little, if at all, modifications to a regular internal combustion engine to run. Of course, the big problem with hydrogen is lack of infrastructure, but it is another opportunity. I think that the current environment may actually encourage the development of EREVs.
Speaker 2:The market will be the final judge, but I think people looking for different alternatives and looking to maybe not burn as much gasoline but yet do better than a hybrid, this would be the solution. This would absolutely be the solution because, honestly, it would be cleaner per mile than a hybrid would be. Because the hybrids are designed for gasoline and the electric motor to work together. In this case, the gasoline motor just recharges the batteries. That's all it does. It's whole purpose in life. I think it's cool, I think it's neat and I think it's time, but the industry and the consumer will be the last word on that, on whether or not this catches on in the United States. I certainly hope it does.
