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Battle of the e semis
Nikola vs Tesla.
Nikola- fuel cell, battery buffer, 6 motor all wheel drive, no diffs, independent suspension.
Tesla- Basically, a big ass version of an electric car. A few bazillion batteries and a big motor or two. Not sure if they use diffs or not.
I watched an hour long video put out by Nikola. I was quite impressed. They had their fully independent suspension done by the company that does the suspensions for the latest generation of military heavy trucks. Some pretty impressive stuff.
A nice feature of the Nikola is that GPS can know when hills are coming up. If it is a long downhill, it can run the battery pack down some so that it will take full advantage of regen. With the Tesla, you start with a full pack. If you have a substantial downhill run on the full battery, there is no place to put regened power.
Independent AWD is definitely an advantage especially in places where traction/roads aren't so good. I like the idea of a decent sized battery pack that is never run down too low. You can get a lot of life out of these things if you aren't running them into the ground. No diffs=better efficiency and less stuff to break.
The question that remains is can they put together the necessary H2 infrastructure. Can such a large fuel cell work reliably? Can it be built at a reasonable price?
As for the Tesla, we shall see. I still have one unanswered question. Is there enough lithium out there to build literally billions, if not trillions of batteries.
My feeling is that the fuel cell/battery buffer idea is a good one IF it proves financially feasible. If not, earlier versions of the Nikola using natural gas turbines might work. Turbines have a long history of use, we have lots of LNG and an existing infrastructure and they are greener than a diesel generator, which is something also worth looking at.
Last edited by pete c; 11-29-2017 at 10:43 PM..
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