EV never has to be recharged... Because it recharges on the way downhill.
"World's largest EV never has to be plugged in" is sufficiently click-baity without being so dumbly self contradicting
More like “never has to stop working to charge”. It is novel that its charging mechanism operates as a function of doing its primary job.
Not novel. I think there was a train somewhere in Africa, that transported some ore from mountain to port. On the way down with ore it charged and uphill it used charge.
Is novel for a dump truck to use this. Of course it’s not a completely new concept entirely.
That’s genius. Who cares if thermodynamics wins, it weighs less on the way up so works out just fine.
Just like the example in TFA.
Yeah I was gonna say I'm pretty sure this isn't a single use, disposable vehicle
Reminds me of some guy with a OneWheel that was saying he'd never charged his board in like a thousand miles as his daily commuter.
He lives near the top of a mountain lift, so he takes it home and just runs on pure regen lol.
I think it's still pretty cool. Turning potential energy to kenetic
The dump truck, at 45 tons, ascends the 13-percent grade and takes on 65 tons of ore. With more than double the weight going back down the hill, the beast's regenerative braking system recaptures more than enough energy to refill the charge the eDumper used going up.
So the energy this truck uses is harnessed via mining and loading... Essentially this energy was stored in the ore via geological processes.
This truck uses continental drift as his fuel.
In other words, OP's mom.
Boom
Or in physics terms, potential energy.
Since everything seems to be going downhill right now, how would I harness that power? You telling me the crystal peddling influencers were right all along? 🤣
I've seen a cable lift that worked basically like that. It transferred ore down the mountain, so heavy buckets going down lifted the empty buckets back up.
Kinda like the mine in the UK that use a cableway without a motor to bring ore down and empty buckets up
I saw that Tom Scott episode too. I’ll miss him.
Is that just a gravity battery that just so happens to be a dump truck as well?
So it was designed for this mine I guess?
I'm not sure there's a lot of mine you're going down filled up, the images I have in mind are quite the opposite, but that's a really cool idea!
There actually is some design to stock energy this way, with weights you lift while having excess energy
Depends on the scale of "going down". Many mines are in the mountains and the material has to be brought down to lower elevations. The mine entry may be lower than the nearest pass but still a lot higher than the destination of the ore.
If you're thinking of that CGI crane lifting concrete blocks, it's unfortunately a really bad idea.
Pumped hydro stores energy by lifting weight uphill, instead. Water is basically the cheapest thing you can get per tonne, and is easy to contain and move.
To store useful amounts of energy using gravity, you need pretty large elevation differences and millions of tonnes of mass to move.
Reminds me of this ropeway thing that Tom Scott covered that doesn't require power input either, for similar reasons:
Niche application but still cool.
ARGH Why did you have to remind me that Tom Scott is still missing from Youtube!
I read the story.
I saw the comments on the story
I laughed at the pedantic slapfights happening in the comments.
I came here to comment on the neat story and poke fun at the silliness, to find the same pedantic slapfights here.
Sigh.
Amateurs.
The 1963 Černý Důl – Kunčice nad Labem aerial ropeway is over 8 km (5 mi) long, over 30 m high in places and carries 135 tons of limestone every hour from a quarry to the nearest train station. Its 120kW 3-phase synchronous motor requires power for a few minutes at the start and end of each day when most of the 800kg-capacity trolleys are empty, and spends most of the shift generating mains electricity and acting as a speed governor. Unlike the EV, it is fully autonomous most of the way, only 5 people are required to operate it. (Loading, unloading and timed dispatching is automatic, arriving/leaving carts just need to be checked; a safety latch has to be manually dis/engaged on trolleys passing the check.) The quarry will continue operation as long as it pays off, then the ropeway will be scrapped (projected 2033). A dude illegally rode the way up on it somewhat recently. He could have fallen to his death if he pulled the latch.
There's also one in the UK Tom Scott did a video on.
I know, this one is shorter and has mechanical brakes. Not as great but I imagine the Czech one, one of the largest in Europe, has very few English-language sources that could have pointed it out to him. I don't know whether the Claughton one cannot be ridden or Tom is just squeamish about safety (see description) but the Černý Důl one definitely can, that's how they do routine inspections.
"World's largest EV"
Blatantly untrue. Larger EVs have been in use for more than a century at this point in the form of EMU trains.
The emus have trains now?!
Take that Australia!
Yeah we're proper fucked tbh
It was part of the treaty. That and the Great Dingo Barrier.
We truly are lost...
Bagger 288 is also electrically driven. Even if it is connected by cable to a nearby powerplant.
I'll pick up the pedantic torch. Trains are made of train cars, I'd argue each one is a separate car or vehicle even though they're strapped together.
I feel like The ISS ticks a lot of the boxes for a vehicle though, how big is that?
Sure, but quite often in EMUs the cars come in sets that can't operate disconnected from each other, so I'd argue that they still comprise a single vehicle.
~~I'd argue that the ISS, due to lacking means of propulsion (unless you count explosive decompression) is not a vehicle.~~
yes it does. just going by the numbers posted operating in the space it does results in a net loss of12% battery each trip.
Till elon finds out that if he manages to cover the sun, he can charge us on sunscription
Pretty sure its also not solar. The machine gets loaded with weight at the top of the hill, its regenerative brakes store power on the way down, it drops the load off, and the lightened machine stored enough charge to drive back up.
Click bait that actually makes me glad I clicked???
I cannot avoid to be pedantic on this, it is recharged during half the trip… it just does not require plug-like recharging
No one commenting on the fact that the first paragraph says it doesn't even CONSUME energy????
Technically it would be impossible to consume energy unless converting it into mass (or time I guess but thats purely theoretical)
I think it's clear they are sensationalizing it due to the unique nature of the energy used, which is external potential energy that needed to get down the hill whether it's a gas or electric truck.
well that was unexpected
I'm curious if the desgin team knew about it in advance
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
