Electric Coach Conversions - Thoughts?

[CLRH2O]

Clearwater here, adding a few random things we've run across on the topic that made the idea really stick:
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Cummins, who've been working in the space with R&D for about 10 years at this point just made some major moves, including:
https://www.cummins.com/news/release...train-provider

And previously from Cummins:
https://www.equipmentworld.com/cummi...iesel-company/

Allison Transmission is sending out info about using their units with electric drive-trains, and has been putting a decent amount of R&D into the space:
http://www.allisontransmission.com/c...-up-to-65-tons

Volvo is investing deeply as well:
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/05/16...livery-trucks/

TransPower is currently operating in the states, and they've provided a decent amount of info via the detailed PDFs.
http://www.transpowerusa.com // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ2C4_7bqrk

And China of course has more companies (incl. major player BYD) building / operating electric buses than anyone anywhere else in the world:
https://www.citylab.com/transportati...olution/559571
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https://electrek.co/2016/11/10/all-e...lectric-range/


With a bit of casual banter between us, some humorously uneducated speculation and a bit of armchair research; we imagined a custom fabricator will be needed for the new *motor mounts* and that the use of 4 inline (2x2) WARp motors mated to a 2 speed trans along with maybe 500kWh of high discharge cells in a battery bank should be a decent start to getting a 45k to 50k lbs of bus up to speed and down the road.

We entertained a setup consisting of 2x of the following for turning the drive axle which would give 2000lbs of torque at a cost of around $16k for the *base* hardware (not batteries, not controllers, not wiring - just the power plant(s) and the transmission:
http://www.evwest.com/catalog/produc...roducts_id=213

Cool video on mating the above DC motors in series and to the transmission:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie7qvo-aC5k

For comparison, a Rebuilt 8V92TA (not to speak of a Series 60 or Volvo D13) costs around $25k on it's own. Add in the Trans and you're up to $40k for used/rebuilt power-plant parts alone. Donnie, I think you're likely more knowledgeable on these topics than most anyone else in the country. Do those prices for a diesel power-plant (rebuilt) sound roughly accurate?


As for the "fuel", LifePo4 prismatic cells are still the most readily available you can find in bulk without going utterly broke - but these don't seem to have the discharge rate (only something like C1 discharge at best) needed for the task in our estimation. and higher energy density high discharge cells like previously mentioned don't come dirt cheap juuuust yet. About those high discharge high energy density cells; Maybe 2170 cells with a Lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminum chemistry like what Panasonic is currently pumping out en-mass at the moment would be a good fit?

Donnie brings up - in our honest opinion - pretty much the most important part of this entire conversation. And that is where do you get all that "energy" from in the first place. Obviously displacing the liquid fuel used by OTR heavy equipment and cars saves on tail pipe emissions. But then it's just shifted over into power plant emissions. So as to the 'green fields and butterflies' aspect of things - major MAJOR inroads in solar, wind, thermal and tidal energy generation still need to be made.

There is, as is obvious, a LONG way to go. But 'long' these days is measured in years, not decades. And that's a nice reality to acknowledge.

P.S. - it's late, I haven't checked for grammatical errors and I'm bleary eyed so please forgive any of that stuff in this post