President Biden seems nervous about sealing a deal that would improve the health and quality of life of millions of Americans through a stricter rule on truck emissions.
There is still last mile/miles concerns. Not every grocer can have a rail spur, but it can be serviced by a local fleet of electric trucks. The ultimate solution is a mix of various electrified transport.
Freight trolly has been a thing and is still used in some places. Between trains, freight trolly, and cargo bikes you could cover basically all urban use cases and most rural use cases.
Logistics predatss cars and trucks by quite a bit, the last hundred years has been an aboration masquerading as the norm. Those old solutions can be brought back.
I'm curious what you think the energy density needs to be for it to be viable and why? The way I see it energy density is a very minor factor for this equation but I'm curious to hear your explanation.
Are there any long haul electric trucks currently in widespread use? No, there really aren't. Batteries are the reason. If it were economically viable we would see long haul electric trucks. Major truck manufactures make electric trucks. Kennworth and Peterbilt, the two biggest truck manufactures in the united states have electric truck models, and they are only their short haul models. Battery electric trucks are fine for delivery vans, and last mile delivery applications. But long haul trucks do not work with batteries. If these truck makers thought long haul trucks were viable they would make them. They have the technology to do battery trucks.
The technology to do zero emission long haul overland freight already exists. Governments should spend money on that instead of praying that batteries eventually become good enough to maintain the status quo.
I like trains and I'm not American. You brought up energy density as the factor preventing long haul. Please don't appeal to authority as the argument but rather state what you think the energy density needs to be and why to make electric long haul viable.
The specific energy of batteries are currently an order of magnitude less than diesel. This is not a problem that is going to be solved by a slightly improved battery. The weight of batteries needed to carry long haul cargo makes it a non-starter.
This is also true for cars, but electric cars are viable even though its the same comparison between energy density. Would you be willing to have this conversation with actual calculations and specified arguments regarding the numbers?
In a train a single train driver can transport a hundred containers. In a truck it is one. Similar story for other types of freight. At the same time electric trains are incredibly efficient, do not need recharging and are a common well understood technology. So you already have economy of scale for electric trains, whereas hydrogen trucks are extremely rarer.
The only situation hydrogen trucks are better then trains, is transporting a bit of cargo to a very remote location.