My name is
Lukasz Wantuch
and I am a dreamer and a part-time inventor.

My idea enables quick, cheap and reversible conversion of any combustion vehicle to electric on the highway - trucks are just the first step, cars are next.

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Part A - The way we drive

We need no new technologies, we have everything ready.

Before I get into the technical details, we need to start with two basic and very important pieces of information

  1. The concept of an electric “pushing” system for trucks has been tested by a company called Revoy (www.revoy.com) using batteries. To be honest, I did not know that such a company existed and only after sending my idea to the portal www.40ton.net did I get a link to them to their idea. I was very happy about this, because it meant that the idea of using "electric pushing" was technologically possible.
  2. In addition to Revoy, there are several other companies, mostly small and experimental, that also create this type of "electric overlays", for example Tandem Centaur (www.drivetandem.com)
  3. As for Electric Highways, needed to power my idea, they exist in few places in the world, for example near Frankfurt in Germany, I was there a year ago.

Any invention is worth nothing in itself (like Segway). You need to present the entire system, the philosophy of operation, the every necessary steps and - i am going to use this very ugly word - politics. Otherwise you end up like Hyperloop (450 millions dollars lost)

Electric cars

Electric cars - dead end of evolution

Electric cars. I don't believe in them, to me they are the dead end of evolution.

There are many reasons for that:

  • weight- even lithium batteries
  • price
  • environmental impact
  • use of slave and child labour
  • China's increasing control over rare earth minerals mining which involves changing one harmful monopoly (Russia and Saudi Arabia) to another (China)

All these problems can be eventually solved. We can build better batteries, cheaper and lighter, based on common elements. But even then, we will not solve one fundamental problem. The only way to charge batteries quickly is to provide as much energy as possible in the shortest time. Home charging stations for electric cars are usually around 20 kW. Road chargers are from 50 to 250 kW even. Work is underway on chargers with a power of even 1 MW which is 1000 kW, for example for electric trucks (have a look at this picture and see how thick this cable is!).

Think a bit about this in perspective. The average apartment needs 3-5 kW, a house 15-20 kW. So one MW is about 250 apartments or something around 60-70 homes. So imagine 10 electric trucks powering at 1 MW each at the same time. Just to compare- a small water power plant has power less than 5 mW

And if you charge too many too fast, what can happen? So, you would have to build fast Superchargers near power plants or distribution centers or we have to build a new, separate infrastructure. So why are electric cars becoming increasingly popular? The answer is simple. If you don't want to burn fuel, what other viable alternative do you have?

Charging while driving - “below” or “above”

Some engineers wondered how to solve this problem and looked for solutions. One of them was replacing car batteries at special points. Although the products were technologically interesting, they did not achieve commercial success, like Better Place in Israel (850 million dollars lost) So they came up with another solution: charging while driving. It can be divided into two types - from below and from above.

The first solution is universal, addressed to every vehicle, the second only to trucks. However, both have two major drawbacks:

  • First, to use any of these solutions, you need a new vehicle - a car or a truck. To fully use it, we have to throw away all the cars in the world or all the trucks. ALL OF THEM! They have to be new models, built from the beginning to use such a power system.
  • Second, for the system to work, we need thousands, if not tens of thousands of kilometers of electric roads from the very beginning, regardless of the variant. Right now! At once. Because otherwise how can we convince individual consumers and companies to spend tens of thousands of dollars on buying a new car or hundreds of thousands of dollars on trucks? Building 100 km, 500 km or even 1000 km does nothing. A wide network of electric roads must be created at once on the existing highways so that traffic is not limited to just one road or route. This is unrealistic, because no one will spend tens of billions of dollars or euros on electrification right away on an idea that is not fully tested. We don't know how consumers are going to react? Even if we build a whole network, will they spend their euros or dollars on this brand new thing?

PART B

PART B - Hybrid Connector

All these two problems can be solved thanks to the Hybrid Connector.

I will first discuss trucks, but the system can be easily and cheaply expanded to include other types of vehicles such as cars and buses. My idea of using the "top" solution is better, not only because of safety and road conditions (snow blizzard) but above all the autonomy of the vehicles, which I will discuss later. And that will be a very important topic.

The idea is as follows. A classic truck consists of a tractor unit and a semi-trailer. Let's assume that we want to deliver furniture manufactured in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska to the town of Lewin Brzeski. 215 km, 162 of which on the A4 motorway . The truck normally leaves Kalwaria towards the motorway. After entering it, "electrification" occurs at The Electromobility Point.

So we separate the two v parts and put a Hybrid Connector between them.

The Hybrid Connector is a very simple device consisting of:

  • a steel frame
  • a pantograph
  • two wheels
  • an electric motor- a normal one or you can put it inside wheels
  • a spare battery of small capacity that allows to travel up to 1 km with a normal speed when you switch lanes
  • connection equipment and the necessary control cables
  • a little device that you attach a steering wheel inside a cabin or on a dashboard with a few buttons- on/off, pantograph up/down, slower/faster and cruise control. This device issues commands to the main unit via radio using encrypted transmission.

So the driver continues on the motorway, but uses only the electric engine for propulsion, not a diesel one. Exactly the same as Revoy only instead of a battery there is a pantograph. When exiting the motorway, a driver disconnects the Connector at another Electromobility Point and continues on the combustion engine to the destination.

Advantages

  1. First, we can use the current diesel trucks. We don't have to buy new ones. The Hybrid Connector allows us to do the trick.
  2. Secondly, we don't have to store electricity in giant batteries, we can supply electric current slowly over a long period of time.
  3. Thirdly, we don't have to build tens of thousands of "electric roads" right away. We can first do a pilot phase, which I will talk about later, and then expand. Of course, the sooner the better, but everything can be checked, tested and then decisions made. I will present these steps in a moment.
  4. If there are hundreds or thousands of such hybrid trucks on a road, we can plug this whole infrastructure in one or few places to a power plant or huge distribution center.

See, there are hundreds of thousands of trucks in the USA and UE and millions worldwide. Building the whole electric infrastructure only for them would be enough, it would make this project worth investing in. TIRs use around 30 liters of diesel pre 100 km/h. Let's multiply it by the number of trucks by the number of kilometers they make each year. Millions of barrels of oil can be saved.

Steps

  • The first step
  • is to build a prototype of the Hybrid Connector.
  • Step II
  • is testing everything on the Frankfurt motorway. You just have to do the test, even though I know it will work, since Revoy works. But seeing is believing.
  • Step III
  • is the hardest. You have to build the first commercial section of at least 100 km or 100 miles.It will cost money. Lots of money. There are two ways to do this:

“American” - a private investor builds the network

“European” - the project is financed from public funds for innovation and development

This will show all the advantages of the system or its possible disadvantages. This will be the most difficult task. In fact, this is the only risk associated with this project, but considering all the benefits, it is justified. Instead of spending millions of dollars on batteries, let us use this money to build infrastructure. Please remember also about the scale effect. The costs look completely different when you have to build 10 km of electric road and completely different when it is 1000 kilometers. The technology itself is simple and proven. Such a set, in fact, is just like a small train or tram.

It may not even be necessary to build this long section with the investor's funds. While writing this study, I was looking for all possible information and found the following article: Is anyone else thinking about this, apart from Germany?

The first European country to test this solution was Sweden, back in 2016. The local authorities are said to be convinced enough to include the electrification of 2,400 kilometers of motorways in the National Transport Plan by 2034. (...) Interestingly, the discussed technology is generating a lot of interest in China and India. Just a few months ago, the Chinese presented two truck prototypes with pantographs and built test sections for them. Meanwhile, India has been in talks with Siemens since May this year to extend the traction network for trucks on a 1,300-kilometer motorway! We are talking about the route connecting the cities of Delhi and Mumbai, which includes the heaviest traffic in the country.

  • Step IV
  • is the construction of the entire network. The more, the faster, the better. Personally, I think that the best solution would be construction and supervision by the state, by the US government or the European Union, but the operators dealing with the connectors themselves, especially renting, will be private, so as to ensure competition. We can call it “Electric Marshall Plan” or “Federal- Aid Highway Act 2.0” . We did it in the past. Few brave men with vision have changed the way we live and drive. How come we can not do it in future?

Electromobility Points

Now let's talk about Electromobility Points, or places on motorways where connectors are kept. It is simply a parking space with some extra equipment, where a truck enters and takes or leaves a connector. There are two possible solutions:

  1. If the company is large, like Inpost or DHL, it can have its own fleet of hybrid connectors , which it uses only for its own needs.
  2. In the case of smaller transport companies, they can simply rent them from external companies that will be established very quickly. If there is demand, there will also be supply. You order a specific day and time via a website, specify where you will take it and where to leave the connector, and the company does the rest. You take it one way, leave it at the exit and take it back on your way home or another transport company can take it back if they go in the same direction. Everything is done via a website or application to streamline the process as much as possible. Something like ordering an Uber

The entire exchange process must be fast, as automated as possible so that the whole thing takes no more than 180 seconds. That is why the Connector does not have front wheels like in Revoy, because I assume that a special crane or autonomous forklift brings the Connector. The driver's task is only to disconnect and connect the cables, check it, and then he can hit the road.

Night driving

This idea has another gigantic advantage. Electricity is generally cheaper at night, because there is too much of it. At night, people sleep and companies do not work. So you can create a price system that encourages driving trucks at night. Of course, if you have perishable goods or time is of the essence, you can drive whenever you want. But if you want to deliver furniture as cheaply as possible, then during the day the driver has a break specified by law and drives during the night. Those tens of thousands of trucks that block the routes during the day will simply disappear. With a combustion engine, it does not matter whether you drive during the day or at night, you burn the same amount of fuel. With the Connector, there is a huge difference. Therefore, without the need to build new lanes, it can significantly improve traffic on main roads.

Part C

Part C - The way we live

Autonomous Vehicles

Now let's talk about one more revolution, which is autonomy. You may have heard about The Dawn Project and their famous commercial from the SuperBowl. The message was pretty clear: “Autonomous cars kill”

Is it true or false? In my opinion autonomous cars are safer than vehicles driven by humans. Humans are usually the weak link, responsible for accidents. The introduction of autonomy will significantly reduce the number of accidents, including fatal ones.

But it doesn't matter, because technology alone is not enough. Something, let's call it, "social acceptance" is also necessary. The best example is Google Glass. It was supposed to be the next big thing but I failed. . Society rejected this idea due to reasons many find absurd. So it shows that technology is not everything. It doesn't matter how many lives have been saved thanks to autonomy, only the individual cases of "robot killing a human" count. That's what people focus on. That's why I personally believe that vehicle autonomy is only possible on highways for two reasons. Only on them.

Why only highways?

First, we have much fewer stimuli. There are no pedestrians. There are no bicycles. No dogs. There is no child who can run out onto the road after a scooter or a balloon. Due to its construction, there are much fewer external factors that need to be calculated by the vehicle's autonomous system. But that's still not enough.

Reason number two, to convince people, you need to ensure 100 percent safety. 99 percent or even 99.99 percent is not enough. It has to be full, 100 percent. The only way to ensure this is to introduce a "Full Road Control System". Lets talk about something different first and we will come back to this subject.

Autonomous Module

Let's assume that we already have a full electrical grid in the whole of Europe or the USA. So now we attach something I call an "Autonomous Module" to our Connector . We use existing equipment but you add a new feature. Two wheels and lots of sensors, like in Tesla . And that add-on controls the entire set. But this is not it, this is not everything. Let me give you another example.

Let's assume that we have another transport of furniture from Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, but this time to Portugal, to a furniture store in Lisbon. A very long route, over 3,000 km

The driver drives the truck again to the A4 motorway, where he will reach the Electromobility Point. But this time he gets out of the truck, leaves a tractor unit then we attach the Hybrid Connector with the Autonomy Module to a trailer. It drives on by itself, all the way to Lisbon, to the Portuguese exchange point and there another driver disconnects the entire system, connects a trailer to a truck unit and enters the city like a normal set. Pretty cool, right?

"Full Road Control System"

But all this is only possible under one condition - complete safety. That is why this Hybrid Connector with an Autonomous Module is not really autonomous. Its systems only serve as "emergency backup", in a situation where we have, for example, a terrorist attack or a power breakdown. We build the central system using cameras, radars, lidars, sensors, etc. on the powerpole and they control everything and give orders. Every vehicle, autonomous or not, is therefore a point on the map. We know the type, registration number, speed. Once again, It is that system that decides everything: at what speed the truck drives, in which lane, when it stops or overtakes. Using secured wireless transmission we send information to an Autonomous Module telling it what to do- to slow down or go faster or stop, or change lanes etc.

This system offers one, huge advantage. An autonomous car is short-sighted, only sees what is in front of him several dozen or several hundred meters ahead. . The central system sees everything. Every vehicle and its behavior on the route. If a vehicle breaks down 10 km ahead of us and blocks the lane, it is able to react appropriately earlier and slow down all autonomous vehicles or send a warning on road signs. In the case of fog, slippery road surface, hail or storm, it also applies appropriate protocols.

This system protects every machine, autonomous or not. If a normal car is driving too fast or poses a threat to other road users, the system automatically detects this and immediately transmits information to the Police patrol, which tempers the offender. The mere awareness that such a system exists will have a huge impact on compliance with road traffic regulations. The system is configured in such a way that it is able to detect even people driving under the influence of alcohol, for example, changing lanes dangerously or driving unsteadily.

That is also why my idea, with the "top" system, with a pantograph, is better than the power from below or what Revoy is doing. If we want to have a 100 percent safe autonomous ride, we need to build a surveillance system. We need to put these cameras and other equipment somewhere and power it, so we need to build special poles. But we already have them! So we can simply kill two birds with one stone.

The advantages

First, we are solving the problem of the lack of truck drivers. This is a very hard and thankless job, tiring and giving long days and weeks of separation from the family. Here we have a situation where the driver works in the morning, transports several trucks on short routes, to and from the motorway and in the evening cuddles the child to sleep. This does not mean at all that the drivers will lose their jobs, it will simply change its nature - instead of one long trip, many short ones.

Second, we will be able to make the best use of the overproduction of electricity from alternative green sources, not only at night but also during the day. All systems based on the production of electricity from photovoltaics and wind are unpredictable. Sometimes it simply blows too hard or the sun shines too brightly in relation to the needs. Sometimes there is so much electricity that companies even pay extra for someone to pick it up. With thousands of autonomous trucks, we can use them as "regulated electricity receivers" by introducing a dynamic price tariff for those willing to do so, in accordance with the principle "don't save it, spend it". If there is too little electricity, we slow down the trucks and even stop them in special parking lots. But if there is too much electricity, they start back on the route at an increased speed.

Total Control = Total Freedom

It sounds very totalitarian and it is totalitarian, but it is the only way to ensure complete safety for all road users. Only under such conditions are people able to accept tens or even hundreds of thousands of vehicles moving without drivers. Robots. Only they no longer “bring death”, like Tesla, but provide safety and comfort. And if someone does not like it, regardless of the reason, they can always drive on a parallel local road. The benefits of this system are so gigantic that you may regret not being able to “feel the wind in your hair” and drive at 250 km/h.

Cars

And now we get to the most important thing. Cars. There are many more of them than trucks. With the Full Road Control System, we can give “cars on autonomous tow trucks”. It might sound strange, but again it is simple and I will explain this with another example.

I live in Krakow, Poland. Let's assume that I receive a message “There will be strong winds over Europe this weekend, so we are introducing a special reduced tariff for night electric travel”. We can predict the weather conditions quite well 2-3 days in advance.

So I say to my sons and girlfriend “We are going to Croatia”. On Friday, after school and work, we drive my car to the “Electromobility Point”. A special set is waiting for us there at 7 p.m. I drive the car onto the tow truck, the wheels are blocked and we go to a special room, where there are beds, a bathroom with a shower, a small kitchen, a TV… Everything to travel in comfort. I set the destination point to Krk in Croatia. The driving time is less than 11 hours, but it is too fast . I don't want to get there at 6:00 a.m., it's Saturday, so I want to sleep in, have breakfast. I set the arrival time at 10:00 a.m. The system selects the speed on the entire route, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. . We can drive through the night, but we sleep, and I am not tired in the morning because there's no driver!

After arriving, we drive 40 km further, to a small resort in the mountains, where we spend the entire weekend. We leave on Sunday at 9:00 p.m., but this time I want to be fast, at 6:00 a.m. in Krakow. I enter this data into the system, which calculates whether it's possible, taking into account the traffic on the route and the weather conditions (it might rain, for example). Please remember that the entire route is controlled by a central system in all countries on the route, connected with each other and exchanging information. Total Control = Total Freedom.

How much did it cost me to rent such a Hybrid Tow Truck? A bottle of Croatian wine. I can use the services of dozens of companies and rent it, but I have a cousin in the Polish town of Radom. A few weeks ago, he bought his own hybrid car tow truck, which he keeps at the Electromobility Point near his city on the highway. I called him on Wednesday and asked if I could borrow it for the weekend. No problem, when do you want it for? I answer that it's Friday at 7:00 p.m. So my cousin uses a special application, selects the destination and one of two modes:

  1. fast, i.e. the electric car tow truck starts immediately
  2. economic - sets the final date and time of arrival and the system selects the most economical time window.

One click and the system delivers the empty tow truck by itself, autonomously and collects the fee for the Radom-Krakow route from my account (which I confirm on my application). The same procedure, but in the opposite direction, is for the return. On Monday morning, I put a bottle of Croatian wine into the electric tow truck as a thank you gift for lending me the tow truck. This way, one vehicle can be used by the entire family and friends.

“Real charging while driving”

Someone might ask: "Why bother with some electric trailers for cars, when you can equip an electric car with a special module that will allow you to use the central monitoring network mentioned earlier (Full Road Control System) ?" Of course, you can do this and maybe it will happen someday.

But please note one thing. An electric car transported on such an electric trailer can also be charged while driving! We simply have a charging station on the trailer, which is connected to the charging socket in the electric car before moving on to the "rest part".

So we have two things in one:

  1. Impersonal driving, safe and not causing fatigue to the driver
  2. A full, 100 percent charged battery when leaving the motorway.

"No humans allowed"

Even after the construction of the full electrical infrastructure of all main roads and the introduction of a central control system, the use of "temporary electrification" will not be mandatory - you can choose to travel by Connector, but you don't have to.

Personally, I see only one exception - weather conditions. I saw a film from the Czech Republic on the Internet, in which one car did not notice the rear of a truck due to fog, hit it and then about 20 cars collided. It made a shocking impression. Therefore, during a storm, heavy icing or storm, the road supervisor can issue the order "No humans allowed". This means that only vehicles that can be remotely controlled can enter the motorway in such an extreme situation. The rest must either pull over and wait or drive at a low speed, for example 50 km/h. And this speed limit will be respected. Nowadays, very often drivers drive faster than the limits anyway, because they assume that there are no radars or police patrols everywhere. With the Full Road Control System "there is no mercy" - if you exceed the speed limit, you will be punished.

Show me the money.

Costs. Let's start with the Connector itself. A new electric truck, regardless of whether it is fully electric or a hybrid of a pantograph with a combustion engine, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's hard for me to estimate the cost of the Connector itself at this point, without any external subsidies, but considering its simplicity and design, we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars here. It all depends on the scale of production. I think it's safe to assume that the cost of the Connector will be many times lower than electric trucks and half as low as Revoy.

Now the infrastructure. Yes, a traction network will have to be built. German experience shows that the cost of electrifying one kilometer is between 1.3 million and 1.5 million euros. The largest component is not poles or cables, but electric stations. However, I assume that with an increased scale of investment, the costs will also drop and we can assume an expense of around 1 million euros per 1 km. In the case of the US, these costs may be lower, because in Europe a large part of the expenses is bureaucracy and standards that are exaggerated beyond logic and common sense. So I assume that we are talking about an expense of around $1 million for 1 mile of road electrification. These are large amounts, but think about the enormous savings on fuel, reduced dependence on foreign oil and millions less greenhouse gas emissions.

Frequently Asked Questions

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What about buses?

In my opinion special designs of buses will soon appear that provide much greater comfort. Now passenger companies try to squeeze in as many passengers as possible, because drivers cost money (on longer routes, for example Krakow-Munich you need two) and fuel is expensive. Now in the case of autonomous buses with a pantograph there may be fewer passengers, the seats can be much more comfortable and far apart from each other. Instead of sending one bus to Munich per day for 50 people, you can send two for 25 passengers each for the same or even lower price. Such a bus will not enter the city center, at the Mobility Points you will have to change to a shuffle bus, but the same system applies to low-cost airlines, which state “Paris” on the ticket but are actually “Beauvais”.

Length and weight of the set on the motorway.

The entire set, i.e. the truck plus the Connector, will be longer than the standard set. This is not a problem in the US, because since the changes in 1982 there has been no maximum length of a truck cabin. But in Europe it is different. Therefore, the law must simply be changed and a new category of vehicles - "electrically assisted driving" - should be introduced. Such changes depend solely on political will, the best example of which is again the US, where the weight regulations have been changed specifically for electric trucks:
“ A vehicle, if (...) powered primarily by means of electric battery power, may exceed the weight limit on the power unit by up to 2,000 pounds (up to a maximum gross vehicle weight of 82,000 pounds)” - 23 U.S. Code § 127 - Vehicle weight limitations—Interstate System.
Please keep in mind that the set is longer only on the motorway, where there is plenty of space. On local roads and in cities it is already the standard length.
There is one more thing. The biggest problem related to the weight of the vehicle, apart from the increased fuel consumption (but compensated for many times by the advantages of the system), are viaducts and bridges. We have additional weight, but we also have an additional axle with wheels in the Connector and these additional tons are distributed among them.

What about changing lanes or viaducts?

That's why we have a small battery in each Connector, which allows you to drive up to one kilometer at full speed with the pantograph down.

The weight of the Connector itself.

In order for an electric truck to have an appropriate range of over 500 km, it must have a lot of batteries, and they weigh a lot. In an electric car, the weight of the battery is several hundred kilograms, in an electric truck it is several tons. Manufacturers provide different values, but they are usually in the range of 5-8 tons. I have a different problem. I am afraid that the Connector will be... too light! Yes, too light and it will have to be specially weighted in the front part to ensure stability. Simply put, if there are no batteries, the weight drops drastically. Of course, there is the weight of the pantograph, but this is a relatively simple and light device.
Revoy weighs about 11 tons. I was not able to determine the weight of the batteries themselves, but I assume that it is probably about half of the total weight. I ordered a Connector project from one of the Polish technical universities, along with all the dimensions and estimated weight, I will have it in a few weeks, but based on common sense and general knowledge I assume that the total weight of the Connector will be around 5 tons.

Aerodynamics.

During the work, one of the people pointed out to me that the Connector needs to have a fairing system so that the airflow is not disrupted. Yes, that's true, some of my graphics don't have it, because I wanted to show the inside of the Connector and how it works. But in the final version it will definitely be a necessary element.

What about the concept of putting trucks on trains?

There are countries that have successes in this area, such as Switzerland, but globally this solution still has a marginal share. There are many reasons, but they are mainly related to costs, transport time and the "last mile problem". I will not discuss this topic in detail, because the experience of the last few decades shows that such a system can be a great complement as intermodal transport, but nothing more.

How many lanes?

I also personally believe that when designing and building such a "new road to the future", we should immediately plan for the electrification of all lanes. This will allow us to avoid significant costs at later stages, if everything goes well (and it will). Sometimes vehicles with oversized dimensions enter the roads. The width is not a problem, only the height. The cables will be suspended high above the ground, between 5 and 6 meters, but sometimes, rarely, but it happens that higher loads occur. Therefore, the booms above the road should be planned in such a way that they can be switched off and folded in a simple way, for example twice a year (then you can also do inspection and maintenance). In this way, we designate a "window" for really high transport.

What about hydrogen?

Here we give the floor to Christian Levin, President and CEO of Scania, who in an interview with the portal www.wysokienapiecie.pl says:
As our interlocutor calculates, at the moment hydrogen-powered trucks cost three times more than electric ones with batteries. - Of course, this is the effect of small production of hydrogen cars. If we scale it up, the costs could theoretically fall even below the costs of electric vehicles. Another advantage of hydrogen is that we can refuel it in a few minutes, while we will need at least 20-25 minutes to recharge the batteries (…)
However, the basic problem of hydrogen drives is huge inefficiency. From hydrogen production to drive, losses reach as much as 75%, while in electric vehicles they are 25%. Someone has to pay for these losses - adds the head of Scania.
The manufacturer calculates that in the case of electromobility, out of 100 kWh of electricity produced in the power plant, approx. 10 kWh is lost in the transmission and distribution networks, 5 kWh during charging of the car and another 10 kWh in the battery and drive system. Of the same 100 kWh of electricity, in the case of hydromobility, we lose 30 kWh on the distribution of electricity and water electrolysis. Another 15 kWh on the storage, transport and refueling of hydrogen, and the last 30 kWh in fuel cells and the drive of the car.

Will there be a problem with automatic gearboxes in trucks?

I asked a road transport specialist about this and this is the answer I got:
Hello, Towing/pushing a truck with the engine switched off is theoretically possible, because trucks do not receive automatic gearboxes, but automated gearboxes. In terms of construction, it is like a manual gearbox (so it can completely shift into "neutral"), controlled by a computer instead of a human.
The caveat, however, is that the towed/pushed truck must maintain access to compressed air, because without it the brakes will lock up. In roadside assistance, this is done by connecting the truck's braking system to the tow truck's pneumatics. Here, one could think of a similar connection to the "Hybrid Connector", which would allow for the continuity of air pumping to the brakes.
Alternatively, it would be possible to create a system in which the truck's engine would be running all the time, even when the electric mode was active, simply maintaining idle speed. This is how hybrid trucks were once done, and Fuso even introduced it for sale. The general idea seems very sound to me, and the idea of ​​combining it with a pantograph is great (congratulations!)

PART D

PART D - Economy, you fool!

Point de reveries, messieurs!

Changes in our lives can be made in two ways:

  1. Evolutionary - that is, we build better and better batteries, more and more stations and charging points, and gradually encourage or force people to use new solutions.
  2. Revolutionary - from time to time, an idea appears that goes beyond the scheme, invented by a person who does not know that something cannot be done. Instead of building better and faster horse-drawn carriages, suddenly a combustion engine appears on the market.

I believe it was Steve Jobs, who once said - "people should not be given the products they want, but those they do not yet know that they will need". If you asked people today if they would like to travel in their car on some strange electric trailer, most of them, maybe even 99 percent, would answer that it makes no sense. Cars on electric tow trucks? Insane!

Kirchberg-in-Tyrol is a small, charming village in Tyrol in the Austrian mountains. I used to go there often, for personal reasons. My route looked like this:

  1. First I would get on the bus line 105 and go to the train station
  2. Then I would take a night train from Krakow to Munich for about 10 hours
  3. Then in Munich I would get a train to Worgl
  4. And only there I would have another direct train to Kirchberg. All this, from leaving home to the final point, took about 16-18 hours.

However, after arriving at my destination, I had to walk everywhere. The only options were taxis, which were very expensive and you had to wait a long time. So I started driving, which was very tiring. And during these trips I often wondered if I would ever be able to implement my idea that would make long journeys more enjoyable and less expensive?

I can give you plenty of such examples, not only concerning passenger cars. Small delivery vans too. Over a year ago, during one of my 70 trips to Ukraine with humanitarian aid, we drove a small delivery van to a town called Lyman in eastern Ukraine in the Donetsk region. We had about 1000 kg of various goods - food, warm shoes, power generators, power banks, etc. But to get there, we first had to drive 24 hours non-stop from Krakow to Kharkiv - one person driving, another checking if they were not falling asleep, the third sleeping in the back. Then from Kharkiv we drove south-east to Slaviansk and there we turned even further east. During the entire route we burned about 400 liters of diesel in both directions on a route of 3500 km. Despite the blockade, Russian oil still reaches Europe, only by a roundabout route and probably a large part of this fuel that we bought in Poland was extracted from the Siberian icy abysses. Is this all science fiction?

Absolutely not. We have all the pieces of the puzzle, all the technology. We really don't have to invent anything new. It's just a matter of combining many factors, connecting dots, doing tests, prototyping and politics. We need bold visionaries, courageous investors and wise politicians – the latter may be the hardest. The question is - how much do we want to move away from our dependence on oil? My idea has nothing to do with miracles. Or science fiction. This pure common sense. It is very simple, logical and cheap. The technology is there. The most important part- it is scalable. We don't have to do everything right now. Instant and at once. And it is cheap. The Hyperloop cost 450 million dollars. If I had 10 percent of that money, I would colonize the Moon.

Money, money, money..

It is not difficult to create a good and expensive product, the art is to build something useful and cheap. I am not an engineer, but I can think. In my life I have designed several electrical devices used for example to propel a bicycle or a car ("Third Wheel", "Electric Pushing Trailer"). These were interesting designs, but without any practical significance. Now I want to change that and overturn the established technological order. The most important thought I have is "safe and cheap". If I manage to obtain money for building a prototype and testing, then I will direct all my energy, my ingenuity and thinking towards reducing costs. If, for example, power stations for cables are expensive, then let's think about how to reduce their price. Maybe instead of steel, let's build an aluminum Connector for transporting goods that have a large volume but are lightweight. Is this a good idea? I don't know, but you definitely have to consider everything. Every path. Look under every rock. Don't lock yourself in thinking that something is impossible, unfeasible or stupid.

I hope that I will live to see the day when the last Russian and Saudi oil well is closed and the entire world demand can be satisfied by democratic countries like the USA, Canada or Brazil. We will certainly not achieve this in an evolutionary way.