That has to be one the best videos on this channel for a very long time. I'm all for fancy new cars and stuff but this repurposing of existing assets is what we really need. Fantastic.
A little further info the mention 95% of fuel Australia imports cost peaking at approximate AU$ 4 bn per month In March 2022, which is approximately 5% of monthly Australian GDP for 2022. Note depending on import export economic factored the percentage can rise higher the 12% of monthly GDP. It should be an economic imperative and a aspect of national security that Australia goes electric. I agree that Repurposing of existing assets is one way of achieving this.
Yes, I especially like the fact that their conversion has been fitted to all the major truck manufacturers. I'd like to see economical conversion "kits" for cars, but where $125k works for a working asset like a big truck, even $10k for an ICE car conversion probably would sell well. Which means the existing 2 billion ICE cars on the road are going to be scrap value in less than 20 years. You would think that if Subaru can sell an ICE AWD car for $20k, they could substitute electric drive unit and battery for the ICE components and sell an EV version for $25k -- instead the Soltera is like $40k.
@@freethinker4991 lol!!! Fuel is needed for a lot of things and way more purposes and there are alternatives like biodiesel, biogas and gas which Australia also has alot!
@@petergersbach7355 I think the beauty of this system is exactly in the fact you can do it either way. Unlike all the attempts in battery swapping for cars where it is pretty much the only option. With this system, you can have them changed without specially built robot. In some remote rural location, it is easier to implement. Like literally any old forklift with 3T lifting capacity can do it. Or anything you can fit forks on. Like a truck with manipulator arm, or a tractor.
This makes complete sense. Recycling existing trucks. Getting around charging issues by swapping the batteries and then conditioning & charging them in a storage unit to keep them at optimum efficiency. Well done to these guys.
Nothing is simple on an EV because of the dangers involved. You don't just change batteries because there's a process to go through to make sure staff are safe and the vehicle works afterward.
Ummm, the idea of swapping batteries has been done for a long time.... look at electric forklifts in certain wearhouses. This just takes it to a different level.... and I am sure the cage the batts sit in are crash tested...
@@Kaliburz now that lithium battery is coming to forklifts they go away from changing the battery. I loading at a place where they change their forklifts to lithium ion battery and they charge them in place in the forklift.
As an employee I'm thrilled to see what you have produced from your visit. It was a pleasure to meet you and watch how you put these brilliant videos together!!
I got a question for you. Are these not using lithium ion batteries and if they are where is the thermal management system? Do you have master service disconnects?
@@richardsullman7939 there’s been a couple of there truck conversions combust, not to mention Janus’s own test truck which caught fire during testing last year.
I recently retired after 30 years working in a large manufacturing plant using 150 electric fork lift trucks. We have been utilizing battery swap out systems where spare batteries are charging while other batteries are being used just as these Janus systems are using for trucks. Great idea.
It just makes perfect sense to utilize exchangeable batteries like power tools to forget about charging downtime. And it's brilliant that they're refurbishing existing trucks to run on batteries rather than wasting the money manufacturing an entire new fleet
It seems like Tesla and other similar companies are trying too hard to be futuristic. We need more companies like Janus and Edison motors that are taking a common sense approach at electrifying the transportation & vocational industries
@@alanmay7929 Your argument using remote outback transport operations is ridiculous. It’s clearly not for that. It’s for freight operators using standard routes between populated areas. Depot to depot.
Brilliant video. So inspiring to see a small Aussie company taking practical steps to repurpose existing truck stock for the EV transition. I wish you every success
A local logging company here in South Australia recently took delivery, Looks like a great bit of gear. This is certainly a great way to help smooth out the grid and make the most of our abundance of renewables we have available to us.
Absolutely. Also very applicable to bus operations which run on more predefined routes. Given the numbers he quoted it would seem National Express Coaches could run from Newcastle to London on a single charge. Then swap out at London Victoria coach station. Future looks interesting.
@@marviwilson1853 I hope that they relocate Victoria coach station before this technology arrives - it's already overcrowded and unpleasant for both passengers and NEC drivers!
Of course in Australia it's a real no-brainer. They're a country the size of China (or the US minus Alaska) with a population less than half of the UK and a distance from the Sun of roughly 50km. They have so much potential for clean renewable energy there and all the resources for batteries. The one thing they have less of, because of their small population, is a labor pool, but everything else exists in abundance there. If they don't go fully electric of all countries then something is very wrong.
It’s great to see these stories coming out of Australia. I don’t think I have ever seen a positive story about the electrification of transport in Australia, lovely to see FCS putting the record straight.
Brilliant episode ❤ I love how Robert manages to find entrepreneurs who repurpose great vehicles by swapping in more efficient power trains. Not everything needs to be scrapped and built brand new👍
The manufacturing statistics the Janus guy was quoting meant that trucks had to be recycled to meet the emissions targets; new trucks are not made fast enough.
This is breath of fresh air! The amount of pollution that this solution addresses is incredible. The cultural issue that this address is terrific. I've been waiting for someone to take this approach. 🤩
The amount of pollution is actually not that bad considering that all those trucks have exhaust treatments systems unlike those massive aircrafts, ships……
@@alanmay7929 But the question is always how well are these exhaust treatment systems maintained? How many are out there on our roads worldwide running at less than acceptable levels?
@@markcayer4859 The trucks exhaust management systems are reducing the trucks engine life and increasing costs. This solution represents a forward path that can begin the journey. The key part is that the system allows batteries to be upgraded.
This has to be the smartest conversion I have seen after looking at all the electric cars and trucks over the years. Having worked on trucks for 30 years, this is going to be a great game changer for the trucking industry. Reducing emissions in the cities will be greatly reduced with this style of conversion. The diesel will not be replaced but this conversion will assist the movement of goods in all countries including where I live in Canada. This is what our government should bring into the country. If this can go across country, it will be great to see. As it is a long way across Canada, a battery exchange system across the country will greatly enhance this technology. I hope it takes off as pollution is killing us all and the world.
Fantastic to see this kind of enginuity happening in my own back yard Australia!! Wish I could be in Sydney this weekend for the Live show! Alas I don’t think I can but I’m going to try and help this company any way I can! Thanks to Robert and the Fully Charged crew for bringing us these incredible innovations first hand!
The solution shown in this episode seems ideal for local hauling infrastructure. It's also easy to imagine a short trailer containing several additional battery modules to extend the range. The ideas shown here are all very good and clearly demonstrate what is possible with just a little bit of imagination and engineering. Robotic battery exchange is certainly a good next step, along with standard form factors for the battery modules. I think this company has the right ideas for how to move forward, particularly the part about re-powering older vehicles. Overall, an outstanding proof of concept and productization of technologies.
It's not just for local routes. Janus has installed a battery swap station at Albury/Wodonga which is about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne which makes it easy for a Janus truck to do this run
You forget batteries are heavy, the more batteries and the bigger you make them the less load the truck can carry, It is not as simple as adding more batteries or even bigger batteries.
@@mustangecoboosthpp3869 No argument here. The question is what loads must go where, when, and how best to move them within a particular range. A trailer of nothing but batteries added into the rest of the load is, in a sense pulling its own weight, the question being how much more it can contribute to the load-carrying and range capacity of the whole vehicle. This is where energy density and rolling resistance enter the equation, along with the topology of the terrain that must be covered.
@@mustangecoboosthpp3869 Also the batteries replace the existing diesel tanks which hold about a tonne of fuel so two tonnes of battery isn't making a huge difference. But the reduction fuel costs would make a huge difference. Another thought would be the consistent weight. A battery weighs the same charged or discharged, so you get a consistent and predictable weight on the driven wheels. With a diesel setup the weight on the driven wheels reduces by around tonne when the fuel tank gets low.
Probably a little less brake dust, but not much. They still need regular brakes on the trailer, and they already use engine braking as much as possible. Braking has to be biased, i.e. the trailer must apply more braking force than the cab or else the trailer will jackknife.
@@darrell857 Or did he mean exhaust particulates? Also, the regenerative braking is a direct replacement for the existing exhaust brakes. Except the regenerative brakes can be used in a suburban area without waking everyone up. It sounds like it would be a neat system. For drivers of regular passenger vehicles the regenerative braking is something new and needs getting used to. But for drivers of these electric trucks, they would already be totally familiar with pressing a button to switch on brakes to assist with stopping or down hill speed control. It seems like there would be less retraining required for an electric truck than there is for an electric family vehicle.
@@darrell857 trucker here. dont disregard the engine braking in reducing particulate from brakes. on a scania you can only get 120 killowatts retarder or 180 if you spec it like that. mercedes gets 500 killowatt regen braking on their electric trucks. in america you have double drive which can put nearly double the regen braking on the ground. you could do most of your braking with regen. only drop the hammer when panick braking.
As a 35 year veteran North American Continental International truck driver, I totally love it. This system definitely needs to be replicated in North America!
I remember many years ago when you reported on Better Place and their idea of battery swapping. This seems like it could be the future for trucking in the US. One thing to add is that this could significantly reduce overhead for independent owner/operators, thereby increasing their income.
Being able to swap in a few minutes is nice, but is it really necessary ? With large enough battery storage systems on site to do the charging, fast DC-DC charging can be done in 20 minutes regardless of pack size -- that is barely a bathroom break every 4 hours of driving. And you might save weight with a battery pack that doesn't need to be robust enough for all that constant handling.
@@counterfit5 There is fast charging and fast charging. Under 3C rate charging won't hurt a battery with active temperature management. 3C means a 20 minute charge.
@@kirkellis4329 You can't fast charge above 70%. It drops to 1C and then drops further fast. With these size of batteries you carry around 200 kWh of extra battery (over half a ton) to fast charge from 5-80% in 20 minutes. Actually significantly more weight. The current design looks air cooled, since it only has 3 electric plugs connecting to the truck. Both packs would then also need a big ac unit plus the liquid to cool the batteries. And then there is the cost of electricity. A fast charged kWh costs at least 50 cent from the grid, while you can charge for less than 10 cent if you hook it up to solar or wind directly. With a consumption of 250kWh/100km, you basically save $1 per km driven. That are two drivers wages.
When this dropped I thought, This has nothing at all to do with me. I was wrong! All I can say is wow! This kind of thinking can change the world, great job, thanks Robert, I'm never skipping one of these videos again.
Swapping batteries will be the best solution as we get suffcient battery supplies and hopefully standardzied packs and management systems that can recognize the state of each battery pack to make configurations on the fly.
I think I may have suggested you do a video on Janus some time ago but you probably already had them on your radar. The swappable concept is better for more applications than the Tesla recharging model. Key to adoption will be infrastructure build out and I would hazard a guess Janus will partner with private equity or a big player or sell out entirely as the initial investment to bring this to wide spread adoption would have to be huge. Whatever the case, their swappable, modular system has so many more advantages. Lex used to run a fuel tanker company and he has pivoted 180* into this field. I have to take my hat off to him. He recognises the direction the world is travelling in and sees a business opportunity. I hope they do really well.
This makes perfect sense. Reusing existing trucks means they don’t end up in a landfill. For heavy vehicles like this that do the same routes everyday, this is a great solution.
Renewable power is potentially abundent but we're probably decades away from it actually being abundantly available. It takes a very long time to fund design, manufacture and build the stuff.
@@toby9999 not that long, it is just a matter of political will and public influence. Decentralised renewable energy production is key. In that respect, it’s pretty quick to design and install a solar installation.
Solar is already abundant to the point that power is so cheap during the day that solar farms are struggling somewhat to make any money from the power they produce, meaning they are taking longer to pay back their installation costs. This means it's less attractive for investors to fund new solar farms, because it's taking longer and longer (years/decades) for the solar farm to turn any sort of profit. This is why battery storage is so exciting for people involved in commercial solar, because once the price drops to the point it is financially feasible to add batteries to a solar farm, it means the farm can start feeding power into the grid at night, when it's most profitable.
@@toby9999 The mention 95% of fuel Australia imports peaking at approximate AU$ 4 bn per month In March 2022, which is approximately 5% of monthly Australian GDP for 2022. Note depending on import export economic factored the percentage can rise higher the 12% of monthly GDP. It should be an economic imperative and a aspect of national security that Australia goes electric.
@@Berkeloid0 Good point, and when these truck batteries are swapped out and charged during the day they can take advantage of this. Hopefully they can park up and swap out at the end of the day to recharge in the morning
So glad you were able to do a story on Janus. I've been following them for some time and think their product is brilliant. Now governments need to give them and the trucking industry some support to upgrade our stinking fleet of trucks.
- too bad for those who say ""too complicated, can;'t be done. Simple- palletised battery, fork it in. Get back Trucking. The "Energy as a service model is the "no brainer" - obvs Janus have their Finances lined up (Where is the Noisy green Billionaires in this aspect... - NB, sure it won't suit all routes, will to the East/Southeast coast Capitals inter-routes (if Janus put in service centres, even owner drivers can use them)..
I was having a bit of back-and-forth with an EV hater on FB the other day. He said all EVs were "vanity toys." He liked big American monster trucks - these things would eat them Tonka trucks for lunch! I love what Janus Trucks is doing. The Power, the speed of swapping, the fact that they can retrofit into old trucks... it's all brilliant! This needs to be implemented worldwide.
This is without doubt the best video on Fully Charged. Sensible, well thought out solutions by small companies that will lead us to net zero. Well presented Mr Llewellyn. Thank you.
Axle/driveshaft made by Dana. My family used to work for Dana, which had plants in Pennsylvania (USA) back in the day. Very cool to see this Austrailian firm rebuilding trucks to electric that were probably made here in the northeastern USA. Our work lives on.
I've been saying for years that Australia needs to transition to electric from a national security standpoint. If there was conflict with China the whole country would shutdown instantly because of the lack of fuel.
@@alanmay7929 Our reliance on imported fuel leaves us in an extremely venerable position. We have enough natural resources to produce all our energy with renewables, there's no reason we can't speed up adoption of EV's
@@lamsmiley1944 wrong!!!!! It's all about good relationships and a good gestion of what you already have! Australia is located in a very good location to be supplied with oil,let's not forget that the same oil is also needed to manufacturing tons and tons of products like tires, plastics, lubricants, fuel foe aviation, mining construction......
These guys are so spot on with what they’re doing, reusing existing trucks, decoupling the batteries and battery technology from the trucks and so on. This is exactly what’s needed in the passenger car industry, those affordable EV’s could exist right now, as reconditioned popular cars like VW golfs, BMW 3 series etc with new electric motors and quick change batteries and I expect with the amazing new battery technologies coming to fruition in the next few years this is exactly what will happen.
Not really. Trucks last much longer than passenger cars (and cost a LOT more) which makes it more worth it to retrofit. Making new EVs is far more efficient than retrofitting.
@@Simon-dm8zv beg to differ, it’s £50k for an EV and battery prices and densities are dropped by the day, soon it will be possible to simply lift the engine and drop in an entire battery drive module.
@@donaldduck5731 EVs start at about 25k. Retrofitting is not easy nor cheap. Batteries often need to be part of the subframe of the car to be safe enough. For that money you cannot retrofit an existing vehicle and create an EV with comparable performance as a new EV.
This might be of use to the really heavy haulage firms in the UK. About a decade ago I was talking to some Alleleys folk who were bringing us two second hand railway bridges (don't ask!) and one comment they made was their tractor units have longer than usual lifespans & would have difficulty matching increasingly stringent emissions standards and they were worried if they'd effectively be banned from city centres. This sort of upgrade would give them this class of heavy haulage with zero tailpipe emissions, longer equipment life and possibly lower running costs. Wins all round.
Within a decade, the tock! tock! tock! of diesel engines idling (refer trucks ect.) in a parking lot will be only a memory. No smell, no nitrogen oxides, no micro particulate carbon particles, brilliant!
It is a very neat solution. Electric truck arrives, forklift driver spends some time offloading the goods, then the same forklift driver swaps over the battery. The truck is back on the road. No robots needed.
But you have to pay for 2 batteries $$$ and a storage and charging facility for one of the batteries $$$ and your battery wont be compatible with any other battery or charging facility from any other manufacture so we will have to have duplication of many items with no compatibly therefore the support cost of the electronics / batteries will be high. VS Pull into a service station for 10 15 minutes!
@@rods6405 Yep, 10-15 minutes and $1000 to $3000 dollars. I think transport companies would be more concerned with the fuel costs rather than driver convenience. The suitability of the electric truck will vary greatly depending on how it is used. If your use case is long distance transporting then this system wouldn't likely be suitable. But if you had multiple trucks doing deliveries within the same city and returning to a common location after each delivery then this system may be very suitable. Something like a cement delivery business. Truck gets a freshly charged battery, goes on a local trip to deliver the cement then returns. Battery is swapped, fresh cement is loaded and the process repeats. Depending on trip time and battery charge rate, one spare battery could be enough for multiple trucks.
Robert, your latest trip to Aussie has not disappointed! Thanks for revealing the excellent work Janus Trucks are doing right here in Oz! I hope that some of the big transport companies may see merit in their solution and adopt it. Thanks also for the EV ride on deck mower piece--great and I hope more of this being adopted by government bodies will help improve the tech and drive costs closer to that of the ICE versions.
@@--Nath-- it depends on which roads you take and those swapping stations will definitely not be as practical or everywhere like charging stations or gas stations.
I so wish I could be the agent for these guys in Canada. The drive on this side of the world, for companies to achieve net-zero means that this will be the in thing in the near future.
We don't have any seriously cold temperatures here in Australia, -4C would be about the worst we'd experience. I'm sure it could be adapted for arctic conditions though, especially if it can be kept warm and insulated while charging in the station
Wow! This stuff is moving so fast now I'm struggling to keep up. I'm a UK trucker, but unfortunately, at 60yrs don't think I'll get to drive an EVHGV before I retire.
So every 300 kilometers you WILL need (and also pay for it) a charging facility WITH personnel AND fully loaded interchangeable batteries? Is there a liquid cooling for this batteries or not? For the current you are pulling out of the batteries to move 97 tons I suppose there has to be some cooling technology on board (and at the charging stations also) - which complicates the whole thing and makes it expensive.
I hope someone like him gets into providing conversions for regular cars. So far in Aus theres only one place, jaunt, that offers conversions for upmarket classic cars, and they charge 70k for the privilege. Double than what's justifiable. The bloke here seems to genuinely care about upcycling, the environment, the need to transition and national energy security. Really refreshing to see.
300km under difficult conditions; 400-600km under the best of conditions. This is fantastic stuff. I would like to see them use an electric forklift to remove and install the batteries instead of their propane lifts.
True, but, other countries are equally innovative too. Unfortunately although the swappable battery appears a good idea at first glance you would need to see if the concept worked with many thousands trucks using these replaceable batteries. Too soon to know if the idea works beyond a few trucks. Other countries are investing in hydrogen burning engines and hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks and public transport.
This is absolutely awesome! Love the idea of solar on the warehouse roof and some extra batteries being charged, then swapped on arrival. Amazing to imagine it all put together!
They’d better keep a whole bunch of Js on hand in case one falls off the sign out front. Or worse, someone steals it like we had here in Czechia with Hornbach. I say they steal their own J and it gets into the news. That’s some awesome free publicity. Even bad press is good press, and everyone loves a funny joke.
I see one of these converted cement trucks caught fire in Melbourne causing major disruption on the West Gate freeway last year. Firies hand great difficulty putting it out. Caveat emptor.
Great episode and good to see a company doing these conversions. $125K USD for the conversion and another $125K for the batteries probably. I can see that if you are constantly swapping batteries, it wouldn't make sense to own it unless you are operating your own fleet and rotating your own batteries. Unless there is a swapping infrastructure, though, this would be limited to fleets operating locally or moving between their own hubs within range. Independent operators wouldn't be able to do long haul runs without a swap infrastructure.
they address they charging infrastructure problem in the 'batteries as a service' part of the vid.. leasing/renting of batteries not in use. There's a 'hub' of sorts currently being built in Taree, NSW that I believe will be operated by Pearson's Transport. They'll buy the batteries outright and pay the upfront investment to the infrastructure that they use, and the electricity to charge and 'house' them, and then 'rent' out the ones not currently being utilised to other companies who perhaps don't have the money to invest in the batteries, but still want to convert some trucks. Janus still gets paid, Pearsons get to recur their upfront investment quicker, and other companies get to convert their own trucks for cheaper overall.
With the basic shape of trucks, there is scope for solar panels on top of the trailers to act as a range booster, to top up the range as you drive along. Given the size of the trailers a lot of panels could be added for daytime running.
There's room for about 4kw of PV on the roof, or about 20-25kwh per day collected. That would add 10-15km of range per day. Probably not worth the cost of installing PV on the truck when a 2% larger battery pack would add that much range and the PV panels could be kept safe on the ground at the swap station.
The cargo container roof could be up to 47 sq. meter. Assuming that the solar cells are 20% efficient that around 9.4KW/h with effective time of 4 hours, that around 37kw. Semi truck require around 2.5kw per KM, so 37KW/2.5KW/h=14.8 km
Won’t add shit and trailers are swapped all the time between trucking lines and intermodal (trains) - at least in the US. And some trailers are just shipping containers set on frames and wheels. I doubt AUS is much different.
Very interesting report, it's nice that other companies have also recognized that electric drives are the future for trucks too...keep it up so that many customers buy their system. Greetings from Berlin / Germany
This makes so much sense. Battery swapping for general car use is highly questionable but for HGV systems like this it is a clear winner. Repurposing existing trucks too! Excellent information clearly expressed without hype and spin. Superb episode.
So many good points are mentioned in this video. For the company: lower maintenance, running costs, etc. For the local environment: noise pollution For the country: energy independence I mean.. win, win, win.. And also how easy and comfortable EV are to drive. We need all-electric solutions ASAP. Either in the form of new products (e.g. Tesla Semi) or solutions like this one by Janus Trucks.
this has got to be better by every metric i can think of. lower particulate matter, from emissions, AND brakes, little to no wear and tear on brakes, regen, cost per mile to move it, reliability, torque, drivetrain durability/longevity, less noise pollution (these big rigs are NOISY AF), ease of operation, etc.
No brainer. Only need to have huge solar system on some of these massive warehouses charging the battery packs and the cost savings for the transport industry would be enormous.
In rural Australia you have a roadhouse (for fuel, food and toilet breaks) more or less at the point where your fuel tank will empty. Imagine each one now has a huge PV array and this battery charging and swapping tech. Now your road trains can do those huge distances plus you have no need for fuel transportation to these rural locations which is hugely inefficient (burning the stuff you are trying to deliver).
Absolutely cracking video. While Janus have solved electrification of trucks and freight, they have clearly thought more broadly about battery tech, swapping and distributed energy storage applications. Very impressive! 👍
Learned a lot about big rigs from this video. Amazing about the average age and how the weight is not alot different but with future tech that could equal out or even get less. Love to know what the drivers think of this who have driven them. No engine brake noise like I hear all the time from the trucks, the regen is amazing. The TCO must be fantastic over the rest of the life of the truck. Battery swapping for these is a perfect solution, can see swap stations across the Nullabor and huge solar farms nearby to charge them up with and use as grid level backup even for the communities they are in/near. Have to see if they are going to be at FCL on the weekend.
I was kinda wondering how the regenerative braking would compare to engine braking power wise. I would think it could match it and possible be less likely to lock the wheels on slippery surface too
Hmm ... Australians catching up on transportation tech ??? Australians are perfectly capable of leading in other technologies. Have a squint at their commercial electronics industry and go from there.
@@t1n4444 yeah, sorry that wasn't what I meant to imply at all. 😏 I was merely referencing the repression of the adoption of renewables and EV etc by the previous administration. Guess I shouldn't comment on these things with which I have only a passing acquaintance. Apologies.🙏😏
I saw a similar design when visiting NZ a year ago. The battery was lifted from the top (behind the cab) instead and switched out 3 mins. Amazing time to be living in when large trucks are battery operated :)
second thing I've seen that is talking practical sense about what we need to do, rather then just trying to sell the next version of a partial/non solution. This is awesome and is actually addressing the problems, the other is JCB and their hydrogen engine.
New engines, which also use counter rotating magnets inside them are also changing the way energy is produced. Interesting new inventions are happening every moment all around the world. The future of transport will be at this rate incredible!
A hundred years ago Nikola Tesla drove an electric car for a week using power that came from a small box of components. Free energy occurs when energy is transduced from a higher dimension down into this one. We are on the verge of a change in the paradigms of science, both in terms of physics and medicine and batteries will soon be seen as we view oil lamps as a form of lighting.
What a great idea!! We need to see more of these in Europe and USA too!! Reusing current trucks much better for environment!! Would have been good to mention how much those engines rebuilds would cost in comparison. 👍
I literally can't smash the 👍button enough.... Build a string of charging/battery swappover depots with a Cafe/shower down the highway everywhere 400km apart.
This made far more sense than many fully charged shows I have watched and it has finally touched on the logistics of converting the global trucking fleet to lower greenhouse gas emissions and that is we can not do it in the time frame talked about by politicians and environmental commentators if we want to do it via new vehicles because that is a fact of the math and not an opinion. Where a BEV truck is appropriate to use will depend on its operating parameters in relation to availability of charged batteries and trucks operated by companies with set runs that begin and end in the depot each day are the most likely to fit this model. That will still cover a lot of vehicles. I have my reservations about the exchange battery option in that regular inspection of the battery packs will be needed to ensure faulty batteries are detected so they don't damage other parts or become dangerous when charging. I have been around forklifts all my life and I know that anything that has to be handled gently and put precisely in place is on a hiding to nothing if it's being shifted by a forklift and operator. I think the process has merit and would work for many operators but not all but that is what the whole shift to renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction will face, no single technology will replace the majority of what we have now in all the areas that need attention. It is going to be horses for courses and even having to use second best until the best can be developed.
Hi Robert, I'm glad you have been in Australia for the last few weeks prior to fully charged live in Sydney. You have given me an opportunity to see what an absolutely fantastic world leading role that so many innovative Australian businesses and some Governments are doing in the sustainable energy sector. I was used to you bagging Australia for being so out of touch and I must admit it's not a good look when the Prime Minister brings lumps of coal into parliament but it seems that our businesses are a lot more switched on than our politicians. So, Labour, Liberals and you useless Greens (I’m a green but I’m definitely not a useless, self-interested Australian Greens Party git) get off your arses and do something in the sustainable energy sector. Perhaps the Teals can help? PS Robert, by all means bag Australian politicians but please don't bag Australia.
Super cool solution. Crashes right through all the myths that people invent to argue electrical trucks are impractical and expensive. 1) swap the battery in a few minutes gets rid of long charging tines. 2) these guys are pulling 96 tonnes. That's higher than is legal on the roads in a lot of countries. Not an issue. 3) The weight: they remove 3.5 tonnes of engine and infrastructure and put back about 4 tonnes batteries and drive train. So half a tonne extra weight is not nothing. But on a truck that pulls 96 tonnes it's not a whole lot. It's not going to matter. 4) The battery goes into the same space occupied by the old ICE system. 2x 600kwh battery system. That's 1.2 mwh. Plenty of power, plenty of range. 5) The cost is fine. Much lower operating cost due to low energy cost and simpler maintenance. Over the life time of the vehicle it will save money. I like how they are giving old trucks a second life. These conversions can speed up EV adoption among truckers. Waiting for trucks to be written off and replaced would indeed take decades. Of course new trucks that are designed to be electric might still perform better.
I’ll stick with my Detroit in my Peterbuilt for now. This is a great innovation and I think it will take off. I really like it bc I could still keep my truck and convert it
We use to do battery swapping on our lift equipment in my warehouse were I work. Then we switched to fast charging systems which were ok but the batteries were only good for three years even though the manufacturer said we should be getting five years out of a single battery. So we recently changed to hydrogen fuel cell batteries and other than some computer issues they have been great. I think this will be the future of global logistics.
Not many hard questions, I note. So if you're adding one tonne to the overall tractor-trailer combination by exchanging the diesel powertrain for batteries and motors, is a trucking operator prepared to sacrifice one tonne's worth of PAY-load on every single trip? On a small fleet of five trucks, that's potentially five tonnes of cargo not paying bills or salaries on every trip. Trucking operators don't give a shit about emissions. They care about getting paid. Otherwise, what's the point? Fleet management is about numbers, it's about weight, costs and margins. Lindsay Fox doesn't run one of the country's biggest fleets on good intentions. He does it based on numbers. Don't get me wrong - it's a great concept and it's nice to see some Aussie innovations coming through in this way. Best of luck to them. I genuinely hope it succeeds. But in order to make it viable, as a journalist, you've got to ask harder questions than "Wow."
That has to be one the best videos on this channel for a very long time. I'm all for fancy new cars and stuff but this repurposing of existing assets is what we really need. Fantastic.
A little further info the mention 95% of fuel Australia imports cost peaking at approximate AU$ 4 bn per month In March 2022, which is approximately 5% of monthly Australian GDP for 2022. Note depending on import export economic factored the percentage can rise higher the 12% of monthly GDP. It should be an economic imperative and a aspect of national security that Australia goes electric. I agree that Repurposing of existing assets is one way of achieving this.
Yes, I especially like the fact that their conversion has been fitted to all the major truck manufacturers. I'd like to see economical conversion "kits" for cars, but where $125k works for a working asset like a big truck, even $10k for an ICE car conversion probably would sell well. Which means the existing 2 billion ICE cars on the road are going to be scrap value in less than 20 years. You would think that if Subaru can sell an ICE AWD car for $20k, they could substitute electric drive unit and battery for the ICE components and sell an EV version for $25k -- instead the Soltera is like $40k.
Yeah very true.
It was a little ironic to see them using a gas forklift though tbh.
@@freethinker4991 lol!!! Fuel is needed for a lot of things and way more purposes and there are alternatives like biodiesel, biogas and gas which Australia also has alot!
@@freethinker4991 the Prelude FLNG from shell is a mamooth of gas production in Australia they can easily use to power those trucks and vehicles.
Can we acknowledge how precise our chap here is with his forklift?
Also, really good concept and amazing to see it on the road and working.
I wonder how its connected. There have to be some rails to guide battery to the connector.
@@volkhen0 at 14.32 in the video it shows the connectors in the charging rack that look like 3 GB/T DC connectors.
14:32 thanks
And the forklift is only until the robotic system is up and running. How good is that?
@@petergersbach7355 I think the beauty of this system is exactly in the fact you can do it either way. Unlike all the attempts in battery swapping for cars where it is pretty much the only option. With this system, you can have them changed without specially built robot. In some remote rural location, it is easier to implement. Like literally any old forklift with 3T lifting capacity can do it. Or anything you can fit forks on. Like a truck with manipulator arm, or a tractor.
This makes complete sense. Recycling existing trucks. Getting around charging issues by swapping the batteries and then conditioning & charging them in a storage unit to keep them at optimum efficiency. Well done to these guys.
To bad that Tesla scrapped their test to have interchangeable batteries.
Nothing is simple on an EV because of the dangers involved. You don't just change batteries because there's a process to go through to make sure staff are safe and the vehicle works afterward.
Ummm, the idea of swapping batteries has been done for a long time.... look at electric forklifts in certain wearhouses. This just takes it to a different level.... and I am sure the cage the batts sit in are crash tested...
@@Kaliburz now that lithium battery is coming to forklifts they go away from changing the battery. I loading at a place where they change their forklifts to lithium ion battery and they charge them in place in the forklift.
@@magnusE7 one of the problems I could see with lithium in a forklift is the lead acid batteries act as part of the counterweight
As an employee I'm thrilled to see what you have produced from your visit. It was a pleasure to meet you and watch how you put these brilliant videos together!!
good to see a familiar face working there......sending regards...TK's brother.
Can't wait to see, one of these batteries pack go thermal melt down
I got a question for you. Are these not using lithium ion batteries and if they are where is the thermal management system? Do you have master service disconnects?
@@richardsullman7939 there’s been a couple of there truck conversions combust, not to mention Janus’s own test truck which caught fire during testing last year.
You guys really need to put this on your website as the primary video and feature list. It's a great video.
Robert, you've been hitting home runs on these latest episodes. Great information!
Ever since he came to Australia!
I recently retired after 30 years working in a large manufacturing plant using 150 electric fork lift trucks. We have been utilizing battery swap out systems where spare batteries are charging while other batteries are being used just as these Janus systems are using for trucks. Great idea.
50 yrs in logistics, this is the way to go with trucks and cars
It just makes perfect sense to utilize exchangeable batteries like power tools to forget about charging downtime. And it's brilliant that they're refurbishing existing trucks to run on batteries rather than wasting the money manufacturing an entire new fleet
It seems like Tesla and other similar companies are trying too hard to be futuristic. We need more companies like Janus and Edison motors that are taking a common sense approach at electrifying the transportation & vocational industries
Now we are talking this is a huge game changer . Robert bring more of this please 😃
These aren’t huge game changers lol!!!!
The huge game changers would be actually making an electric road train that can go through the outback to remote locations….. on unpaved roads
Get @TruckerTim a go in one of these!
@@alanmay7929 Your argument using remote outback transport operations is ridiculous. It’s clearly not for that. It’s for freight operators using standard routes between populated areas. Depot to depot.
@@stuarthancock571 lol!!!!!! My argument is not ridiculous you just had to said what they are designed for wtf!!!
Brilliant video. So inspiring to see a small Aussie company taking practical steps to repurpose existing truck stock for the EV transition. I wish you every success
A local logging company here in South Australia recently took delivery, Looks like a great bit of gear. This is certainly a great way to help smooth out the grid and make the most of our abundance of renewables we have available to us.
Yeah The Mount
Awesome. People ask about recycling batteries, these guys are recycling trucks. This should be done every where. Great video.
Very impressive! As a lorry driver, would love to see this in the UK.
Absolutely. Also very applicable to bus operations which run on more predefined routes. Given the numbers he quoted it would seem National Express Coaches could run from Newcastle to London on a single charge. Then swap out at London Victoria coach station. Future looks interesting.
this should be done in EU as well
Re:"As a lorry driver, would love to see this in the UK".
You mean: - "As a lorry driver, would love to live to see this in the U.K".
Lol!
@@marviwilson1853 I hope that they relocate Victoria coach station before this technology arrives - it's already overcrowded and unpleasant for both passengers and NEC drivers!
Of course in Australia it's a real no-brainer. They're a country the size of China (or the US minus Alaska) with a population less than half of the UK and a distance from the Sun of roughly 50km.
They have so much potential for clean renewable energy there and all the resources for batteries. The one thing they have less of, because of their small population, is a labor pool, but everything else exists in abundance there.
If they don't go fully electric of all countries then something is very wrong.
It’s great to see these stories coming out of Australia. I don’t think I have ever seen a positive story about the electrification of transport in Australia, lovely to see FCS putting the record straight.
That was a truckin' brilliant episode 👏
Brilliant episode ❤ I love how Robert manages to find entrepreneurs who repurpose great vehicles by swapping in more efficient power trains. Not everything needs to be scrapped and built brand new👍
The manufacturing statistics the Janus guy was quoting meant that trucks had to be recycled to meet the emissions targets; new trucks are not made fast enough.
This is breath of fresh air! The amount of pollution that this solution addresses is incredible. The cultural issue that this address is terrific. I've been waiting for someone to take this approach. 🤩
The amount of pollution is actually not that bad considering that all those trucks have exhaust treatments systems unlike those massive aircrafts, ships……
@@alanmay7929 But the question is always how well are these exhaust treatment systems maintained? How many are out there on our roads worldwide running at less than acceptable levels?
Loll. Batteries are way worse
@@gmeister03 Rubbish.
@@markcayer4859 The trucks exhaust management systems are reducing the trucks engine life and increasing costs. This solution represents a forward path that can begin the journey. The key part is that the system allows batteries to be upgraded.
This has to be the smartest conversion I have seen after looking at all the electric cars and trucks over the years. Having worked on trucks for 30 years, this is going to be a great game changer for the trucking industry. Reducing emissions in the cities will be greatly reduced with this style of conversion. The diesel will not be replaced but this conversion will assist the movement of goods in all countries including where I live in Canada. This is what our government should bring into the country. If this can go across country, it will be great to see. As it is a long way across Canada, a battery exchange system across the country will greatly enhance this technology. I hope it takes off as pollution is killing us all and the world.
Well done guys, such an Aussie group of "Blokes" building an awesome system.
Fantastic to see this kind of enginuity happening in my own back yard Australia!! Wish I could be in Sydney this weekend for the Live show! Alas I don’t think I can but I’m going to try and help this company any way I can! Thanks to Robert and the Fully Charged crew for bringing us these incredible innovations first hand!
The solution shown in this episode seems ideal for local hauling infrastructure. It's also easy to imagine a short trailer containing several additional battery modules to extend the range. The ideas shown here are all very good and clearly demonstrate what is possible with just a little bit of imagination and engineering. Robotic battery exchange is certainly a good next step, along with standard form factors for the battery modules. I think this company has the right ideas for how to move forward, particularly the part about re-powering older vehicles. Overall, an outstanding proof of concept and productization of technologies.
It's not just for local routes. Janus has installed a battery swap station at Albury/Wodonga which is about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne which makes it easy for a Janus truck to do this run
You forget batteries are heavy, the more batteries and the bigger you make them the less load the truck can carry, It is not as simple as adding more batteries or even bigger batteries.
@@mustangecoboosthpp3869 their batteries are 2 tonne, the truck's capacity is 97 tonne, so an extra battery is approx 2% of the total capacity.
@@mustangecoboosthpp3869 No argument here. The question is what loads must go where, when, and how best to move them within a particular range. A trailer of nothing but batteries added into the rest of the load is, in a sense pulling its own weight, the question being how much more it can contribute to the load-carrying and range capacity of the whole vehicle. This is where energy density and rolling resistance enter the equation, along with the topology of the terrain that must be covered.
@@mustangecoboosthpp3869 Also the batteries replace the existing diesel tanks which hold about a tonne of fuel so two tonnes of battery isn't making a huge difference. But the reduction fuel costs would make a huge difference. Another thought would be the consistent weight. A battery weighs the same charged or discharged, so you get a consistent and predictable weight on the driven wheels. With a diesel setup the weight on the driven wheels reduces by around tonne when the fuel tank gets low.
The regenerative breaking alone will have a huge impact on particulates. I hadn’t even thought about this. Awesome work.
'Braking'
Probably a little less brake dust, but not much. They still need regular brakes on the trailer, and they already use engine braking as much as possible. Braking has to be biased, i.e. the trailer must apply more braking force than the cab or else the trailer will jackknife.
@@wigs1098 lol
@@darrell857 Or did he mean exhaust particulates? Also, the regenerative braking is a direct replacement for the existing exhaust brakes. Except the regenerative brakes can be used in a suburban area without waking everyone up. It sounds like it would be a neat system. For drivers of regular passenger vehicles the regenerative braking is something new and needs getting used to. But for drivers of these electric trucks, they would already be totally familiar with pressing a button to switch on brakes to assist with stopping or down hill speed control. It seems like there would be less retraining required for an electric truck than there is for an electric family vehicle.
@@darrell857 trucker here. dont disregard the engine braking in reducing particulate from brakes. on a scania you can only get 120 killowatts retarder or 180 if you spec it like that. mercedes gets 500 killowatt regen braking on their electric trucks. in america you have double drive which can put nearly double the regen braking on the ground. you could do most of your braking with regen. only drop the hammer when panick braking.
Just brilliant. 😍 Just like we used to switch horses for “fresher” ones 😂 And I love the fact that they’re converting the old trucks. 🥰
As a 35 year veteran North American Continental International truck driver, I totally love it. This system definitely needs to be replicated in North America!
I remember many years ago when you reported on Better Place and their idea of battery swapping. This seems like it could be the future for trucking in the US. One thing to add is that this could significantly reduce overhead for independent owner/operators, thereby increasing their income.
Being able to swap in a few minutes is nice, but is it really necessary ? With large enough battery storage systems on site to do the charging, fast DC-DC charging can be done in 20 minutes regardless of pack size -- that is barely a bathroom break every 4 hours of driving. And you might save weight with a battery pack that doesn't need to be robust enough for all that constant handling.
@@kirkellis4329 fast charging damages batteries.
Fast charging has negative effects on the lifetime of a battery, and there are losses with the transfer as well.
@@counterfit5 There is fast charging and fast charging. Under 3C rate charging won't hurt a battery with active temperature management. 3C means a 20 minute charge.
@@kirkellis4329 You can't fast charge above 70%. It drops to 1C and then drops further fast. With these size of batteries you carry around 200 kWh of extra battery (over half a ton) to fast charge from 5-80% in 20 minutes. Actually significantly more weight. The current design looks air cooled, since it only has 3 electric plugs connecting to the truck. Both packs would then also need a big ac unit plus the liquid to cool the batteries. And then there is the cost of electricity. A fast charged kWh costs at least 50 cent from the grid, while you can charge for less than 10 cent if you hook it up to solar or wind directly. With a consumption of 250kWh/100km, you basically save $1 per km driven. That are two drivers wages.
When this dropped I thought, This has nothing at all to do with me. I was wrong! All I can say is wow! This kind of thinking can change the world, great job, thanks Robert, I'm never skipping one of these videos again.
This operation so deserves to succeed. So well thought out on many levels.
The sheer clarity of thought and the drive to get the engineering done is wonderful to behold. The future is well on its way.
Nice work Janus Trucks. That's the ticket. :)
Swapping batteries will be the best solution as we get suffcient battery supplies and hopefully standardzied packs and management systems that can recognize the state of each battery pack to make configurations on the fly.
I think I may have suggested you do a video on Janus some time ago but you probably already had them on your radar. The swappable concept is better for more applications than the Tesla recharging model. Key to adoption will be infrastructure build out and I would hazard a guess Janus will partner with private equity or a big player or sell out entirely as the initial investment to bring this to wide spread adoption would have to be huge. Whatever the case, their swappable, modular system has so many more advantages. Lex used to run a fuel tanker company and he has pivoted 180* into this field. I have to take my hat off to him. He recognises the direction the world is travelling in and sees a business opportunity. I hope they do really well.
This makes perfect sense. Reusing existing trucks means they don’t end up in a landfill. For heavy vehicles like this that do the same routes everyday, this is a great solution.
I can see this company going places especially in Australia where renewable power is already abundant .
Renewable power is potentially abundent but we're probably decades away from it actually being abundantly available. It takes a very long time to fund design, manufacture and build the stuff.
@@toby9999 not that long, it is just a matter of political will and public influence. Decentralised renewable energy production is key. In that respect, it’s pretty quick to design and install a solar installation.
Solar is already abundant to the point that power is so cheap during the day that solar farms are struggling somewhat to make any money from the power they produce, meaning they are taking longer to pay back their installation costs. This means it's less attractive for investors to fund new solar farms, because it's taking longer and longer (years/decades) for the solar farm to turn any sort of profit. This is why battery storage is so exciting for people involved in commercial solar, because once the price drops to the point it is financially feasible to add batteries to a solar farm, it means the farm can start feeding power into the grid at night, when it's most profitable.
@@toby9999 The mention 95% of fuel Australia imports peaking at approximate AU$ 4 bn per month In March 2022, which is approximately 5% of monthly Australian GDP for 2022. Note depending on import export economic factored the percentage can rise higher the 12% of monthly GDP. It should be an economic imperative and a aspect of national security that Australia goes electric.
@@Berkeloid0 Good point, and when these truck batteries are swapped out and charged during the day they can take advantage of this. Hopefully they can park up and swap out at the end of the day to recharge in the morning
Just one of those battery packs almost covers my annual electricity use
So glad you were able to do a story on Janus. I've been following them for some time and think their product is brilliant. Now governments need to give them and the trucking industry some support to upgrade our stinking fleet of trucks.
- too bad for those who say ""too complicated, can;'t be done.
Simple- palletised battery, fork it in. Get back Trucking.
The "Energy as a service model is the "no brainer" - obvs Janus have their Finances lined up (Where is the Noisy green Billionaires in this aspect...
- NB, sure it won't suit all routes, will to the East/Southeast coast Capitals inter-routes (if Janus put in service centres, even owner drivers can use them)..
I was having a bit of back-and-forth with an EV hater on FB the other day. He said all EVs were "vanity toys." He liked big American monster trucks - these things would eat them Tonka trucks for lunch!
I love what Janus Trucks is doing. The Power, the speed of swapping, the fact that they can retrofit into old trucks... it's all brilliant! This needs to be implemented worldwide.
This is without doubt the best video on Fully Charged. Sensible, well thought out solutions by small companies that will lead us to net zero. Well presented Mr Llewellyn. Thank you.
Axle/driveshaft made by Dana. My family used to work for Dana, which had plants in Pennsylvania (USA) back in the day. Very cool to see this Austrailian firm rebuilding trucks to electric that were probably made here in the northeastern USA. Our work lives on.
Fantastic. The stat about the amount of diesel the country has at any one time is very interesting and just another reason to change over.
I've been saying for years that Australia needs to transition to electric from a national security standpoint. If there was conflict with China the whole country would shutdown instantly because of the lack of fuel.
@@lamsmiley1944 lol!!! They won’t transition to electric until batteries are good enough for almost everything!
@@alanmay7929 Our reliance on imported fuel leaves us in an extremely venerable position. We have enough natural resources to produce all our energy with renewables, there's no reason we can't speed up adoption of EV's
@@lamsmiley1944 wrong!!!!! It's all about good relationships and a good gestion of what you already have! Australia is located in a very good location to be supplied with oil,let's not forget that the same oil is also needed to manufacturing tons and tons of products like tires, plastics, lubricants, fuel foe aviation, mining construction......
@@lamsmiley1944 WE can only improve EVs in which we improve the battery technology! Oh i even forgot the fuel for trains.....
These guys are so spot on with what they’re doing, reusing existing trucks, decoupling the batteries and battery technology from the trucks and so on. This is exactly what’s needed in the passenger car industry, those affordable EV’s could exist right now, as reconditioned popular cars like VW golfs, BMW 3 series etc with new electric motors and quick change batteries and I expect with the amazing new battery technologies coming to fruition in the next few years this is exactly what will happen.
Not really. Trucks last much longer than passenger cars (and cost a LOT more) which makes it more worth it to retrofit. Making new EVs is far more efficient than retrofitting.
@@Simon-dm8zv beg to differ, it’s £50k for an EV and battery prices and densities are dropped by the day, soon it will be possible to simply lift the engine and drop in an entire battery drive module.
@@donaldduck5731 EVs start at about 25k. Retrofitting is not easy nor cheap. Batteries often need to be part of the subframe of the car to be safe enough. For that money you cannot retrofit an existing vehicle and create an EV with comparable performance as a new EV.
This might be of use to the really heavy haulage firms in the UK. About a decade ago I was talking to some Alleleys folk who were bringing us two second hand railway bridges (don't ask!) and one comment they made was their tractor units have longer than usual lifespans & would have difficulty matching increasingly stringent emissions standards and they were worried if they'd effectively be banned from city centres. This sort of upgrade would give them this class of heavy haulage with zero tailpipe emissions, longer equipment life and possibly lower running costs. Wins all round.
How can you tell us not to ask about transporting two used train bridges?
@@counterfit5 lol... what he said.
Within a decade, the tock! tock! tock! of diesel engines idling (refer trucks ect.) in a parking lot will be only a memory. No smell, no nitrogen oxides, no micro particulate carbon particles, brilliant!
Wow this is a game changer for freight
It is a very neat solution. Electric truck arrives, forklift driver spends some time offloading the goods, then the same forklift driver swaps over the battery. The truck is back on the road. No robots needed.
But you have to pay for 2 batteries $$$ and a storage and charging facility for one of the batteries $$$ and your battery wont be compatible with any other battery or charging facility from any other manufacture so we will have to have duplication of many items with no compatibly therefore the support cost of the electronics / batteries will be high.
VS Pull into a service station for 10 15 minutes!
@@rods6405 Yep, 10-15 minutes and $1000 to $3000 dollars. I think transport companies would be more concerned with the fuel costs rather than driver convenience.
The suitability of the electric truck will vary greatly depending on how it is used. If your use case is long distance transporting then this system wouldn't likely be suitable. But if you had multiple trucks doing deliveries within the same city and returning to a common location after each delivery then this system may be very suitable. Something like a cement delivery business. Truck gets a freshly charged battery, goes on a local trip to deliver the cement then returns. Battery is swapped, fresh cement is loaded and the process repeats. Depending on trip time and battery charge rate, one spare battery could be enough for multiple trucks.
Robert, your latest trip to Aussie has not disappointed! Thanks for revealing the excellent work Janus Trucks are doing right here in Oz! I hope that some of the big transport companies may see merit in their solution and adopt it. Thanks also for the EV ride on deck mower piece--great and I hope more of this being adopted by government bodies will help improve the tech and drive costs closer to that of the ICE versions.
Loving the Australian series and the spread of engineering. And the stats on these trucks - go large or go home!
Only one ton heavier than a disel.... That's phenomenal. These guys are amazing.
You forget to mention significantly way lessssss range than the diesel too!
@@alanmay7929 True, but that's still MANY customers.
@@alanmay7929 How many kms does a prime-mover drive in a typical day?
@Alan May with mandated stops every few hours, I don't see that as being a big issue when you can just forklift on a new one.
@@--Nath-- it depends on which roads you take and those swapping stations will definitely not be as practical or everywhere like charging stations or gas stations.
Spot on, energy sovereignty.
Brilliant! May Janus survive the mayhem in Australia
I so wish I could be the agent for these guys in Canada. The drive on this side of the world, for companies to achieve net-zero means that this will be the in thing in the near future.
We don't have any seriously cold temperatures here in Australia, -4C would be about the worst we'd experience. I'm sure it could be adapted for arctic conditions though, especially if it can be kept warm and insulated while charging in the station
Couriers trucks in a city environment would be perfect
Amazing. Would love to see a follow up video when they have the battery swap robots up and running.
May be a +battery pack under the trailer can be game changer!
Wow! This stuff is moving so fast now I'm struggling to keep up. I'm a UK trucker, but unfortunately, at 60yrs don't think I'll get to drive an EVHGV before I retire.
Pay yourself plane ticket to Down under, and make a fun trip.
I lost cound of how many times Robert says WOW!
Love the fact the Australians are in long sleeves and pants while Bob is in British Summer drag
Skin cancer from overexposure to the sun isn't something most Brits get a chance to worry about.
Nah. It’s Tanning beds that do the real damage here in UK and mostly to young people.
This makes me proud to be an Australian! Common sense solutions to everyday problems.
So every 300 kilometers you WILL need (and also pay for it) a charging facility WITH personnel AND fully loaded interchangeable batteries? Is there a liquid cooling for this batteries or not? For the current you are pulling out of the batteries to move 97 tons I suppose there has to be some cooling technology on board (and at the charging stations also) - which complicates the whole thing and makes it expensive.
I hope someone like him gets into providing conversions for regular cars. So far in Aus theres only one place, jaunt, that offers conversions for upmarket classic cars, and they charge 70k for the privilege. Double than what's justifiable.
The bloke here seems to genuinely care about upcycling, the environment, the need to transition and national energy security. Really refreshing to see.
300km under difficult conditions; 400-600km under the best of conditions. This is fantastic stuff.
I would like to see them use an electric forklift to remove and install the batteries instead of their propane lifts.
And then another electric forklift to swap the batteries in the electric forklift that is swapping batteries!
What an awesome company. They really are showing the way forward for commercial vehicles
True, but, other countries are equally innovative too.
Unfortunately although the swappable battery appears a good idea at first glance you would need to see if the concept worked with many thousands trucks using these replaceable batteries.
Too soon to know if the idea works beyond a few trucks.
Other countries are investing in hydrogen burning engines and hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks and public transport.
Hugh Janus made the sort of Electric truck that some may have anticipated.
This is absolutely awesome! Love the idea of solar on the warehouse roof and some extra batteries being charged, then swapped on arrival. Amazing to imagine it all put together!
You would need a very big roof
Our trucks are cleaner than people think.
I really hope someone called Hugh works here
Don't forget his colleague Mr Kerr. I think his first name is Wayne?
They’d better keep a whole bunch of Js on hand in case one falls off the sign out front. Or worse, someone steals it like we had here in Czechia with Hornbach.
I say they steal their own J and it gets into the news. That’s some awesome free publicity. Even bad press is good press, and everyone loves a funny joke.
I see one of these converted cement trucks caught fire in Melbourne causing major disruption on the West Gate freeway last year. Firies hand great difficulty putting it out. Caveat emptor.
This is amazing. They're really doing it all right. Showing what is actually possible!
Who said it wasn’t possible!?
Janus is to be commended. I hope their battery change system becomes the Australian Standard.
Absolutely bloody brilliant! Go ausies, lead the way to a more sustainable future!
What a horrible accent though
These blokes have a good thing going. I really wish them the best.
Great episode and good to see a company doing these conversions. $125K USD for the conversion and another $125K for the batteries probably. I can see that if you are constantly swapping batteries, it wouldn't make sense to own it unless you are operating your own fleet and rotating your own batteries. Unless there is a swapping infrastructure, though, this would be limited to fleets operating locally or moving between their own hubs within range. Independent operators wouldn't be able to do long haul runs without a swap infrastructure.
Doh! You don't say!
they address they charging infrastructure problem in the 'batteries as a service' part of the vid.. leasing/renting of batteries not in use. There's a 'hub' of sorts currently being built in Taree, NSW that I believe will be operated by Pearson's Transport. They'll buy the batteries outright and pay the upfront investment to the infrastructure that they use, and the electricity to charge and 'house' them, and then 'rent' out the ones not currently being utilised to other companies who perhaps don't have the money to invest in the batteries, but still want to convert some trucks. Janus still gets paid, Pearsons get to recur their upfront investment quicker, and other companies get to convert their own trucks for cheaper overall.
When I worked for Texas Instruments my department built a forklift that changed its own batteries
With the basic shape of trucks, there is scope for solar panels on top of the trailers to act as a range booster, to top up the range as you drive along. Given the size of the trailers a lot of panels could be added for daytime running.
There's room for about 4kw of PV on the roof, or about 20-25kwh per day collected. That would add 10-15km of range per day. Probably not worth the cost of installing PV on the truck when a 2% larger battery pack would add that much range and the PV panels could be kept safe on the ground at the swap station.
The cargo container roof could be up to 47 sq. meter. Assuming that the solar cells are 20% efficient that around 9.4KW/h with effective time of 4 hours, that around 37kw. Semi truck require around 2.5kw per KM, so 37KW/2.5KW/h=14.8 km
It wouldn't be worth it on a truck, I would like solar on a car though as most the time it's sat not doing anything.
@@miroslawkaras7710 That's about 5400 km per year
Won’t add shit and trailers are swapped all the time between trucking lines and intermodal (trains) - at least in the US. And some trailers are just shipping containers set on frames and wheels. I doubt AUS is much different.
Very interesting report, it's nice that other companies have also recognized that electric drives are the future for trucks too...keep it up so that many customers buy their system. Greetings from Berlin / Germany
This makes so much sense. Battery swapping for general car use is highly questionable but for HGV systems like this it is a clear winner. Repurposing existing trucks too! Excellent information clearly expressed without hype and spin. Superb episode.
So many good points are mentioned in this video.
For the company: lower maintenance, running costs, etc.
For the local environment: noise pollution
For the country: energy independence
I mean.. win, win, win..
And also how easy and comfortable EV are to drive. We need all-electric solutions ASAP. Either in the form of new products (e.g. Tesla Semi) or solutions like this one by Janus Trucks.
This is great. More power to them!
I see what you did there. Funny!
this has got to be better by every metric i can think of. lower particulate matter, from emissions, AND brakes, little to no wear and tear on brakes, regen, cost per mile to move it, reliability, torque, drivetrain durability/longevity, less noise pollution (these big rigs are NOISY AF), ease of operation, etc.
So many cool things happening in Australia. Keep em comming!
No brainer. Only need to have huge solar system on some of these massive warehouses charging the battery packs and the cost savings for the transport industry would be enormous.
In rural Australia you have a roadhouse (for fuel, food and toilet breaks) more or less at the point where your fuel tank will empty. Imagine each one now has a huge PV array and this battery charging and swapping tech. Now your road trains can do those huge distances plus you have no need for fuel transportation to these rural locations which is hugely inefficient (burning the stuff you are trying to deliver).
A very interesting piece indeed! I keep thinking Fully Charged has reached peak Australian, and then they turn it up by another platypus or two...
Absolutely cracking video. While Janus have solved electrification of trucks and freight, they have clearly thought more broadly about battery tech, swapping and distributed energy storage applications. Very impressive! 👍
Learned a lot about big rigs from this video. Amazing about the average age and how the weight is not alot different but with future tech that could equal out or even get less. Love to know what the drivers think of this who have driven them. No engine brake noise like I hear all the time from the trucks, the regen is amazing. The TCO must be fantastic over the rest of the life of the truck. Battery swapping for these is a perfect solution, can see swap stations across the Nullabor and huge solar farms nearby to charge them up with and use as grid level backup even for the communities they are in/near. Have to see if they are going to be at FCL on the weekend.
I was kinda wondering how the regenerative braking would compare to engine braking power wise. I would think it could match it and possible be less likely to lock the wheels on slippery surface too
Yeah Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Not only catching up but innovating too, this is what we want! Sharing. 👍
Hmm ... Australians catching up on transportation tech ???
Australians are perfectly capable of leading in other technologies.
Have a squint at their commercial electronics industry and go from there.
@@t1n4444 yeah, sorry that wasn't what I meant to imply at all. 😏
I was merely referencing the repression of the adoption of renewables and EV etc by the previous administration. Guess I shouldn't comment on these things with which I have only a passing acquaintance. Apologies.🙏😏
I saw a similar design when visiting NZ a year ago. The battery was lifted from the top (behind the cab) instead and switched out 3 mins.
Amazing time to be living in when large trucks are battery operated :)
second thing I've seen that is talking practical sense about what we need to do, rather then just trying to sell the next version of a partial/non solution. This is awesome and is actually addressing the problems, the other is JCB and their hydrogen engine.
The man is forklift certified, he has my vote.
New engines, which also use counter rotating magnets inside them are also changing the way energy is produced. Interesting new inventions are happening every moment all around the world. The future of transport will be at this rate incredible!
Ehm no they are not. Basic physics will always apply.
A hundred years ago Nikola Tesla drove an electric car for a week using power that came from a small box of components.
Free energy occurs when energy is transduced from a higher dimension down into this one.
We are on the verge of a change in the paradigms of science, both in terms of physics and medicine and batteries will soon be seen as we view oil lamps as a form of lighting.
What a great idea!! We need to see more of these in Europe and USA too!!
Reusing current trucks much better for environment!!
Would have been good to mention how much those engines rebuilds would cost in comparison. 👍
I literally can't smash the 👍button enough....
Build a string of charging/battery swappover depots with a Cafe/shower down the highway everywhere 400km apart.
This is really great. Good luck these guys. Also they should use an electric forklift.
This made far more sense than many fully charged shows I have watched and it has finally touched on the logistics of converting the global trucking fleet to lower greenhouse gas emissions and that is we can not do it in the time frame talked about by politicians and environmental commentators if we want to do it via new vehicles because that is a fact of the math and not an opinion. Where a BEV truck is appropriate to use will depend on its operating parameters in relation to availability of charged batteries and trucks operated by companies with set runs that begin and end in the depot each day are the most likely to fit this model. That will still cover a lot of vehicles. I have my reservations about the exchange battery option in that regular inspection of the battery packs will be needed to ensure faulty batteries are detected so they don't damage other parts or become dangerous when charging. I have been around forklifts all my life and I know that anything that has to be handled gently and put precisely in place is on a hiding to nothing if it's being shifted by a forklift and operator. I think the process has merit and would work for many operators but not all but that is what the whole shift to renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction will face, no single technology will replace the majority of what we have now in all the areas that need attention. It is going to be horses for courses and even having to use second best until the best can be developed.
Hi Robert, I'm glad you have been in Australia for the last few weeks prior to fully charged live in Sydney. You have given me an opportunity to see what an absolutely fantastic world leading role that so many innovative Australian businesses and some Governments are doing in the sustainable energy sector. I was used to you bagging Australia for being so out of touch and I must admit it's not a good look when the Prime Minister brings lumps of coal into parliament but it seems that our businesses are a lot more switched on than our politicians. So, Labour, Liberals and you useless Greens (I’m a green but I’m definitely not a useless, self-interested Australian Greens Party git) get off your arses and do something in the sustainable energy sector. Perhaps the Teals can help?
PS Robert, by all means bag Australian politicians but please don't bag Australia.
Super cool solution. Crashes right through all the myths that people invent to argue electrical trucks are impractical and expensive.
1) swap the battery in a few minutes gets rid of long charging tines.
2) these guys are pulling 96 tonnes. That's higher than is legal on the roads in a lot of countries. Not an issue.
3) The weight: they remove 3.5 tonnes of engine and infrastructure and put back about 4 tonnes batteries and drive train. So half a tonne extra weight is not nothing. But on a truck that pulls 96 tonnes it's not a whole lot. It's not going to matter.
4) The battery goes into the same space occupied by the old ICE system. 2x 600kwh battery system. That's 1.2 mwh. Plenty of power, plenty of range.
5) The cost is fine. Much lower operating cost due to low energy cost and simpler maintenance. Over the life time of the vehicle it will save money.
I like how they are giving old trucks a second life. These conversions can speed up EV adoption among truckers. Waiting for trucks to be written off and replaced would indeed take decades. Of course new trucks that are designed to be electric might still perform better.
Swappable batteries on electric trucks, tractors and buses is the way to go!
One of the best fully charged videos yet.
Dream on if anyone thinks Electric Trucks are the future.
These guys must be drinking snake oil in their tinnies, or think truckers are stupid.
The man who made Scrapheap Challange extra fun to watch.
I’ll stick with my Detroit in my Peterbuilt for now. This is a great innovation and I think it will take off. I really like it bc I could still keep my truck and convert it
We use to do battery swapping on our lift equipment in my warehouse were I work. Then we switched to fast charging systems which were ok but the batteries were only good for three years even though the manufacturer said we should be getting five years out of a single battery. So we recently changed to hydrogen fuel cell batteries and other than some computer issues they have been great. I think this will be the future of global logistics.
Not many hard questions, I note. So if you're adding one tonne to the overall tractor-trailer combination by exchanging the diesel powertrain for batteries and motors, is a trucking operator prepared to sacrifice one tonne's worth of PAY-load on every single trip?
On a small fleet of five trucks, that's potentially five tonnes of cargo not paying bills or salaries on every trip. Trucking operators don't give a shit about emissions. They care about getting paid. Otherwise, what's the point? Fleet management is about numbers, it's about weight, costs and margins. Lindsay Fox doesn't run one of the country's biggest fleets on good intentions. He does it based on numbers.
Don't get me wrong - it's a great concept and it's nice to see some Aussie innovations coming through in this way. Best of luck to them. I genuinely hope it succeeds. But in order to make it viable, as a journalist, you've got to ask harder questions than "Wow."