In August a remarkable thing happened in Europe. According to JATO Dynamics, in a still falling new vehicles market, EV automobiles outsold diesel cars for the first time ever. What has that got to do with terminal tractors? Well, nothing directly, but electric and diesel power are on a par already in some jurisdictions where authorities are prepared to support the use of ZE equipment.

This is the case in certain states of the US, where EV tractors can now be described as ‘well established’. There are several key factors at play:

● Public grants or subsidies, but even without these, the total life costs of diesel and electric machines are getting ‘closer’, as confirmed to WorldCargo News recently by TICO Tractors (June 2021, p21-22).
● Ports and DCs/logistic centres are ‘discrete’ environments where dedicated charging stations can be installed. Unlike the passenger vehicle market, there is no need for dependency on public charging points that may have queues or are not available when needed.
● Operating area is limited, so long range autonomy is not a factor. This is true even when terminal tractors are homologated for road use. Short and predictable range makes terminal tractors much easier to ‘electrify’ than medium-haul and long-haul highway trucks.
● Distribution tractors are even more amenable than port tractors for EVs as DCs are often close to residential centres, so low noise, as well as pollution is a major influencer, and they rarely operate round-the-clock, so there are more charging opportunities.

Ottawa T2E

Kalmar has provided some interesting comments on its Ottawa T2E electric tractor. With short bursts of opportunity charging (OC) during breaks and shift changes, the tractor can operate round-the-clock, but to maximise battery life, the charge level must be kept at between 20% and 100%.

If the charge goes below 20%, the tractor automatically switches to lower power mode, so must be taken to the charging station before it can perform effectively. At 10% charge, the tractor shuts down and must be towed to the charging station. It is not clear exactly how speed affects charge levels, but for a distribution tractor Kalmar recommends a top speed of 15 mph for stability reasons (trailer at high fifth wheel height).

Kalmar said the Ottawa T2E can offer double the life of a diesel tractor, if kept in optimum condition. This is quite a claim, but Orange EV recently made the point that diesel tractors are usually traded in after four or five years, before M&R costs start to escalate, while its EV terminal tractors are maintenance-free. Orange EV is providing a battery warranty of 7.5 years or 396,000 kWh of use.

Developing market

Later this year, TICO Tractors is expected to introduce two EV machines, one with Cummins electric drive and the other with Volvo Penta electric drive. As also previously reported, late last year two other US-based companies, Capacity Trucks and Hyster-Yale, announced that they are cooperating on developing both EV and hydrogen FCEV terminal tractors, with the added element of autonomous drive machines, in collaboration with VDL Automated Vehicles of the Netherlands.

Capacity Trucks (then Capacity of Texas) developed a hybrid battery and diesel genset terminal tractor (PHETT – Pluggable Hybrid Electric Terminal Tractor) around 14 years ago in conjunction with Alternative Motive Power Systems LLC (WorldCargo News, July 2009, p2 and June 2010, p3).

The idea behind any hybrid vehicle is to be self-sustaining over a whole shift or multiple shifts, but dual drive adds to costs. The price:performance ratio of EVs has improved, meanwhile, and OC may provide an acceptable level of autonomy.

However, the growing interest in FCEVs indicates that EVs are not the long-term answer for intensive operations. Independence from the grid is provided by onboard fuel cells as the source of power for the batteries. The challenge is not the FCEV technology, but the high cost and low availability of ‘green’ hydrogen.

Enter Autocar

The latest US terminal tractor supplier to enter the EV sphere is Autocar LLC, which will introduce, commercially, its new E-ACTT towards the end of this year. “With the Autocar E-ACTT, operators now have a much quieter and lower vibration ZE option from a trusted and proven terminal tractor manufacturer, reliable and powerful enough to do the job,” said Mark Aubry, general manager of Autocar Trucks’ terminal tractor division in Hagerstown, Indiana.

“From our customer site testing experiences, we expect the E-ACTT to have lower overall maintenance costs than its diesel counterpart. The EV eliminates the need for a lot of necessary PM, such as oil changes, transmission service, fan belts, air filters and other traditional ic-engine services.

“It also eliminates the need to replace completely the diesel engine after around 25,000 working hours. Fewer moving parts in a robust EV design mean increased savings for owners and longer life cycles.”

The complete powertrain and associated telemetry and diagnostics are from Vorzatech, whose electric fleet development team worked directly with Autocar’s engineers to optimise the powertrain for the terminal tractor application.

Vorzatech provides EV solutions for various on/off-road medium/heavy-duty vehicles. It can offer dual eAxle electric propulsion for 4×4 drive, although nearly all terminal tractors in use in the US have 4×2 drive. It also supplies the VCU (vehicle control unit) to optimise battery usage and manage the powertrain functions. The driveline is compatible with FCEV, going forward.

The E-ACTT has the same all-steel size and door set-up as the diesel ACTT, along with a heavy-duty bumper to protect the driver and chassis in the event of a collision. Autocar considers these to be ‘market leading’ features of its terminal tractors.

Terberg Benschop BV has two EV terminal trucks in its portfolio – the YT203-EV terminal tractor and the BC202-EV swap body carrier. According to the company, the performance of the new electric motor is comparable with that of a diesel engine and the large battery option for the YT203-EV offers a significantly greater operating range (222 kWh).

Additionally, the new battery technology has an extended temperature range due to the Thermal Management System (TMS) and can therefore be used worldwide in both cold and hot climates.

Prices for diesel and EV tractors are moving closer together, confirmed Frank Oerlemans, Terberg’s export manager. The price of the batteries is still the biggest ‘lump’ in the EV tractor price, but “diesel is getting more expensive lately and we see the prices of batteries going down little by little”, he said. “We believe that quite soon EV equipment will be on a par with diesel vehicles in more and more countries.”

Oerlemans made the point that DCs/logistics centres have adopted EV tractors before container terminals because they generally do not have a 24/7 operation, which allows more time to charge the batteries. Port operations are much more intensive, there is less time available for charging, and this may mean that more EVs are needed to provide the same availability as an equivalent fleet of diesel tractors.

Hydrogen focus

Question marks over EV ‘autonomy’ and ‘grid dependency’ have already led Terberg, together with Dutch hydrogen ‘tech scale-up’ Zepp Solutions, to develop an FCEV tractor, the YT203-H2. First presented last October, the machine is equipped with four H2 tanks, aggregating 600 litres (14.4 kg), enough for a 24-hour, heavy-duty application.

The machine has completed its first round of testing – at UWT Rotterdam and at MPET (PSA-MSC) Antwerp. It is currently in Benschop for analysis and preparation for the next round of tests. FCEVs are, for the time being at least, very expensive. However, as previously discussed (WorldCargo News, April 2021, p22), Terberg believes they may in time offer a very good alternative to diesel in typical ro-ro applications. These require a lot of power and are intensive and ‘stressed’, as the vessel has to be turned around in the shortest possible time.

They will offer the same quietness and clean-running in the ship’s decks as an EV, but do not have to be taken out for recharging, which is not practical in this operating environment. Given the space constraints on the machine, there is not enough room for bigger batteries for 4×4 drive and 8h-10h of autonomy.

The fuel cell is the range extender, as the store of power for the batteries. The argument aligns perfectly with the emphasis on FCEV for long-haul highway trucks.

Different approach

Oerlemans added that Terberg is also looking at direct injection hydrogen technology – such as CMB.TECH, which will trial on a straddle carrier at MPET Antwerp. CMB.TECH calls this ‘H2ICE’ (WorldCargo News, May 2021, p19).

This approach is backed by construction equipment manufacturer JCB, as it is much less expensive than fuel cells and, of key importance for JCB as a global supplier, it preserves diesel M&R skills in Tier 3 and Tier 2 countries.

Cummins is investing heavily in green H2 procurement and FCEV technology (WorldCargo News, November 2020, p33- 34), but it is also now testing a hydrogen fuelled ic truck engine, with 100% hydrogen. Given the energy density of hydrogen, ‘on paper’ this would provide three times the range as the same mass of diesel.

Direct injection is still much less efficient than an FCEV, but suppliers want to ‘hedge their bets’, of course.

From Terberg’s perspective, Oerlemans said: “We, as a relatively small company, cannot design these solutions by ourselves, so we depend on what is becoming available in the market, but we want to be there from the beginning.”

Fifth wheel lifting

Finally, port tractors for terminal operations are often fitted with a fixed fifth wheel as the tractor is coupled to the trailer all the time. In ro-ro and DC/logistics operations, an elevating fifth wheel is required. Oerlemans explained that in an EV tractor, the fifth wheel is still lifted with hydraulic power and there is an electric PTO as hydraulics are also needed for the steering. “Lifting loads in an EV is much easier based on hydraulics and we can use components from our other products that have proven their strength and reliability over a long time and for which parts are readily available.” 

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This complete item is approximately 1720 words in length, and appeared in the September 2021 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 27. To access this issue download the PDF here