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Are any big countries going that way? Hydrogen cell tractor units seem to be available from the likes of Volvo. And the UK has big fleets building their own private infrastructure for bioLPG, but nobody is putting bioLPG pumps in the commercial vehicle filling stations on the motorways. There seems to be even less of an agreed strategy than there is in the private car world.
Commercial vehicle operators are free of emotional attachment to rorty engines and penis substitutes, so can't they agree the best common strategy and pool their resources?
nick_h.-
can't they agree the best common strategy and pool their resources?
No, because the prize for the winners of the competition will be huge, including possibly putting one of their rivals out of business. This seems inefficient, but it's nowhere near as bad as everybody being told which one path to follow if that turns out to be the wrong one.
gbj_tester
It depends on the charging infrastructure. If it's always possible to recharge in the mandatory 45 minute break every 4.5 hours, the battery range needs to be about 300 miles, which is about 150 litres of diesel. At 37MJ.l-1 that's 5GJ, and at ~30% GTE for diesel and 90% efficiency for a battery/electric drive that's a battery capacity of 500kW.h or 5 Teslas (the car, not the unit of magnetic flux) Tesla's own Class 8 tractor design (that's equivalent to a 40 ton artic in Europe) has a battery capacity of 850-900kW.h
TL;DR it's feasible, but may need some relatively small changes to vehicle regulations and working practices, and some large and expensive changes to power distribution infrastructure.