june2023 - 25

batteries in the back to run power tools, the electric
welder, and an air compressor.
River said it costs $133 less per week to power
the truck, which went into service earlier this
year, with electricity as opposed to diesel. At
that rate, this Sprinter van will make up that
$20,000 difference in about three years. But the
cost savings don't stop there.
" The electric savings are going to be found in
uptime and maintenance, " he said. " There's close
to 10,000 moving parts on an internal combustion
chassis platform and less than 1,000 moving parts
on an electric. "
For mobile maintenance trucks and other work
trucks that idle more often because they double as
the worker's 'office', the benefits of electrification
are even more pronounced.
Running A/C in summer and heat in winter
burns approximately a half-gallon of fuel per
hour, or about $2/hour, Rivers said. EVs, by
contrast, use resistor wires, similar to a hair
dryer, to heat up quickly and up to 1,000% more
efficiently, Rivers said.
Now that mobile tech doesn't have to wait for
the cab to reach a comfortable level and ends up
being more productive, Rivers said.
He added starting cycles are also harder on the
engine: " Warm-up cycles are the worst thing for
internal combustion engines. First off, it destroys
the engine-that cylinder head expands more than
the cylinder block does further and faster at different
rates, so it literally shreds the cylinder head
gasket, causing undue wear and tear. "
Cox will alter the battery capacity for future
conversions, Rivers noted.
" We put exactly what we needed in that truck,
but what we should have done is about 150% of
what we needed, " he said.
From a day-to-day perspective, this would
allow a mobile tech to have enough range to take
on another job and generate more revenue. Down
the road, it will ensure the vehicle has the capacity
to do a typical day's work.
River expects batteries to lose upwards of 20%
capacity after seven years. The truck would have a
limited operating range and/or have to stop more
often to charge if you keep it, and that decreased
capacity also makes it harder to sell.
" In seven years, that vehicle is worthless to
everyone, " he said. " Nobody will buy an EV with
a bad battery, because they know it's going to cost
them $25,000 to $40,000 to put a battery in it. "
Overbuying mitigates this risk and is better for
battery health. By not fully charging lithium-ion
batteries and running them down, Rivers said a
battery would only lose 10% capacity over seven
years, not 20%.
Conversion is also far better at reducing emissions
by eliminating new emissions at the manufacturing
stage, noted Rivers, who has worked
closely with EVs since 1997.
Thirty percent of a vehicle's lifetime carbon
emission output comes from manufacturing it,
he said.
" You're not carbon neutral on that vehicle for
over 10 years, " Rivers said. " But if you take a vehicle
you already bought, it's a compound carbon
emissions reduction. You're carbon neutral in just
a few years, three to five years max. "
On the maintenance side, the relationship
between the EV's battery and chargers presents
the steepest learning curve, as it is most
dissimilar to how conventional trucks are
fueled. With a diesel truck, you stick the
nozzle in, squeeze and lock the handle, and
wait until the tank is full. Chargers have the
same basic form factor as a fuel pump, with a
cord and " nozzle, " but transferring electrons is
far more complex. A fleet must consider things
like charge cycle, charge volume, rate of speed,
and ambient temperature.
According to John Ellis, director of sales,
global EV battery solutions at Cox Automotive,
understanding and managing battery behavior
is the most important aspect of successful EV
adoption. By doing so, a fleet ensures vehicles
will " continue to have range health through
the life of that vehicle so that your long hauls
don't turn into short hauls way too soon. "
This is due to battery degradation, which
Ellis said has " grown exponentially through
mismanagement of the battery. " For example,
if a fleet has chargers at Florida and
Pennsylvania terminals, each will have to be
set up to account for the variation in ambient
temperature, he advised. Cox has developed
an EV Battery Health tool for its Manheim auto
resale business that provides health scores for
batteries to validate a battery's health. Cox
plans to carry this over to the CEV side as well.
" In general, battery best practices come down
to never fully discharging or overcharging the
battery, " explained Nikolas Runge, VP of products
and services at InCharge Energy, a developer
of CEV charging solutions.
How effectively batteries get charged
depends on interoperability, or how the vehicle
communicates with the charger, Runge said.
He likens the connection to " a handshake "
between the two.
An awkward handshake here will interrupt
the communication and energy will not flow.
This means that a mixed fleet may run into
issues as currently " each OEM has a little bit
of a different leeway in interpreting " these
communication standards, Runge said. One
OEM's set upper or lower tolerances may be
considered out of bounds for another and
charging could be disrupted.
» EV chargers are aesthetically close to diesel
fuel pumps, but the similarities stop there.
Nikola
Runge would like to see more standardization
on this front, as has happened with
passenger vehicles.
" It was very interesting and actually also
astonishing to me that the heavy-duty and
medium-duty vehicle OEMs have learned nothing
from their passenger vehicle colleagues, "
he said.
InCharge offers battery management software
and is working on developing a solution
using Nikola Tre BEVs. The OEMs also have
developed technology to ensure batteries last.
" When it comes to maintaining the battery
health the OEMs have built in very smart
systems that are keeping the battery at the
perfect temperature-they actively cool or warm
after delivery prior to charging, " Runge said.
As fleets slowly figure out how to properly
operate and charge a few vehicles, they will
likely find themselves with vacant chargers
and/or underutilized EVs. To make good use
of these, InCharge will go into production this
August on the V2X bidirectional charger. This
allows fleets to generate additional revenue
to offset the cost of their EVs by using these
vehicles' batteries for onsite storage.
" For example, a school bus in the summer
gets charged when the electricity is cheap, and
when the electricity would be too expensive, we
can discharge the vehicle, " Runge explained.
This method also can work as an off-grid
solution where a row of vehicles can power
facilities in case of an outage.
The final piece is getting skilled workers
adept at working with high-voltage cables
to maintain chargers, which have a slew of
wires and controllers that may need service
and repair. Having enough people trained in
time is a concern to Runge.
" The electrician needs to be specifically
trained on that type of charger, " he said.
" Otherwise, they cannot repair that. "
It takes about a year for a charger technician
to be fully trained and work on their own.
For related content go to
FleetMaintenance.com/equipment
June 2023 | FleetMaintenance.com
25
Maintaining EV batteries & chargers
http://www.FleetMaintenance.com/equipment http://www.FleetMaintenance.com
june2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of june2023
