Category: Hydrogen_CN TRANSPORTATION_TRUCKS_CN

We are in a desperate race to halt our rampant carbon emissions and save the planet from our self-created catastrophe. Some of the most prominent technologies helping us achieve this venture are EVs and hydrogen fuel cells. But due to cost and a slow adoption speed, these technologies have yet to significantly reduce our overall emissions. Fortunately, Australian researchers may have just created a near-perfect bridging technology that can easily convert diesel engines into super-efficient carbon-neutral machines! But how have they done this? And could this cause a carbon-neutral revolution?

Diesel trucks are some of the biggest health and climate offenders on the road. The industry isn’t racing to change that.

Musk recently announced that the long-awaited Tesla Semi is scheduled to finally start production and that Pepsi will be the first to get delivery of this incredible machine on December 1st, 2022. The arrival of the Semi has been long anticipated, as it was initially slated for delivery in 2019. But despite the delay, this remarkable vehicle is still leagues ahead of any competition. In fact, the Semi might actually be Tesla’s most impactful, eco-friendly, and cost-efficient vehicle ever! But how?

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is starting Semi electric commercial truck production and PepsiCo Inc will get the first deliveries on Dec. 1, the electric vehicle maker’s chief Elon Musk tweeted on Thursday.
When Musk unveiled the prototype of the futuristic, battery-powered Semi in 2017, he said the Class 8 truck would go into production by 2019.

The new price of the 2023 Lightning Pro, an entry-level model meant for commercial and business customers, will be $51,974 — up nearly 11% from previous pricing and a 30% increase from the original $39,974 price in May 2021.

The Ford F-150 Lightning has just barely arrived on the market, yet I’ve already heard a few stories of the Lightning powering people’s needs in the event of power outages. The first I heard about was up in Michigan, and we’ve got a whole podcast coming on that F-150 Lightning owner’s experience as well as his commentary on owning the Mustang Mach-E, driving with Ford BlueCruise, and more. Incidentally, he and I were on a webinar that was recorded during Hurricane Ian. I was upstairs in our townhouse as strong hurricane winds began to strike us, and I expected the power to go out at any moment. This F-150 Lightning owner, Aaron Smith, who is also a CleanTechnica reader and President of the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA), joked that I could use a Lightning during Hurricane Ian — and believe me, I was thinking the same!! As it turned out, we didn’t lose electricity until about 90% of our county and 100% of our neighboring county had lost electricity within our utility district, and I made it all the way through the hour-and-a-half webinar! (We ended up losing electricity for just ~16 hours starting later in the evening.) As we’ll see below, a Ford F-150 Lightning did help one Florida man and his family ride out the storm. Before we get to that story, though, if you want to watch that aforementioned webinar, here it is:

Amazon, with a massive fleet of tens of thousands of delivery vehicles, will begin using a new, renewable form of diesel fuel for trucks in Southern California. The retail giant says this “electrofuel” diesel results in significantly less carbon pollution than the petroleum-based version.

Ford Motor Co.’s F 2.66%▲ U.S. sales rose 27% in August, rebounding from year-ago production shortages and benefiting from increased demand for electric vehicles.
Ford F 2.66%▲ has been posting strong year-over-year gains this summer on climbing electric-vehicle sales and improved deliveries of trucks and SUVs. The company’s EV sales increased fourfold from a low base a year earlier, while sales of gas-engine vehicles rose by a quarter.

A select group of drivers could soon knock a chunk off their lease payment for a hot new Ford F-150 Lightning — if they sign up for a smart-charging program with utility Duke Energy. It’s an early attempt at rewarding EV adopters for the value their mobile battery packs can offer to the electric grid.