For those who own electric vehicle (EV), it is highly likely that they have to take their vehicle to a nearby charging station at least once a week. The frequency of charging their EV obviously depends on usage but they just can’t skip charging their EV expecting it to be magically charged. But, the largest electric vehicle in the world does just that.
The world’s largest electric vehicle is a 110-ton dump truck named Elektro Dumper which is being operated in a quarry in Switzerland. The truck is used to carry limestone to a cement factory through the sides of a mountain. You must be wondering how it manages to perform such a power-intensive task with no effective energy consumption. Well, let me break it to you.
How it works
Elektro Dumper weighs 45 tons and climbs the mountain unloaded and descends back with 65 tons of raw materials essentially making the net weight to 110 tons.
The regenerative braking system equipped on the truck does all the trick as it captures energy essential for the next ride while the truck goes downhill. The truck generates more energy than it used for climbing up which essentially eliminates the need for charging it.
A massive 700 kWh battery has been packed into this beast to make sure that it never runs out of battery. Elektro Dumper makes the trip about 20 times a day and produces about 200 kWh of energy every day.
The world needs more EVs like the Elektro Dumper to reduce global warming and for making the world a better place for future generations.
In Zimbabwe’s case, we would need EV’s like these to avert fuels shortages that we are currently experiencing. And the good thing about the mechanism that’s used to power Elektro Dumber is that the EV’s won’t need to be recharged using electricity so load shedding will not affect the use of these cars.
Image Credit: CNN
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