Charge in motion

[Ruination]

I think the idea is just to recapture more energy when braking (especially downhill) instead of losing everything from the trailer brakes

You guys really need to look into the law of conservation energy.

You would burn that benefit going up the hill.

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[sotek2345]

You guys really need to look into the law of conservation energy.

You would burn that benefit going up the hill.

You are misunderstanding. The regen isn't on all the time, just when the brakes are applied, same as in any EV. If you tow a standard trailer, with trailer brakes, they just convert kinetic into thermal energy. If you put regenerative brakes on the trailer, and back feed the power to the tow vehicle battery, you can recapture some of that as electrical energy into the battery. Do you get it all back, of course not. Would it help, yes!

 

[beatle]

You are misunderstanding. The regen isn't on all the time, just when the brakes are applied, same as in any EV. If you tow a standard trailer, with trailer brakes, they just convert kinetic into thermal energy. If you put regenerative brakes on the trailer, and back feed the power to the tow vehicle battery, you can recapture some of that as electrical energy into the battery. Do you get it all back, of course not. Would it help, yes!

Regen does make a big difference in overall efficiency, however the truck itself already provides regen. When towing and slowing down, the truck will have its own kinetic energy converted into electrical power as well as the energy in the trailer. This really just helps to recapture the additional energy used to accelerate up to speed vs. cruising. When towing this number is higher, but not absurdly so. As we've seen from testing, it's not the weight penalty that gets you so much as the aero which will always be consuming additional energy.

If a trailer has its own brakes, however, converting those into regenerative brakes vs. mechanical would be helpful if they could be integrated into the truck's HV system. I think they would be of limited value and high complexity for long haul drives where regen is of less importance though.

 

[Ruination]

You are misunderstanding. The regen isn't on all the time, just when the brakes are applied, same as in any EV. If you tow a standard trailer, with trailer brakes, they just convert kinetic into thermal energy. If you put regenerative brakes on the trailer, and back feed the power to the tow vehicle battery, you can recapture some of that as electrical energy into the battery. Do you get it all back, of course not. Would it help, yes!

There's only so much resistance to be harnessed before you just stop

Sure if the lightnings regen is inefficient that works.

 

[RickLightning]

I know many people like and use ABRP - A Better Route Planner, I don't know if they include hotels for charging stops however.

It wouldn't be a charging stop, it would be the end of a day's traveling. When using ABRP, it's best to plan a day at a time. Here's the steps I follow:

1) I use GoogleMaps to see the total drive. Is it one day or two days? If it's one day, I now plan with ABRP. If it's two days, I figure when we want to leave, and therefore where we'd might want to stop for the evening, splitting the days into my preferred driving of about 60% of the drive on the first day, and 40% on the second.

2) Now that I know where we're stopping for the evening, I find a hotel with a charger if I can. PlugShare works very well for this. Others use Hotels.com. I have certain chains I'm interested in, and of course I'm not going to pay for a much more expensive hotel just to save money on charging. Remember, in states where ElectrifyAmerica DC charging is by the minute (see their site), it's very inexpensive to charge as compared to where they charge by the kWh.

3) Now that I have a destination for day one, I plan that day's trip, and see where ABRP suggests I stop. I tweak the settings for weather, for weight (if I'm loading up on luggage), and for the amount of charge I want upon arriving at the hotel (usually 10% - 15%). Note - always make sure that there is a fallback DC charger within the range that you'll have left if the hotel's charger is broken, or being used when you are there.

4) Once I have day 1 figured out, I save it. Then I plan day 2, and save it.

Staying at a hotel with a charger allows you several benefits.

- Free charging
- Leaving with 100%. DC charging is fast up to 80%, slows to about 1/2 speed from 80 to 90% (new charging curve loaded to Mach-E's recently), and then slows another 25% from 90 to 100%. If you only charge to 80% at DC chargers, that extra 20% is worth about an hour of driving each day.

 

[FlasherZ]

There's only so much resistance to be harnessed before you just stop

Sure if the lightnings regen is inefficient that works.

And for what it's worth, it really doesn't take that much regen to stop. In my Tesla S, I have to apply accelerator pedal even when going down a 5+% downgrade to avoid slowing down. It makes mountain driving beautiful (plus it's always cool to see your range increase as you drive down a long grade).

 

[ShirBlackspots]

Like some, I have been busy planning my "break-in" Lightning trip. Searching for motels/hotels that offer charging yields little info (including next to nothing on k/hr rates). I have come to conclusion to just go for the best hotel value like before and try to fast charge close to a restaurant or take-out while charging.

Have you tried www.plugshare.com ?

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