Making Trolleys Out of Trucks 'Green' Transport Idea Is Expensive Folly

One of the most tenacious dumb ideas within the automotive industry is the claim that what electric cars really need to be successful are overhead power lines. The logic, at least, isn't difficult to follow: When it comes to power, cars need a lot of it, batteries store too little of it, and overhead lines can supply it.

Now Siemens, the German electrical and engineering giant as well as the country's leading rail-technology company, hopes to carry over the best features of rail technology to road traffic. The company has outfitted two heavy-duty Mercedes trucks with electric current collectors and a modified drivetrain capable of operating with two different systems. When an overhead line is available, these prototypes run on electricity alone, much like electric locomotives. When there's no overhead line, a diesel engine kicks in, powering a generator that continues to supply the electric system with power. Germany's Ministry for the Environment (BMU) saw enough green potential in this hybrid truck to channel over €2 million ($2.5 million) in federal funding to the project. Siemens used the funds to help set up its first test track at an obsolete military airport north of Berlin. Overhead lines run above and along the roughly 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) track, supplying energy to the trucks whirring steadily along below.
Possibly Promising, Surely Expensive
Roland Edel, a chief technology officer in Siemens' Mobility and Logistics division who focuses on rail transportation, calls this a "flagship project." This whole idea, he says, is "pioneering" and "not thought up in some ivory tower."

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/siemens-misguided-idea-about-putting-power-lines-on-german-roads-a-842834.html