Battery-electrics for Bigger Pay-loads
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A 2-tonner on a "100 Stops" Delivery Service gives 25 Miles per Battery Charge A LTHOUGII it is recognized that the field within which the electric vehicle can be operated satisfactorily is principally concentrated in the under 25-cwt. pay-load class, and chiefly in food distribution and house-to-house delivery work, there is, nevertheless, substantial evidence that batterydriven vehicles of pay-load capacities up to 5 tons can be utilized in many. trades which have, in the past, used petrol-driven vehicles exclusively..
It is, therefore, interesting to learn that one of the foremost manufacturers
of electric vehicles has recognized the scope existing for the larger pay-load types and, despite the manifold diffi-cultfes confronting manufacturers in war-time, is producing chassis of 40-cwt., 50-cwt. and 5-ton pay-load capacities of which a number is in service in various parts of the country.
An analysis of sales of petrol-driven commercial „vehicles throughout the country indicates that approximately 80 per cent, of the total are within the 2-ton and 2f-ton class, and although the performance required of transport in this pay-load category is more frequently outside the capabilities of the electric, there is, unquestionably, sufficient scope in this sphere to make the exploitation of the battery-driven vehicle worth while.
Statistics show that there are to-day approximately 6,000 electric vehicles being operated throughout Great Britain, of which total nearly 25 per cent. represent vehicles of -2-ton payload and upwards—a surprisingly large percentage in view of the fact that many of the pre-war manufacturers produced vehicles up to only 30-cwt. pay-load capacity.
Whilst the bigger transport operators are mainly engaged upon long-distance work, there is a number of trades (employing lorries of 2-ton capacity and upwards) in which the work could be carried out more efficiently and economically by battery driven vehicles.' Coal merchants, brewers, dairies and many municipalities and utility companies can 'be numbered amongst those the transport requirements of which can be met by the battery-electric. Many well-known operators in these categories have, for many years, been using the larger battery-driven vehicles satisfactorily.
Recently, an opportunity was afforded to inspect a fleet of MorrisonElectricar 2-ton lorries which is being operated by one of the largest and most efficiently organized dairies in the Midlands, and an accompanying illustration gives some indication of the robust and attractive design of this • type.
This dairy concern uses these vehicles for both milk delivery between depots and for distribution of milk to larger customers, such as factories and can. teens. Each.lorry distributes four tons of milk a day, and an average of 25 tons per week. The normal distance travelled is 17 miles a day, involving about 60 stops and starts each round.
The Management of the company has expressed great satisfaction with the all-round performance and economic operation of these vehicles. The drivers, too, are full of-praise for them, remarking that the braking, steering and road qualities are of a high order.
The Morrison Electricar 2-ton chassis, which is obtainable during wartime, has a pressed-steel channel frame with the motor directly coupled to the • rear axle. Transmission is by a HardySpicer propeller shaft to an overhead • worm, with bevel-gear-type differen ' tial. Adequate braking is provided, and the chassis has 6-in, by 32-in, highpressure pneumatic tyres.. Control is of the solenoid-contactor-type, operated by automatic delayed-action foot switch. The standard battery is the Young lead-action traction type with 40 cells, and it has a capacity of 297 ampere-hours at the five-hour rate of discharge. The chassis can be supplied with a fiat-deck, timber body, 12 ft. 9 ins, long by 6 ft. 4 ins.wide, with fixed, drop or removable sides and tailboards.
When equipped with the standard Young battery the vehicle, with an average half load, has a range of 50 miles, and when operating over a norrnal round having average gradients,
and making 100 stops per day, will give a mileage of 25 per charge, -Although the saving in Cost of opera
tion Of the electric vehicle is most pronounced in the 10-cwt. and 20-cwt. pay-load classes, nevertheless, figures which have been extracted from records of operators of both petrol and electric vehicles show, on the most conservative reckoning, a saving of approximately 17s. per week on a 200-mile-perweek basis in the case of the 2-ton lorries,
Apart from this type. Morrison-Electricar models are also available in 50-cwt. and 5-ton capacities, in addition to refuse-collection vehicles and smaller pay-load vans.