Crazy electric auto idea: overhead lines

We’ve occasionally discussed the early days of automobiles, when steam, gasoline, and electric vehicles competed until gas clearly one out. I think this is pretty much inevitable, due to the energy densities - electric vehicles are still a marginal industry, even with a century plus of battery development. However, there were plenty of streetcars at the time that relied on overhead lines, and even today, there are plenty of trolleybuses, which are just electric buses with overhead lines. So those things were everywhere in major cities.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhead_line
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybus

What if the electric vehicles in use were adapted to use this handy source of power? Personal cars and trucks are not a good fit, since the entire appeal of them is that they can go anywhere and everywhere there is a road. But delivery trucks? Garbage trucks? Pretty much anything with a set route, where they can rely on having power provided on most of the route (with a battery for backup), just like a trolleybus. That seems viable. And, of course, the overhead lines can be expanded in urban areas relatively easily.
 
But delivery trucks? Garbage trucks?

In most places in the modern context, delivery and garbage collection go door-to-door, so you'd run into the same problem.

With garbage you could probably make centralized pickup points only along "major" routes (say one in every 3 or 5 streets along a single direction for the most part), but you can't run deliveries like that, and even garbage collection like that is going to be...problematic. People have to take garbage out usually about once a day, and often it's pretty heavy. The alternative to convenient garbage pickup is garbage piling up haphazardly on the street.

Still, it's an interesting idea. I'd love to figure out ways to make it work.
 
It is actually being tested today in this form (along with another method similar to a third rail). I think it would be an excellent idea once electric trains are mastered (OTL in 1918), and is still an excellent idea now (it is the ultimate solution to charging/fueling time- it completely eliminates it). I have suggested it in other threads to allow countries to reduce their dependency on foreign oil in emergencies, as it allows much of the heavy vehicles in a country to be electric or hybrid before advanced batteries are possible. As most personal transport is unnecessary and can be eliminated through rationing and other measures in emergencies, this eliminates most of the remaining fuel consumption of trucks.

This does require investment and maintenance by the government, as it is an infrastructure just like the roads themselves, and OTL it was not done (so far). But the fuel savings would counter those costs, and the energy security and environmental benefits would be indispensable to certain countries.
 
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It is actually being tested today in this form (along with another method similar to a third rail). I think it would be an excellent idea once electric trains are mastered (OTL in 1918), and is still an excellent idea now (it is the ultimate solution to charging/fueling time- it completely eliminates it). I have suggested it in other threads to allow countries to reduce their dependency on foreign oil in emergencies, as it allows much of the heavy vehicles in a country to be electric or hybrid before advanced batteries are possible. As most personal transport is unnecessary and can be eliminated through rationing and other measures in emergencies, this eliminates most of the remaining fuel consumption of trucks.
It even works with internal combustion engines, as long as you accept electric transmission - which is one of those ideas that never quite goes away, but never quite succeeds either. Heavy trucks and coaches can, in principle, run their long-distance miles under the wires, and only fire up the diesel engine for the relatively short distance to and from the terminals.
 
It even works with internal combustion engines, as long as you accept electric transmission - which is one of those ideas that never quite goes away, but never quite succeeds either. Heavy trucks and coaches can, in principle, run their long-distance miles under the wires, and only fire up the diesel engine for the relatively short distance to and from the terminals.
It's an option, but the distances off-wire are usually short enough that batteries alone can cover them, with a further associated reduction in fuel use (even early 20th century electric trucks had 35-40 miles of range).
 
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