I’m pretty fucking sure that England is no more metric than we are, and they regularly measure weight in “stone.” They also still measure horses in “hands”, just as we do.

As if 7/8" isn’t more than 5/8"?

Exactly. C is just as arbitrary. We might as well be using Rankine.

F is human scaled because Fahrenheit specifically set the 0 and 100 based on human experience.

Does it matter? They’re all shit to drive.

Vans? I wouldn’t mind an executive van, to be driven in. Or a dirtbag Sprinter XL for camping.

How about a glacially-slow base-engined full-size Carter-era special with a 2-speed slushbox?

I quote from your 2014 Autoblog article:

I’d love to watch a Swift driver try it... :D

Intermodal containers!

The roof panels typically barely handle climate control and accessories, not motive power.

A trucker rolls 8 hours at 60 mph = 480 miles per day. If 12 of them are solar, that’s nice but it’s not going to make a difference economically.

Stopping to unload the trailer is dead time that a diesel truck is rolling.

8-12 mpg, 180-250 gal tank.

Navistar and others are already doing this. Electric trucks are already in commercial use.

A semi-tractor has 1,000 miles of range (8-12 mpg x 180-250 gallons).

It is high up, because it pulls a 9.5' high cube container sitting 48" off the ground, so it needs to provide aerodynamic fairing for something that totals 13+ feet tall. Having extra aero drag for a low cab uses extra energy.

Start with the notion of…

Note that local driving already pays relatively little, due to lots of drivers wanting the same routes that bring them home at night and on the weekends. At least, that’s what SoCal is like.

Oh, yeah, be aware that you are making a huge mistake when you conflate “long-haul” (over the road - OTR) with “semi-tractor”. A box truck can do OTR coast-to-coast, but it is usually more economical to use a semi tractor, simply for the larger amount of cargo per driver - the (human) driver being the primary cost…

I’m kind of assuming that is precisely the usage - most trucking is local. So FedEx, UPS, USPS are obvious. Along with local food delivery and other logistics. Here in SoCal, port traffic to intermodal distribution centers is a huge business. The commonality - all of these trucks go home at night.

I love how Tesla is finally getting on the bandwagon here. Plugin trucks are already available from Navistar (and others), and FedEx is already using them: