This Huge Electric Dump Truck Never Needs to Plug In

There's an electric dump truck that's all over the internet right now: It's called the eDumper. What's so great about an electric dump truck? Beyond being electric, there are two cool things about it. First, it's huge—HUGE. It has a weight of 45 tons. Second, it doesn't need an external power source to charge the batteries. 

eDumper never needs to be plugged in.

It charges itself by moving a bunch of rocks down an incline. That is indeed awesome. But how does it work?

One feature of this electric dump truck is it uses is regenerative braking. Actually, many electric vehicles do this. It's a way for the vehicle to recover some energy as it slows down. Here's how it works.

Let's start by considering an electric motor. If you have electric current running through a wire, it creates a magnetic field. Since the electric current makes a magnetic field, it will interact with other magnetic fields—like the one a permanent magnet creates. By forming this wire into a loop, you can get a torque on this current so that it spins. Boom. That's an electric motor. Here, you can build one yourself—it's not too difficult.

Read the story from Wired by Rhett Allain - “This Huge Electric Dump Truck Never Needs to Plug In.”