One of the big things CleanTechnica and EV Obsession readers have repeatedly pushed for, requested, aggressively demanded, etc., has been electric trucks (plugin-hybrids at the least). When you think about how inefficient trucks are, there’s great reason for that — the huge efficiency advantages of battery-electric drivetrains could have a huge impact in this segment.
Efficient Drivetrains, Inc. (EDI) has just helped with one segment of the truck market by bringing a plug-in hybrid Class 3 truck to consumers. As EDI states, the truck is “based upon EDI’s world-first PHEV drivetrain that provides 100 percent OEM performance and 100 percent zero emissions during city and highway driving, while also reducing emissions and fuel use by up to 80 percent.”
This is the first such truck in this class that has hit the market, and it is “built upon one of the most popular Light Duty Class 3 Detroit OEM commercial fleet trucks.” No other Class 3 truck in the world has 30–40 miles of all-electric driving range. Heck, few plug-in hybrid electric cars have that much all-electric driving range!
Kudos and a big thanks to EDI. I hope it sells well.
However, not all credit goes to EDI. The press release about the news notes that it built this truck largely in response to “increasing pressure from the utility industry to green their fleets using electricity as a primary fuel.” Hmm, maybe utilities are stepping up the electric vehicle push more than I thought. And that’s good news, because we really need these super-efficient electric vehicles.
Beyond the utility push, there’s the legislative push for such vehicles. EDI added: “National, state, and local governing bodies are aggressively advancing regulations to evolve towards a zero vehicle emissions future, prompting many utility and telecom fleet operators to seek out solutions that use electricity as a primary fuel.”
EDI now has a range of medium- and heavy-duty plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) on offer (class 3 light duty, class 4-6 medium duty, and class 7-8 heavy-duty commercial work trucks).
Here are a few more details from the company regarding the newest addition:
- The vehicle also features a series-parallel extended range of 300 miles, bi-directional charging, 50-120 kW of grid reliable exportable power, and enough battery capacity to operate vehicle accessories and job site work tools without idling the base diesel engine.
- EDI’s Power DriveTM allows the vehicle to generate useful power for up to 12 hours idle-free for a variety of stationary uses and power restoration during natural disaster recovery, mass transportation industry power outages, and planned and unplanned electrical outages.
- The vehicles are also capable of charging other pure electric vehicles when needed.
- Available in multiple configurations, EDI’s line of high-performance PHEV trucks also offer a variety of additional in-demand solutions, including jobsite idle elimination, 24+ hours of jobsite ePTO, the industry’s only parallel-series drivetrain architecture, and proprietary control software and algorithms that efficiently coordinate all vehicle components for optimum fuel economy and emissions reductions.
Looks like a company to keep an eye on!
Image Credit: EDI