EV Trucks, What are your options?

[G. David Felt]

G. David Felt
Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com

 

EV Trucks, What are your options?

 

Last week, Ellen Musk, CEO of Tesla start his normal dog n pony show about his company and the future and touched on Semi Trucks and an electric pickup. While there has been plenty of photo shopped images of a tesla pickup, this made me think about what are the current EV options for pickup trucks today on American roads?

We will start with one of many startups that is now in production. EV Fleet has started production of their 100 mile range pickup. Considered to be one of the best in slipping through the air. EV Fleet has a multitude of options from a basic cab only truck for full customization to normal pickups and box'd versions and even a Solar option that during the day can add up to 40 miles to the range of the truck. The companies focus is on inner city use by companies and city government. The EV Fleet Pickup has a 1000lb capacity payload if you go with the normal bed. 100 mile range on their current battery pack with a .026 coefficient of drag.

EV Fleet web site

Bremach Motors USA takes a totally off road MOG inspired approach to the EV Truck and has one of the most usable battery packs. The T-Rex as they call it is a serious EV Pickup Truck. 6000lb carrying capacity in a 4x4 platform with a 100kWh battery pack that gives a solid 200 mile range while offering 10-30 amp outlets for powering your tools too. 200hp / 400 lbs of torque

Bremach Motors USA web site

Smith Electric has taken an interesting approach on focusing on the delivery business in cities and has customers like Coke, Frito Lays, Staples, as well as building pure EV transportation for companies that have their own private fleet of people haulers. Smith electric which is more known internationally than in the US just signed an agreement with FDG Electric Vehicles out of China to design and build for the US market light and medium duty trucks for the US market.

Smith Electric web site

Another company that has taken on a niche market is OrangeEV, a company focused on pure electric EV Terminal trucks. These are trucks that move containers around the yard.

OrangeEV web site

The final company is not a pure EV truck, but a Hybrid that has been around for a long time. Giving you 40 miles of pure electric and a total of 400 plus miles with the VIA motors has been making hybrid trucks and SUVs for years, but their current push is to move cities into buying their conversion trucks to go greener and still maintain distance.

VIA Motors web site

 

No matter if you like, love or hate electrification, I suspect that EVs are here to stay. Having both plug-in hybrids like what is offered by VIA or pure electric like what is offered by EV Fleet or Bremach Motors. There is something for everyone.

What do you think of these early options for electrification of trucks?

[G. David Felt]

Have to say the more I have read on this the more I love this truck. The T-Rex can be ordered with a turbo diesel or petro, but why when you can get the 100kWh battery pack for up to 200+ mile range and outlets allowing you to connect and use tools of 10-30 amp capacity. I love the Crewcab truck.

Bremach-T-Rex.pdf

[ccap41]

I read this the other day and I see no reason for any commercial use truck to not attempt EV or at least hybrid-ness. The only one that I didn't understand was the top one where they replace the bed with solar panels..but then it's basically just a useless single cab truck..

I would really like to see large companies like FedEx, UPS, USPS going more and more electric if their routes allow for it. I think that would be a big push in going more and more electric and on top of the vehicles themselves just getting more humans behind the wheels of them will benefit the other civilian EVs like the Bolt.

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

I read this the other day and I see no reason for any commercial use truck to not attempt EV or at least hybrid-ness. The only one that I didn't understand was the top one where they replace the bed with solar panels..but then it's basically just a useless single cab truck..

I would really like to see large companies like FedEx, UPS, USPS going more and more electric if their routes allow for it. I think that would be a big push in going more and more electric and on top of the vehicles themselves just getting more humans behind the wheels of them will benefit the other civilian EVs like the Bolt.

The truck with the solar panels in the bed area was actually to show off that they had a solar option to enhance range. If you get the truck with a hauling box on back and add the solar panels on top you gain 40 miles more range depending on use case. At least the solar options could go to running heater or cooling of the cab without affecting the battery range.

[balthazar]

Dave (or anyone) ~

Has anyone any links to .cd relative to vehicle speed?

What continues to catch my eye is ".26 cd" and "inner city use".
There has to be some sort of chart of speed plotted against .cd and a resulting 'mpg' out there somewhere.
A brief wikipedia perusal turned up nada.   

- - - - -
I do think it's an excellent idea to try and electrify large / commercial trucks. Go for it.

Edited August 26, 2016 by balthazar

[G. David Felt]

15 hours ago, balthazar said:

Dave (or anyone) ~

Has anyone any links to .cd relative to vehicle speed?

What continues to catch my eye is ".26 cd" and "inner city use".
There has to be some sort of chart of speed plotted against .cd and a resulting 'mpg' out there somewhere.
A brief wikipedia perusal turned up nada.   

- - - - -
I do think it's an excellent idea to try and electrify large / commercial trucks. Go for it.

Sadly the EV Fleet web site is sparse on additional info. I spent hours going over all their news releases and links to info to get what I posted here. Will once I get my honey do list done today come back and see if I can find more info. 

EV Fleet truck is not the best looking, but seems to hit a number of right numbers for use by many that really do not need a full size or HD truck.