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Tesla Co-Founder Working on Medium- and Heavy-Duty EVs and Hybrids

posted by n1 on Thursday June 11 2015, @11:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the more-than-smog-to-smug? dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

There's plenty of interesting work going on trying to make large trucks more fuel efficient. One such example is the company Wrightspeed, which has been building range-extended electric powertrains that companies like Fedex can use to completely replace the conventional internal combustion bits on their existing trucks.

"[They have] all the things you need to make the vehicle go," Ian Wright told Ars. Wright is one of the original founders of Tesla but more recently has been focusing his attention on bigger vehicles, "since they burn so much fuel."

Wrightspeed's powertrain consists of electric motors (one for each drive wheel) powered by a battery pack, which can either be plugged in and charged from the grid or by the range-extender, a turbine capable of running on number of different liquid fuels. This replaces the diesel engine, transmission, propshaft, and differentials one might normally expect to find in something like a delivery truck.

Clean delivery trucks will be a major boon for urban air quality. The Bronx, for example, has one of the nation's highest rates of asthma, which many attribute to the semi traffic crossing the borough on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

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  • (Score: 2) by CoolHand on Thursday June 11 2015, @01:47PM

    by CoolHand (438) on Thursday June 11 2015, @01:47PM (#194948) Journal
    He definitely isn't the first [evsroll.com] to develop electric trucks. So, what makes this so special? Is it just because he is a Tesla co-founder? I don't see anything in TFS that makes me all warm and fuzzy other than this is a good idea in general. Maybe since he is a Tesla co-founder he will have some momentum to get these vehicles actually more widely used..
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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:34PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:34PM (#195002) Journal

    Maybe they'll operate off the same Tesla supercharger standard? Maybe they'll get a better line on batteries from the giga factory?

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  • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:33PM

    by davester666 (155) on Thursday June 11 2015, @06:33PM (#195088)

    The truck drivers will be able to exchange the batteries from their truck and their Roadster's. Convenient!