ReVolt Says Its Hybrid Powertrain For Class 8 Vans Can Save 40% On Gas Prices

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Why throw away a wonderfully good Class 8 tractor for a brand new battery electrical truck when you possibly can re-power it at half the price and pay for the improve in somewhat over a 12 months? That’s the enterprise proposition ReVolt is providing the trucking business. The corporate has created a alternative powertrain for Class 8 vehicles. Consider it as a model of the Voltec system GM created for the Chevy Volt greater than a decade in the past. Just like the Voltec, the ReVolt system is a collection hybrid, which suggests the pushed wheels are powered by an electrical motor that will get its electrons from a battery. That battery will be recharged from an exterior energy supply similar to any battery electrical car, however Class 8 vehicles typically have to go additional than they will journey on battery energy alone. That’s the place the ReVolt system is available in. It contains an onboard inner combustion engine to energy a generator that sends electrons to the battery whereas driving.

The variations from the Chevy Volt are vital. The ReVolt powertrain boasts a complete of 670 horsepower, 3,500 lb-ft of torque, and a GVWR of 130,000 kilos, that means it’s absolutely able to hauling the heaviest hundreds up the steepest grades. It includes a 210 kWh battery equipped by CATL and has a complete vary of 1,200 miles. The drivetrain helps “hoteling,” which suggests the truck can go a complete week with all of its vital programs functioning with out having to run the generator.

There are different benefits. The battery can present 24 kW of 3-phase energy in both 240 or 480 volts to help industrial tools equivalent to welding machines, HydroVac machines, dry materials dealing with pumps, and hydraulically operated tools. Whereas stationary, the battery can ship 200 kW (400 kW peak) of energy to distant purposes the place there may be restricted or no entry to energy sources, equivalent to oil area drilling and fracking purposes.

ReVolt works with a number of suppliers to supply the perfect home part choices, together with Flodraulic, an organization that has world experience in fluid energy in addition to electrical and mechanical applied sciences, and specializes within the integration of low-voltage and high-voltage programs in heavy-duty equipment. It is without doubt one of the largest Danfoss suppliers of Danfoss tools on the planet. Danfoss Energy Options boasts that it has the expertise and the experience to remodel cell and industrial equipment to allow them to prepared the ground to a extra sustainable future by growing machine productiveness and effectivity whereas lowering or eliminating emissions.

ReVolt Vary Extender Engine

Right here’a the half the place CleanTechnica readers might really feel somewhat uneasy. The ReVolt powertrain makes use of a diesel engine sourced from Scania to energy the onboard engine. Diesel engines from different producers could also be utilized in some vehicles as properly. Is that the perfect state of affairs? For long-haul, heavy-duty vehicles, it might be. The vital statistic we haven’t shared with you but is that ReVolt claims its powertrain will save truckers 40 % on their gasoline prices.

In response to trucking business information supply Bobtail, a typical Class 8 diesel tractor drives 62,169 miles in a 12 months and averages about 6.5 miles per gallon, which makes the whole consumption of diesel gasoline annually 9,564 gallons. In 2021, there have been roughly 4 million Class 8 vehicles on the highway in America which consumed round 39 billion gallons of diesel gasoline. Taking the common gasoline economic system of 6.5 miles per gallon, which means the common owner-operator consumes roughly 24,000 gallons of gasoline yearly. Diesel gasoline can account for 25 % or extra of a trucking enterprise’s working bills. At a median of $4.215 per gallon, it prices about $40,000 in diesel gasoline alone to function a typical Class 8 tractor truck. Since owner-operators drive extra miles, that quantity could also be nearer to $70,000 for them.

Taking the decrease variety of $40,000 a 12 months for gasoline, the ReVolt system can save operators about $16,000 a 12 months. For owner-operators, that quantity is nearer to $28,000 a 12 months. Gas financial savings are clearly a giant deal for truckers — fleet operators typically determine their prices all the way down to tenths of a cent per mile. The large profit so far as CleanTechnica readers are involved is {that a} 40 % discount within the quantity of gasoline used interprets right into a 40 % discount in diesel emissions, together with the oxides of nitrogen and positive particulate matter that trigger illnesses in people.

Constructed With The American Trucker in Thoughts

In a press launch, ReVolt says its serial hybrid system is designed particularly with the American trucker in thoughts. With the easy flip of a change, drivers can change from utilizing a diesel generator on the open highway to working on electrical energy in areas with zero-emissions mandates. “Drivers mustn’t have to decide on between dropping their longtime routes due to altering regulatory environments or dropping the truck wherein they’ve already made vital investments,” stated Gus Gardner, ReVolt Motors founder and CEO. “American truckers need their vehicles to replicate their id, and our retrofit expertise permits them to proceed driving the vehicles they love whereas nonetheless making a residing.”

ReVolt’s retrofit resolution is a extra inexpensive choice than buying a brand new electrical truck, which may price $500,000 earlier than including custom-made options and equipment. Retrofitting usually takes place as a part of a million-mile overhaul, with conversion prices beginning at round $125,000. The ReVolt group installs all parts and has developed a proprietary management software program together with a number of design and utility improvements. The serial hybrid system has been designed to scale up simply so the corporate can develop as market demand will increase. The retrofit additionally eliminates the necessity for a separate auxiliary energy unit to energy the sleeper cab with out idling the principle engine, offering drivers with practically limitless warmth and AC.

Past reliability, the corporate says its expertise delivers vital environmental advantages. On condition that the US trucking business accounts for 25 % of the transportation sector’s carbon emissions, ReVolt empowers drivers to undertake a cleaner future for freight transport. The hybrid system can slash carbon emissions by 40%, even with diesel gasoline utilization, which can enable the retrofitted vehicles to qualify for EPA certification as a near-zero emissions resolution. “ReVolt’s hybrid system seamlessly fees the truck batteries by the vary extender and regenerative braking, so there isn’t any have to waste hours at an EV charger or fear about working out of energy earlier than reaching a charging station. This hassle-free resolution retains drivers on the highway making a living, not caught on the facet,” the corporate says.

The Takeaway

That is a type of conditions the place we must always not enable the right to be the enemy of the nice. Would we desire to wave a magic wand and have all Class 8 vehicles in America be battery powered? After all we might! However they’d be a lot too costly for some and the charging infrastructure for them is woefully insufficient as we speak. We are able to debate till the swallows come again to Capistrano the deserves of serial hybrid programs, however the backside like is that this conversion addresses diesel air pollution as we speak, not subsequent 12 months or subsequent decade. For these use circumstances the place it makes financial sense, it might be a superb various. ReVolt will probably be displaying off a Peterbilt 379 that has been retrofitted with its serial hybrid expertise on the Mid-America Trucking Present subsequent month in Louisville, Kentucky. Cease by and inform them you examine their expertise on CleanTechnica.