Dive Brief:
- Southern California-based Ability Tri-Modal Transportation Services is working to convert 20 diesel tractors with swappable batteries through a partnership with Janus Electric, EVP Mike Kelso told Trucking Dive in a video interview Oct. 9.
- The upgrades will allow an initial pair of trucks to run as battery-electric vehicles, he said, with two more conversions expected afterward. The batteries can be swapped out within minutes when a fully charged setup is needed.
- “These were the first two that have ever been done in the U.S.,” Founder and COO Lex Forsyth of Australia-headquartered Janus Electric said during a joint interview about Ability Tri-Modal’s pending conversions. Toronto-based battery manufacturer Electrovaya is doing final testing of the packs and is about two weeks away from completion, he said.
Dive Insight:
Charging for heavy-duty electric trucks can be timely, but Janus Electric’s approach seeks to save time and repurpose existing assets.
Ability Tri-Modal, headquartered near Los Angeles in Carson, already had two Freightliner eCascadia’s, which the carrier introduced in 2023 and been in place amid California’s sky-high diesel prices, which have averaged over $8 per gallon statewide in recent weeks.
While batteries are the most expensive part of the upgrades, the carrier won’t need two battery packs for every one truck. Instead, in this use case, the carrier will only need a ratio of 1.1 batteries per trucks because the charging only takes three hours, Forsyth said.
“In the full 20 truck program, they're looking at 26 sets of batteries,” Forsyth said.
Each conversion costs about $175,000, but through California’s Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, known as HVIP, the price is reduced by $112,000, Kelso previously said in a LinkedIn video.
The remaining conversions could take about six to eight months, Forsyth said.
The tractors will have a range of about 300 miles, according to the companies. With the upgrade, a truck will have about 560 kilowatts of usable battery energy and get about 1.8 kilowatt hours to the miles, Forsyth said.
Janus Electric provides estimated ranges on worst-case scenarios, but carriers can improve that range based on how drivers operate the vehicle’s regenerative braking. With that process, drivers lift their feet off accelerators, and a portion of electrical power is recovered back in the battery.
In Australia, most drayage operators using Janus Electric get about a 20% or 25% recovery in regen braking, Forsyth said.
“Depending on driver habits and and driver behavior, you can extend that range with regen braking,” he said.
