• Reliable starting for diesel engines up to 15 liters at temperatures down to -40 degrees C;

• Maintenance-free operation and life of the vehicle reliability;

• Industry standard Group 31 battery form factor for easy integration with battery systems;

• Built-in quick charging system (15 minutes or less);

• Extended battery life, full compatibility with existing battery systems;

• Green technology with no heavy metals or toxic substances requiring special recycling.

Trucking Industry sources estimate that emergency road service, downtime and delivery delays can add up to an average expense of $600 for each starting failure, and that heavy trucks experience an average one or more such events per year. Truck starting problems have become more common as over 30 states have enacted anti-idling laws that make it illegal to leave truck engines running for extended periods during deliveries or overnight to power hotel loads such as heating, air conditioning and entertainment systems in sleep-in truck cabs.

To avoid starting problems, truck operators often replace batteries as often as once a year at a cost of several hundred dollars per truck, adding up to an annual North American battery replacement market for Class 4 to 8 trucks estimated to approach $1 billion.

Maxwell estimates that the additional cost of incorporating an ultracapacitor module and associated power electronics can be partially or completely offset by reducing the size, weight and cost of the batteries, eliminating heavy, expensive cabling and by eliminating the cost of jump starts and loss of productivity from dead vehicles.

Unlike batteries, which produce and store energy by means of a chemical reaction, Maxwell ultracapacitor products store energy in an electric field. This electrostatic energy storage mechanism enables ultracapacitors to charge and discharge in as little as fractions of a second, perform normally over a broad temperature range (-40 to +65 °C), operate reliably through one million or more charge/discharge cycles and resist shock, vibration and overcharging.

Maxwell offers ultracapacitor cells ranging in capacitance from 5 to 3,000 farads and multi-cell modules ranging from 16 to 125 volts.