Canada-based Lion Electric Company, a leading manufacturer of all-electric medium- and heavy-duty urban vehicles, has selected Joliet, Ill., for the construction of its US manufacturing facility. The new facility will represent the largest dedicated production site for all-electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in the US and Lion’s biggest footprint in... Read more →

Building upon the success of the Volta Zero—a purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed for inner-city last mile deliveries (earlier post)—Volta Trucks plans to expand its product portfolio with three additional variants within the medium- to lower end of the heavy-duty class. With Volta Zero models available in the 7.5-tonne,... Read more →

United Natural Foods, Inc. is adding 53 all-electric transport refrigerated trailer units (TRUs) to its fleet located at the company’s Riverside, Calif. distribution center. The company is one of the first wholesalers to utilize the technology and comes as the California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced plans in January to... Read more →

Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group officially outlined their pioneering roadmap for the new fuel-cell joint venture cellcentric, as part of an industry-first commitment to accelerate the use of hydrogen-based fuel cells for long-haul trucks and beyond. With the ambition of becoming a leading global manufacturer of fuel-cell systems, cellcentric... Read more →

The California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) will open to new voucher requests at 10 a.m. Pacific on 8 June. When HVIP begins accepting new voucher requests, funds will be available in two waves. A total of approximately $165 million will be available, however, only... Read more →

Ricardo has developed a hydrogen-fueled research engine which could offer a renewable, economic and durable technology solution to accelerate zero-carbon emissions in heavy duty trucks, off-highway machines and marine vessels. Ricardo will be testing the prototype at the engine development facility at the University of Brighton—the company’s long-term combustion engine... Read more →

Plus (formerly Plus.ai), a leading company in self-driving truck technology, announced a new initiative with global engine manufacturer Cummins to develop the industry’s first driver-in, supervised autonomous trucks powered by natural gas. The compressed natural gas engines provided by Cummins have been certified to near-zero emissions, reducing smog-forming emissions by... Read more →

Hino Motors Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, and REE Automotive Ltd. (REE), the developer of a next-generation EV platform, signed a strategic business alliance agreement to realize their shared vision of “providing new value to society through next-generation commercial mobility.” Hino and REE will combine Hino’s knowledge... Read more →

Electric truck company Tevva and Vattenfall signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the opportunity to provide a complete zero-emission transport solution for businesses looking to reduce the overall carbon impact of their operations Tevva is a pioneer in developing long-range zero emission truck capabilities Vattenfall Network Solutions’ Power-as-a-Service model... Read more →

Allison Transmission and Emergency One (UK) Ltd, the market leader in the United Kingdom in the manufacture, service and support of fire and rescue vehicles, announced a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The two companies will integrate the Allison eGen Power 100D electric axle into Emergency One’s fire rescue and... Read more →

EV technology developer Battle Motors has acquired commercial vehicle OEM Crane Carrier Company. Battle Motors was founded by Michael Patterson, the founder of Romeo Power; Paul Marsolan, co-founder and former CTO of InAuth, Inc.; and Nick Sampson, co-founder of Faraday Future and former head of vehicle engineering at Tesla. Crane... Read more →

Hyzon Motors Inc. has begun production of 15 zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for delivery to the Municipality of Groningen in The Netherlands at Hyzon’s European manufacturing facility. The Groningen Municipality orders are being fulfilled through Hyzon Motors Europe B.V., a joint venture between Hyzon Motors Inc. and Holthausen Clean... Read more →

A major new European consortium, IMMORTAL, is developing higher performance fuel cell components for heavy duty trucks with a predicted lifetime of at least 30,000 hours. IMMORTAL (IMproved lifetiMe stacks fOR heavy duty Trucks through ultrA-durabLe components) is a €3.8-million (US$4.6-million), three-year project supported by the European Fuel Cells and... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced two funding opportunities totaling more than $162 million to improve efficiency and reduce carbon emissions among cars, trucks, and off-road vehicles. The funding will support the next stage of the SuperTruck initiatives—aimed at electrifying freight trucking—along with efforts to expand electric vehicle (EV)... Read more →

IKEA Canada has partnered with technology-enabled logistics and last-mile delivery provider, Second Closet, which will begin integrating zero-emission trucks into its fleet for IKEA home deliveries in several markets across Canada. Second Closet has submitted a purchase order to Lion Electric (Lion), a manufacturer of all-electric medium and heavy-duty urban... Read more →

Nikola Corporation, IVECO and OGE have entered into a letter of intent for a collaboration to establish a business structure for transporting hydrogen via pipeline network from production sources to hydrogen fueling stations in support of fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The collaboration is expected to enable cost-effective distribution of hydrogen... Read more →

Truck makers and environmentalists have joined forces to push for the deployment of 11,000 charging points for electric trucks across the EU by 2025, rising to 42,000 by 2030. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Transport & Environment (T&E) made this call to the European Commission in a joint... Read more →

Cummins Inc. and Tula Technology, Inc., a leader in propulsion efficiency, announced at SAE International’s WCX the results of their collaborative study on the effectiveness of Tula’s diesel Dynamic Skip Fire (dDSF) in reducing nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on a Cummins X15 HD Efficiency Series diesel... Read more →

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved a first-of-its-kind project to accelerate the deployment of infrastructure needed to fuel zero-emission trucks, buses and equipment. Administered by CALSTART, the EnergIIZE Commercial Vehicles (Energy Infrastructure Incentives for Zero-Emission Commercial Vehicles) project will use a concierge-like model working directly with eligible applicants to help plan and... Read more →

A new partnership comprising Los Alamos National Laboratory, Advent Technology Holdings Inc., Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will work over the next few years to bring to market high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cells. Traditional PEM fuel cells have a relatively low operating temperature,... Read more →

ABB has secured a contract with Spanish shipbuilder Astilleros Gondán to supply the all-electric power solution for fast 40-meter urban passenger ferries transporting up to 540 passengers each across Lisbon’s Tagus river. The 10 new ferries will be operated by the public ferry company Transtejo, S.A. and will replace the... Read more →

Leclanché SA has developed a new, high-energy 65 Ah lithium-ion pouch cell to meet the demands of bus and truck manufacturers seeking increased range and operating time for fully electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. Leclanché’s new high energy, 65 Ah lithium-ion pouch cell is designed for energy intensive applications. It features... Read more →

In 2020, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) launched the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck Consortium (M2FCT) to leverage the potential opportunity fuel cells in the heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) market and to align with the H2@Scale vision for clean and affordable hydrogen across multiple... Read more →

Hyliion, a developer of electrified powertrain solutions for Class 8 semi-trucks, has formed the Hypertruck Innovation Council, a group of fleet, logistics, and transportation industry leaders that will actively support the development of Hyliion’s Hypertruck powertrain solution. Representing more than 100,000 Class 8 commercial trucks globally, the Council will collaborate... Read more →

If fast charging is available, the competitiveness of battery electric trucks compared with diesel trucks can actually improve with larger trucks, according to a new study by Björn Nykvist and Olle Olsson from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). In a study published in the journal Joule, the two researchers model... Read more →

Romeo Power, Inc. announced a long-term supply agreement with PACCAR, the manufacturer of light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks under the Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF nameplates, to provide battery packs, modules and battery management systems (BMS) for PACCAR’s battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The Romeo Hercules BEV pack family supports commercial electric... Read more →

China-based SANY, one of the largest construction equipment manufacturers in the world, is developing hydrogen fuel cell construction vehicles; two recent examples include a dump truck and a mixer truck, freshly rolled out of SANY’s intelligent flagship factory. The latter is the first hydrogen-powered mixer truck in the world. According... Read more →

A study commissioned by EDF and conducted by Gladstein, Neandross and Associates (GNA) has evaluated a year’s worth of heavy-duty truck trips conducted by two national trucking companies: NFI and Schneider. Both companies have made significant efforts to start their transition to electric trucks. GNA modeled the impact of electrification... Read more →

Lion Electric (Lion), a manufacturer of all-electric medium- and heavy-duty urban vehicles, received a purchase order from Pride Group Enterprises (Pride) for the acquisition of 100 all-electric Lion6 and Lion8 trucks. The order represents Lion’s largest single order of zero-emission trucks to date. Pride will be integrating the all-electric trucks... Read more →

The California Energy Commission has awarded GTI and Sierra Northern Railway nearly $4,000,000 to fund the design, integration, and demonstration of a hydrogen fuel cell switching locomotive to support the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Demonstrations in Rail and Marine Applications at Ports (H2RAM) initiative. The locomotive will show the potential of... Read more →

Since July 2019, the purely battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros has proven its worth in extensive field testing at the company Logistik Schmitt. The eActros has travelled a total of around 50,000 kilometers in the Northern Black Forest to date, carrying more than 100,000 load units on around 5,000 trips. In doing... Read more →

Loop Energy and Rheintal-Transporte announced an agreement for the development and supply of heavy-duty hydrogen-fuel-cell range-extension solutions for battery-electric trucks in Europe. As a part of the agreement, Rheintal is looking to use Loop’s eFlow fuel cell modules (earlier post) to expand driving range capabilities of battery-electric trucks to the... Read more →

Volvo Group’s subsidiary Renault Trucks is pursuing its investment in electric mobility. From 2023, an all-electric Renault Trucks offer will be available for each segment, namely distribution, construction and long distance. To support these developments and be able to offer a complete and competitive Renault Trucks range on the market,... Read more →

Comercial vehicle manufacturer the TRATON Group will invest a total of €1.6 billion in research and development for e-mobility by 2025. An e-mobility investment of €1 billion had been planned originally over this period. At the same time, TRATON is scaling back investments in conventional drives for these to make... Read more →

The UK Government is awarding more than £54 million ($US$75 million) to three projects to advance the next generation of electric trucks and hydrogen buses. The 3 projects are: £31.9 million (US$44.3 million) to develop electric propulsion systems for heavy goods vehicles in Cwmbran, Wales. The EPIC project led by... Read more →

Westport Fuel Systems Inc. announced co-investment with its Tier 1 global injector manufacturing partner to expand their production facility in Yantai, China to supply jointly developed and proprietary fuel injectors to the growing global market for HPDI 2.0 (High Pressure Direct Injection 2.0). HPDI 2.0 is a fully OEM-integrated system... Read more →

Volvo Group Venture Capital AB has invested in Driivz Ltd., a global EV charging software company which has developed a platform for managing large charging networks for electric vehicles from end-to-end. The Driivz platform functions as an operating system for electric vehicle (EV) charging networks and is used by the... Read more →

Canda-based Lion Electric, a manufacturer of all-electric trucks and buses, is building a battery manufacturing plant and innovation center in Québec. The factory is planned to begin operations in early 2023 and will produce battery packs and modules made from Lithium-ion cells. Construction is projected to break ground over the... Read more →

A consortium led by researchers at TU Berlin has launched a €6.5-million project to develop an automated battery exchange station for electric heavy goods vehicles. The eHaul project is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with further financial input provided by partner organizations. Other partners are... Read more →

RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.) has launched China’s first automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR production line and will start mass production and delivery of the automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1 for contract projects in Q2 this year. At CES2021 in January, RoboSense officially unveiled the SOP version of the automotive-grade LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1,... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy intends to issue three sustainable transportation technologies funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) in Spring 2021. These potential funding opportunities seek innovative research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) in the pursuit of technologies that will help reduce greenhouse gas... Read more →

Plus (formerly Plus.ai), a leading company in self-driving truck technology, will equip the next generation of its autonomous truck driving system with the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC). The company plans to roll out this next-generation system in 2022 across the US, China and Europe. NVIDIA introduced NVIDIA DRIVE AGX... Read more →

Rhombus Energy Solutions announced the certification of its bi-directional 125 kilowatt (kW) DC fast charger to the Underwriter Laboratories 1741-SA standard. This latest certification now provides medium- and heavy-duty (M/HD) EV fleet operators with two Rhombus products to meet their needs: the Rhombus 125kW charger and the previously-certified Rhombus 60kW... Read more →

Cummins Inc. and Cummins Westport Inc. announced that the ISX12N+Endurant HD N powertrain from its Integrated power portfolio is now available for heavy-duty customers, delivering a fully integrated natural gas powertrain. The combination of the ISX12N near zero natural gas engine and the Endurant HD N 12-speed automated transmission from... Read more →

For 16 months, GTI and its partners have been designing and assembling fuel cell-electric terminal tractors in a project called Zero Emissions for California Ports (ZECAP) that will assess vehicle operation in a demanding, real-world cargo-handling application. (Earlier post.) Performance verification is nearing completion, and the first-of-a-kind pilot project is... Read more →

J&M Sanitation, a family-owned business serving Kuna, Idaho, has deployed two all-electric Class 8 refuse trucks, the first such battery-electric, zero-emission vehicles in Idaho. The trucks are replacing two current diesel vehicles. J&M is the first company in Idaho to own and operate electric refuse trucks and now operates two... Read more →

Daimler Truck AG and the Volvo Group completed the transaction to form the previously announced fuel-cell joint venture. (Earlier post.) The Volvo Group has acquired 50% of the partnership interests in the existing Daimler Truck Fuel Cell GmbH & Co. KG for approximately SEK 6.3 billion (approximately €0.6 billion) on... Read more →

A model-based analysis by Westport Fuel Systems and AVL indicates that H2-HPDI (High Pressure Direct Injection with pilot ignition)—a combustion approach for hydrogen in engines—has the potential to achieve fuel economy close to that of a fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) for heavy duty applications, due to its high efficiency at... Read more →

DHL Freight, one of the leading road freight providers in Europe, and Volvo Trucks have partnered to speed up the introduction of heavy-duty electric trucks to be used for regional transport in Europe. DHL Freight and Volvo Trucks have initiated a project focusing on electric longer distance heavy transports. So... Read more →

Continuing to speed up the adoption of hydrogen in long-haul transportation, Hydra Energy—the first Hydrogen-as-a-Service provider for commercial fleets—announced a strategic partnership with Chemtrade. The long-term contract is a pillar of Hydra’s Hydrogen-as-a-Service (HaaS) business model and includes Hydra capturing, cleaning, and compressing hydrogen sourced from Chemtrade. In exchange for... Read more →