Electric smart trucks charging toward market

 

With electric cars gradually overcoming range and pricing obstacles to become more competitive with liquid fuel contemporaries, electric vehicle technology is branching out, little by little. Tesla has plans to introduce trucks and buses next year, and Daimler announced Fuso E-Cell truck trials earlier this year. Now a lesser known player is revealing its own e-truck plans. British outfit Charge, the official electric truck partner of Formula E, has provided the first look at its futuristic production model, which it plans to start rolling out on highways next year.

We're not really in love with the wall-like front-end - the more rounded driver cab of Charge's Formula E prototype support truck looks a little less ridiculous - but Charge claims that the real innovation will come in the construction behind that flat face. At a reveal event in London last week, it detailed plans to build electric trucks, sized 3.5 to 26 tonnes, from lightweight composites, using a modular method that allows one person to assemble a full truck in just four hours, equating to a 10,000-truck/year production capacity with a staff of just 10.

"We find trucks today totally unacceptable," says Charge CEO Denis Sverdlov. "At Charge we are making trucks the way they should be - affordable, elegant, quiet, clean and safe. We are removing all the barriers to entry for electric vehicles by pricing them in line with conventional trucks, giving every fleet manager, tradesman or company the opportunity to change the way they transport goods and make our towns and cities better places to live in."

Charge's truck design doesn't just look futuristic; it's built with the future in mind. The company claims its trucks will be autonomous -ready, capable of being upgraded with self-driving capabilities when the regulatory environment so allows. Other hardware systems will also be up gradable, relying on over-the-air updates, just like smartphones and other mobile gadgets.