As the electric commercial vehicle market slowly begins to grow, there are an increasing number of companies vying for a slice of that segment.
Steve Slesinski, director of product planning for the commercial vehicle market at Dana Holding Corp., believes fleets would be best served to stick with those “leveraging proven experience in the commercial vehicle market.”
Slesinski and Brian Lindgren, research and development director at Kenworth Truck Co., spoke with Fleet Owner at CES as their companies announced a collaboration on electric powertrain development and displayed a K270E battery-electric vehicle.
The medium-duty cabover was equipped with the Spicer Electrified e-propulsion system that is fully integrated to the chassis.
“The medium-duty market is ripe and ready for battery-electric vehicles,” said Slesinski. He added there are more than 15,000 vehicles around the globe currently using a similar e-propulsion system from Dana being used in the K270E.
Slesinski explained that after Kenworth builds out the chassis, it will be shipped to a Dana facility in Canada in order to install the full e-propulsion system. It then will return to the Kenworth factory to undergo testing and validation before being released for sale. The electric powertrain will be available with range options between 100 miles and 200 miles. The high-energy density battery packs can be recharged in about an hour using the vehicle’s DC fast-charging system.
Dana announced a similar venture with Peterbilt Motors on the Model 220EV, which was first shown at CES in 2019.
At this year’s event, Kenworth also brought along a Level 4 autonomous T680. This proof-of-concept truck was conceived and constructed at the Paccar Innovation Center.
Stephan Olsen, general manager of the center, said the special T680 is equipped with nine total cameras, three LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors, and radars to sense the overall road environment and the surroundings.
