Wrightspeed has announced its third heavy-duty electric driveline product designed to save fuel in stop-and-go applications. The RouteHD can burn diesel, CNG, LNG, or landfill gases, and it can save refuse companies more than $35,000 in fuel costs, and $10,000 in maintenance costs, per year, the company said.
The system is designed as a repower kit, so commercial fleets can retrofit their existing trucks.
Like all Wrightspeed products, the Route HD is a series hybrid system that uses electric motors that power the wheels, along with a battery, and a turbine range-extending generator that charges the battery as needed. The result is a system that looks like battery electric vehicle (EV) that has its power station and grid charger onboard.
“Even if Wrightspeed’s Route HD powertrain is never plugged in,” said founder and CEO, Ian Wright, “it’s cleaner than an EV, because the exhaust emissions are lower per kWhr than the average mix of US power stations.”
