Peterbilt Motors Co. said it has delivered the first battery-electric Model 220EV to Frito-Lay during a ceremony in Modesto, CA.
“With Frito-Lay’s Model 220EV, Peterbilt will have 15 battery electric trucks in three applications — city delivery, regional haul and refuse — in customers’ hands running real routes and collecting real world validation data,” said Jason Skoog, Peterbilt’s general manager.
The zero-emission 220EV has two battery packs with a capacity of 148 kWh and a Meritor Blue Horizon two-speed drive eAxle.
The truck has a range of more than 100 miles and a recharge time of one hour, which Peterbilt said makes it ideal for local pick-up and delivery operations.
Frito-Lay plans to use six of the Peterbilt 220EV - and other electric vehicles - as part of project that will transition a freight facility in Modesto to near-zero emissions operation.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is providing funding as part of a grant program known as the Zero- and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facility Project (ZANZEFF).
“Frito-Lay is continuously exploring current and emerging technologies for our freight equipment as we work toward reducing PepsiCo’s absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2030,” said Michael O’Connell, Vice President of supply chain for PepsiCo.
PepsiCo ranks No. 2 on the 2019 Fleet Owner 500 list of the largest private fleets. In April, Frito-Lay was awarded the Fleet Owner Private Fleet of the Year Award Sponsored by Great Dane.
The fleet has been an early adopter of alternative fuels and electric vehicles, thereby enabling the fleet to reduce it diesel fuel consumption by 30% in recent years. Frito-Lay is the private fleet that operates the largest number of all-electric vehicles in the United States.
Frito-Lay earlier in the decade had among the highest count of commercial electric vehicles manufactured by Smith. Those models are nearing the end of their lives, so the company is in the process of evaluating replacements, including the Peterbilt 220EV, a company executive said at the ACT Expo in May.
The 220EV was first introduced at CES this past January in Las Vegas. Peterbilt previously rolled out the 579EV and 520EV. Peterbilt is a unit of PACCAR Inc. and continues to conduct validation testing of the vehicles at the PACCAR Technical Center in Mount Vernon, WA.
