WHILE South Africa ranks with Malaysia and South America as
top-selling bakkie markets, our buyers do not have much of a say in what
drivetrains future bakkies should offer.
That authority goes to the American buyers, who ensure that the
Ford F250 is the overall top-selling vehicle in the U.S.
And with demand for the as yet unproven fuel cell Nikola One truck
having netted the developer $3 billion (R42,2 billion) in deposits, any
manufacturer with an eye on the American buyer will be offering pick-ups that
just sip fuel.
Enter XL Hybrids Incorporated, a company founded in 2009 by MIT
alumni in Boston, Massachusetts, whose hybrid electric and plug-in
hybrid-electric powertrains can be fitted to any of the major OEM platforms and
have been proven to deliver on average 20% to 50% improvement in consumption and
CO2 emissions, as well as 99,9% fleet uptime. XL Hybrids was recognised as one
of the 2014 World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies 2014 by Fast Company, and has
buy-in from national fleets in the U.S. The company now offers a plug-in hybrid
system for half-ton bakkies which it said in a statement is an industry-first,
fleet-ready solution, with deliveries to fleet customers scheduled for the
fourth quarter of 2017.
Clay Siegert, XL Hybrids’ co-founder and chief
operating officer, said the technology will be the first plug-in solution that
is available for tried and true commercial pickup trucks for fleets today. He
said XL Hybrids surveyed fleet managers to understand their most critical
requirements and developed the new technology based on customer demand for
hybrid electric plug-in technology on commercial work trucks from the leading
OEMs.
The new XLP solution will build on the platform product technology
used on the company’s award-winning XL3 hybrid-electric powertrain, which has
achieved more than 35 million road miles with over 99,9% vehicle uptime on Class
2-6 vehicles for major fleets since 2013.
The XLP lithium battery pack will be over 10 kWh, and will
accommodate Levels 1 and 2 charging using an industry-standard plug.
Dr Edward Lovelace, XL Hybrids’ chief technology officer, said in a
statement the plug-in hybrid electric solution has already proven over millions
of fleet road miles.
“XLP will provide fleet customers with unprecedented reliability,
vehicle uptime and drivability for a plug-in hybrid pickup truck solution,” said
Lovelace.
“The launch of our XLP plug-in hybrid solution reaffirms XL Hybrids
is the industry leader in fleet electrification solutions, and we are proud to
have major customers already committed to support our product launch next
year.”
Like Tesla cars, the XLP hybrids will link to a cloud-based big
data analytics system, which measures MPG performance and reports carbon dioxide
emissions reductions.
The proprietary XL Link vehicle connectivity is a continuous data
link from every vehicle, collecting millions of operational data points,
allowing analysis and reports on key performance indicators.
