Tesla Motors co-founder wants to electrify commercial trucks - Autoblog (blog)
Twelve years ago, Ian Wright and some fellow engineers launched Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley company that has helped jumpstart the market for electric cars. We save a lot on maintenance, and we make the emissions compliance much easier," said Wright, a New Zealand-born engineer who left Tesla when it was still a small startup in 2005. Wrightspeed is one of a growing number of companies that are trying... While more consumers are switching to electric cars like the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt or Tesla Model S, convincing commercial fleet owners to replace their diesel trucks won't be easy. "It takes a lot of technological ambition to break into such an old and established market," said Mark Duvall, a research director at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. "If you want to sell a fleet owner an electric truck, you have to convince them that it's better than what they're already using. Wright's company is installing its powertrains on 25 FedEx delivery trucks and 17 garbage trucks for the Ratto Group, a Santa Rosa-based waste management company. Its plug-in powertrains feature an electric engine, battery system and on-board power generator that runs on diesel or natural gas and recharges the battery when it gets low. Source: www.autoblog.com
