Freightliner To Make Electric Vans Utilizing Tesla Battery Packs

An All-Electric Freightliner Van









It seems there are headlines similar to this one every day lately. Delivery vans that drive the same routes are ideal candidates for electrification. Think of the savings in gasoline, maintenance and pollution if fleet operators such as the USPS, FedEx and UPS all converted to electric vans. Certainly, the initial cost is high but the dividend is great when factored over the lifetime of the vehicle. The uncertainty of the Tesla battery pack's longevity would be the main "X" factor for Freightliner.

From Gas2.0:

Electric might not seem very practical for most of the population right now, but for many companies that employ fleets of vehicles, they make all the sense on the world. Many fleet vehicles don’t wander too far from home base, and often run the same route every day. Without the cost of gas or maintaince, companies would have much more money to use to improve their business and could also lower costs.

Freightliner, a big trucking company who already has natural gas and hybrid vehicles on the road, has turned to Tesla to provide battery packs for their upcoming line of electric vans.

Tesla’s Roadster uses a battery pack that contains more than 2,000 lithium cells much like you find in laptops. It is part of the reason why the Roadster costs north of $100,000. The truck uses three individual 18.5 kWh packs, which provides 55.5 kilowatt hours of total power, good for about 150 miles or so depending on how you drive. The Freightliner vans will have a range “north” of 100 miles, depending on payload and how many battery packs they add on.

The vans are actually lighter with the electric drivetrain, despite the 900 pounds of batteries. The Enova motor provides peak power of 160 horsepower, so don’t expect these vans to be lightning fast. But everything fits in the frame, and it can support up to five individual packs for 92.5 kilowatts of power and even more range. Sounds like Tesla is branching out beyond passenger cars, and good thing too. The electrification of the fleet market would go a long way towards reducing emissions and gaining widespread acceptance for electric cars.