Bison Electric Pickup Truck Introduced By Havelaar Canada

The Bison, a new electric pickup truck designed and built in Canada expressly to meet the needs of Canadian customers, was introduced this week by Havelaar Canada at the 8th EV/VE Conference and Trade Show in Ontario. According to a company press release, “The Bison is a sophisticated #nextgen pickup truck with instant connectivity, touch screen display, and driver assistive technology calibrated to meet both the day-to-day work demands and active lifestyle needs of adventurers.”

The Bison E-Pickup concept was created in cooperation with the University of Toronto. It features a carbon fiber reinforced steel space frame for “class-leading torsional stiffness for enhanced durability and handling.” It has dual electric motors for true four wheel drive capability and a claimed range of 186 miles.

The design pushes all four wheel out to the corners of the vehicle, giving it excellent approach and departure angles for aggressive off road driving. The drive train includes “advanced electronic management of the vehicle dynamics” developed in conjunction with the University of Toronto. It has 46 square feet of exterior cargo space and an extra 18 square feet of lockable storage. The interior features an uncluttered dashboard array with a large embedded touchscreen similar to that found in the Tesla Model S.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. The company says the looks of its Bison electric pickup truck were “inspired by nature,” whatever that means. We leave it to you to judge the aesthetics of the rather angular looking exterior. Maybe painting it some color other than fuchsia would help?

The partnership with the University of Toronto Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering began in 2016 and focused on “transformative powertrain, energy management, and autonomous driving technologies to increase electric vehicle efficiency, safety, comfort, and lifetime, and reduce system costs,” according to Tony Han, CEO of Havelaar Canada. No price or availability information was provided at the unveiling in Ontario.

The Bison will join Tesla in the quest for sales in the electric pickup truck market. Tesla is busy working on its offering, which may be years away (it has rather a lot on its plate right now as the start of production for the Model 3 is right around the corner.) Bollinger also has an electric pickup truck in development.

Two other companies are bringing plug-in hybrid pickup trucks to market but each of them is concentrating on fleet customers. XL  Hybrids has a hybrid package that can be inserted into the drivetrain of conventional Ford F-150 pickup trucks after they leave the factory. Workhorse is building its own all wheel drive electric pickup truck with a BMW sourced range extender engine. Neither is intended for sale to private customers, but that could change if demand is strong enough.

Source: The Drive