Bengaluru: Triton-EV, the revolutionary new subsidiary of Triton Solar, a leader in solar panel and battery engineering, announced today that it has produced a 100% electric-powered, full-service 18-wheeler semi-truck.
The truck, which is a hybrid of hydrogen fuels that generate electricity stored in on-board batteries, has a 220,000-pound towing capacity—the same as any comparable diesel truck on the road.
Triton-EV was able to produce the prototype in just over one month, a remarkable achievement considering the typical years-long development cycle for computing vehicles in the industry.
Triton-EV Founder and CEO Himanshu Patel the company decided to go for an EV truck at a time everyone was saying ‘No, it can’t be done.’
“It will take five years and a hundred million dollars.’ We thought, no, we can do it right now.
We have the people and the components. The whole effort took 35 days. That’s the kind of team we have. The entire effort was self-funded,” said Triton-EV Founder and CEO Himanshu Patel.
The trend in the industry is to emphasize hydrogen while using relatively few batteries. This causes an issue with torque, as hydrogen does not usually generate enough torque to haul an 80,000-pound trailer at sufficient speed and acceleration.
Triton-EV took the opposite approach, with a lot of batteries and a little bit of hydrogen.
Patel said the reason the company did it this way is that the hydrogen infrastructure is not there yet in the market.
“At the same time, we can use the hydrogen as the range extender,” he added.
The truck uses a hydrogen fuel cell generator to put power back into the battery. The motor runs off the battery, which provides the necessary torque for a truck of this size.
Triton-EV Semi-truck is estimated to have a range of approximately 350 miles or more, but has not yet determined a price for the truck.
However, the company expects it will sell within the existing price range in the industry, which is between US$150,00 and US$250,000.
Triton-EV is currently exploring partnership options, and will also be releasing The Triton model H SUV in the coming months.
This article first appeared in the NFA Post and is republished with permission.
