
GM took the wraps off the Chevrolet Silverado EV, which formally lays down the anvil for the coming electric powered pickup war. Nichole Kraatz, main engineer of the Chevrolet Silverado EV, presents a vehicle walkaround to Bobit’s Louis Prejean.
Photo by Chris Brown
Wherever did the time go? For the perform truck industry’s once-a-year pilgrimage to Indy for Perform Truck 7 days, the mood was “It feels like we ended up below just yesterday.”
Just after pivoting to virtual in 2021 thanks to the pandemic, the power at this year’s clearly show was palpable. The present floor was packed, with much more than 500 exhibitors and 71 new types, an upward craze from the normal of 50 to 60 in current year’s earlier.
The developments here aren’t always new but are magnifications of the seeds planted at recent demonstrates. A good deal of the motion concerned the displays and bulletins from the new crop of impartial electric powered truck makers.
The Course 3-6 EV Race Heats Up
The clearly show ground was electrical, basically, as about 20 companies exhibited electric powered automobiles or electric chassis. It must’ve been a report. Quite a few of the new unbiased commercial EV makers — Xos, Bollinger, ELMS, SEA Electric, REE Automotive, Zeus, Motiv, and Lordstown Motors — exhibited. But they were being met on the show ground by the set up truck makers and their new EV solutions.
The Shyft Group (reorganized from Spartan Motors) launched a new EV division, Blue Arc EV Alternatives, that will develop an EV chassis and an electric Course 3 delivery wander-in van with deliveries starting in Q3 up coming 12 months. Freightliner Customized Chassis experienced on display its new Class 5 electric van, MT50e. Equally businesses can leverage established manufacturing and coastline-to-coast seller and services infrastructure from start.
In the race to market, having a terrific item is only the commence, so electrical OEMs that are just starting to put jointly all those other vital pieces about revenue and support are slipping guiding.
EV Indies Arrange Production Versatility
Previous 12 months, we discovered from Lordstown how considerably funds it usually takes to make an vehicle plant operational and face up to zero cashflow from car income. Edward Hightower, the new president of Lordstown, touted in an interview the company’s offer with Foxconn as the sustainable path. In its place of hoping to retain the lights on in an vacant plant, Foxconn’s plants and workers can changeover from electronics agreement production to EVs as income ramp up. Xos has a very similar lean and adaptable production course of action.
For the independents, scaling creation to demand is essential to survival, as the proven automakers can extra easily shift to EVs in their current vegetation.
Never Ignore the ICE
With all the consideration on electrification, the venerable inner combustion motor (ICE) receives shed in the shuffle. Nevertheless OEM engineers are continue to realizing incremental advancements in efficiency and fuel overall economy: The 2023 design-calendar year Ram ProMaster’s 3.6L Pentastar V-6 gets a 9% enhancement above 2022, when the Sprinter’s new four-cylinder diesel engine has better small-finish torque, is lighter, and will get much better mpg.
These gains do subject, as a lot of perform purposes remain improved suited for ICE motor vehicles and as corporations are requested to reveal carbon emission reductions from their full fleet.
New Worth of Lightweighting, Aerodynamics
When it comes to electrifying do the job vans, battery bodyweight sucks up payload and kills selection — producing a lighter weight, extra aerodynamic body now far more essential than ever. Morgan Truck Entire body has engineered a new box with foam main paneled sidewalls and has changed steel and wood with aluminum wherever possible. The elements are more expensive, but so is wood now way too. The modifications lessened the pounds of the box by an astounding 1,500 lbs., a 30% reduction above the previous style and design.

In an era of blind spots and distraction, offering drivers “situational awareness” is a building pattern. Morgan Truck Entire body offers a digital rearview mirror and a 360-degree see to capture the encompassing setting and inside of the truck entire body.
Image by Chris Brown
Aerodynamic improvements occur from facet skirts, a cab faring, and wheel addresses, while plastic “vortex generators” mounted up the truck’s rear aspect corners strengthen air flow. The new design and style decreases drag by 8%. Oh, and these unsightly sidewall rivets are no more time, on Morgan’s and other truck bodies.
J.B. Poindexter & Co.’s new device, EAVX, was created to do particularly this, get the job done with JBPCO’s makes Morgan, Morgan Olson, and Looking at Truck to style and design bodies for the new market of electric powered chassis.
It Can take a Village to Electrify
Suppliers comprehend that their fleet prospects interested in acquiring EVs will require aid with the more durable sections of electrification — scheduling infrastructure for property, depot, and general public charging, working with utilities on electrical power wants and vital updates, and implementing units to tie it all together seamlessly. Which is why brands are putting collectively offer offers with service suppliers that can help with these aspects.
Ford reorganized its industrial division into Ford Pro partly to fulfill the fleet electrification obstacle. General Motors has a new stable of charging and electricity administration associates and EV fleet consultants. To Ed Peper, head of GM fleet, this “uncomplicated button” is critical to scale fleet electrification, he explained in an interview.
At this year’s show Hino introduced Inclusev, a very similar portfolio of remedies but for the medium-duty aspect. Fleet administration firms now have their a person-cease-stores for electrification as nicely.

These are identified as “vortex generators” and however the identify conjures Again to the Upcoming, they in fact improve a truck’s air flow for better aerodynamics. They are aspect of a suite of new systems to boost trucks’ mpg, which turns into even extra essential for electric chassis.
Photo by Chris Brown
Cameras, Cameras, Cameras
An increasing security concentrate of truck makers is driver “situational awareness,” which features cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence developed to alert motorists to road dangers and mitigate distracted driving actions. This has been a producing trend for a long time, although digital rearview mirrors, 360-diploma bird’s eye views, and displays mounted in the truck physique — all accessible from the manufacturing facility, not aftermarket — are gaining traction.
Morgan Truck Body’s 360-diploma vision techniques have displays and cameras in the cab and in the truck physique that give drivers and loaders visibility to the surrounding surroundings and expose hazardous load shifts.
According to Ram, the “most requested improvement requested by large-van shoppers is better visibility all over the car.” In reaction, ProMaster included an accessible digital rearview mirror and a 360-diploma Encompass Look at camera.
Keeping Little for the Remaining Mile
The explosion of past-mile shipping only accelerated all through the pandemic, and the get the job done truck sector is facilitating the pattern with new autos, ergonomics enhancements, and security. Significantly of the action is with more compact vans, which accommodate younger, non-CDL drivers accustomed to buyer cars.
Metris, Mercedes-Benz Vans’ smaller industrial van, is now presented in two GVWRs. The Shyft Group’s Utilimaster unveiled R2, an additional auto for its Velocity line especially for last-mile deliveries. Built on a Ram ProMaster cutaway chassis, the wander-in R2 falls underneath 10,000 lbs. GVWR and avoids DOT laws.
As past-mile motorists make over 100 stops a working day, even modest procedure enhancements aid a lot more productive deliveries. Mercedes Sprinter’s “Speed Shipping Door” is sensor-controlled and mechanically opens to enable a driver to enter and exit with fingers complete.

Recognized truck chassis and human body makers are total into the EV place. The Shyft Group’s new division, Blue Arc EV Alternatives, will commence generating this Class 3 shipping and delivery van, an electrical chassis for multiple bodies, and a portable charging remedy, Blue Arc Electric power Cube, by mid-2023.
Photograph by Chris Brown
For Morgan’s refrigerated bodies, fleets can spec a secondary computerized slide-up door to maintain contents amazing without the need of obtaining to close the swing doorway.
Telematics Swims Upstream
An ongoing pattern in telematics is the transition from aftermarket modems to manufacturing facility-mounted OEM modems, and the capability for fleets to entry several applications from a solitary pane of glass. The evolution is finding up velocity in the work truck space.
Navistar declared manufacturing facility-mounted telematics on all its new Course 6 to 8 Global trucks. The modems will integrate with Navistar’s proprietary connected products and services platform, which contains 30 telematics lover integrations. The platform’s open architecture makes it possible for it to combine with all makes and designs of cars on the marketplace.
Also at the show, Geotab declared a new partnership with Cost-free2go, the fleet, mobility, and connected information arm of Stellantis. The alternative will use embedded telematics in Stellantis cars that integrates car knowledge from No cost2go servers into Geotab’s platform. Fleet supervisors will get a single unified dashboard and have obtain to the Geotab Marketplace, a portfolio of applications and integrations from third functions.
You are going to hear more about other manufacturing facility integrations before long, including a tie up concerning key automaker and telematics supplier that was not quite completely ready for showtime. The greatest connectivity integration to date may well really be in motor vehicle rental, as Hertz announced a offer with a “third-celebration telematics provider” to join effectively its full fleet.
EV Pickup Wars Are on Like …
The 3 electric pickups for fleets — Chevrolet Silverado EV, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Lordstown Motors Endurance — grabbed interest on the show ground. The Silverado EV was the shiny new entrant, when Lordstown unveiled a pre-manufacturing model of Endurance, a more refined version of its Alpha design.
Deliveries of the F-150 Lightning officially begin afterwards this spring. Stamina is slated for the third quarter of 2022, while GM will commence offering the Silverado EV in spring 2023. We’ll have to hold out for extra details on the Ram electric powered 1500, which is scheduled for release in 2024.
Let the EV pickup wars start off — however the extensive vast majority of models won’t start off flowing until next yr, as this year’s allocation is hand selected and in small numbers. Of program, this doesn’t aspect in unforeseen provide chain difficulties.
We’ll exit this web site with a snapshot on how these 3 types stack up on specs, at minimum on paper. Observe that the up-to-date Stamina specs had been provided to me on the show floor by Lordstown Silverado EV WT and F-150 Lightning Professional specs are accessible on the net. Specs can differ significantly amongst perform truck designs and other trim levels and battery configurations.
Keep in mind, a spec-to-pricing comparison for these vans at this position even now includes quite a few variables, which includes vendor markups and how much you are going to pay beyond the base price tag to attain major capacities and general performance.