When Tesla co-founder Ian Wright left the Silicon Valley electric car manufacturer to start his own company Wrightspeed, he didn’t plan to make electric power-trains that can be installed on medium and heavy duty trucks.
Nor did he plan on bringing such technology home to New Zealand, but he says the high cost of diesel here would make it economically viable.
According to the Associated Press when Kiwi-born Wright left Tesla, he simply wanted to make high performance electric sports cars .
But he struggled to raise investor interest because the market simply wasn’t big enough, so switching to a commercial vehicle focus made sense, given the 2.2 million trucks in the US which are a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
In California, the incumbent governor Gerry Brown wants to cut petroleum use in cars and trucks by 50% by 2030.
Wrightspeed has been the benefactor of grants from the California Energy Commission, which funds alternative fuel technologies that could help the state reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
The company has also raised venture capital from Silicon Valley.
The Wrightspeed plug-in power-train features an electric engine, battery system, and an on-board turbine power generator that runs on diesel or natural gas and recharges the battery when it gets low.
Wright says that a truck fitted with the system can run on battery power for 50km before the turbine kicks in and recharges the battery. He says that the system roughly doubles the fuel efficiency of trucks and reduces the cost of maintenance.
Installing a Wrightspeed power-train costs around US $150,000 to $200,000 but the San Jose-based company is receiving interest from local fleet operators who need to meet increasingly strict California emissions standards, but don’t want to replace a vehicle in its entirety.
“You can take this truck that you’ve invested all this money in, and it’s still in good shape, and you can swap out the power-train for our power train, and suddenly you are emissions compliant, says Wright.
Wright says that fleets will recoup their investment in less than four years, due to the saving in fuel and maintenance on each truck fitted with the Wrightspeed system.
Currently the Wrightspeed company is installing its power-trains into 25 FedEx delivery trucks and also retrofitting it to 17 refuse trucks owned by Ratto Group, a waste management company based in Santa Rosa.
Ratto Group says it could convert many more of its 300 vehicle fleet if the technology performs as hoped. Its chief operating officer Lou Ratto says he hopes to transform his fleet and the industry by proving the technology in partnership with Wrightspeed.
Wrightspeed is now preparing to move premises to meet the growing demand for its product. It will move into a former aircraft hangar at a decommissioned U.S Naval Air Station in Alameda. Wright says the company is planning to expand its workforce from 25 to 250 employees over the next three years.
Wright told TV3 News that he plans to bring the Wrightspeed system home to New Zealand because the economics make even more sense with our higher diesel prices.
He says that increasing the efficiency of truck fleets is more worthwhile than increasing the efficiency of cars.
