The NewPower division of Wrightbus has completed its first conversion of a truck from diesel engine to electric powertrain.
Engineers at the NewPower facility in Bicester have spent the last 11 months on the project which has seen them modify the 19-tonne twin-axle DAF to accommodate a 282kWh battery, capable of a range of 290km.
The vehicle was chosen for its similar duty cycle DNA to a bus – urban deliveries with fixed routes and back-to-base.
Vehicle conversions can take as little as four weeks, and, according to Wrightbus, the completed vehicle is typically less than half the price of a new one to buy.
Wrightbus builds about 1,000 buses a year at its headquarters in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
Jean-Marc Gales, Wrightbus CEO said, “Buses have led the way in decarbonisation for the last two or three years: year-to-date sales of new buses in the UK are 75% zero-emission, but trucks are lagging way behind, with less than 1 per cent of the sector switching to EV.
“We believe that repowering is the simplest and most cost-effective way to ignite the market and our incredible Wrightbus engineers have more experience than anyone else in replacing internal combustion engines with electric powertrains.
“We’ve also partnered with a service team that understands trucks like no other, complementing our growing fleet of mobile service engineers.
“Operators and fleet managers can have complete confidence that we can provide a 360-degree solution; helping bus customers adapt from diesel fleets to zero-emission fleets seamlessly, maintaining them with 98.6% uptime, and with each bus covering an average of 50,000 miles per annum.”
