It’s been awhile since we checked in with Canada’s Edison Motors, so let’s visit [DeBoss Garage] for an update video. To recap, Edison Motors is a Canadian company building diesel-electric hybrid semi-trucks and more.
Well, they’ve thankfully moved out of the tent in their parents’ back yard where the prototype was built. They’ve bought themselves a company town: Donald, British Columbia, complete with a totally-not-controversial slogan “Make Donald Great Again”.
More interesting is that their commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), right-to-repair centered approach isn’t just for semi-trucks: they’re now a certified OEM manufacturer of a rolling heavy truck chassis you can put your truck cab or RV body on, and they have partnered with three coach-builders for RVs and a goodly number of manufacturing partners for truck conversion kits. The kits were always in the plan, but selling the rolling chassis is new.
One amazingly honest take-away from the video is the lack of numbers for the pickups: top speed, shaft horsepower, torque? They know what all that should be, but unlike the typical vaporware startup, Edison won’t tell you the engineering numbers on the pickup truck kits until it has hit the race track and proved itself in the real world. These guys are gear-heads first and engineers second, so for once in a long time the adage “engineers hate mechanics” might not apply to a new vehicle.
The dirt track is the first thing under construction in Donald, so hopefully the next update we hear from Edison Motors will include those hard numbers, including pesky little things like MSRP and delivery dates. Stay tuned.
In our last post about an electric truck, a lot of you in the comments wanted something bigger, heavier duty, not pure battery, and made outside the USA. Well, here it is.
Thanks to [Keith Olson] for the tip. Remember, the lines are always open!
I’ve read the article but all I can think of is: will there be an “Edison versus Tesla” battle? Where each company demonstrates the power of their technology and highlights the potential dangers of the technology of the competition? I suddenly feel the urge to watch the movie “war of the currents”.
Lets just hope nobody tries to run an elephant over in the process.
Their second diesel-electric tractor prototype was named after a circus elephant (“Topsy”), so perhaps an elephant will try run over someone.
I assume that would be the Edison company showing that Telsa company trucks are dangerous because they run into elephants.
I see what you did there.
No company town and no apparent plans to build one. They merely bought the 300 acre site of a former town.
Poor landscape. 😢
Canada has lots, 300 acres is a drop in the ocean
It’s already been logged and burned over repeatedly; it’s not like they’re despoiling virgin wilderness.
I’ll watch the future of this company with great interest. Diesel Hybrids for trucks and RVs is a fantastic idea. We’ve only been doing it for a number of decades pulling around train freight. Just adding the battery for storage here. We know it works, just need to sandwich it into smaller vehicles.
I’ve been driving hybrids since 2013. Gas engines on those, but they deliver. Change that to a small diesel and things get even better.
Modular truck really helps.
Maybe it’s time to stop naming EV companies after 19th century physicists/inventors?
Tesla, Nikola, Faraday Future…the last two didn’t have a great launch…
The last product named “Edison” was made by Theranos, and that didn’t go great either….
Stuck history will unfortunately continue until something great enough happens to supplant it. So far that isn’t happening
In my recent memory, many of EV/hybrid truck startups mostly failed. Workhorse was making a pragmatic hybrid work truck, but stopped even before a prototype. Lordstown Motors made an EV truck with hub motors, had a prototype, and 400 or so orders, but folded too. The only successful pickup trucks I can think of are Rivian (probably due to having a contract with Amazon for delivery vans) and F150 lightning (not a startup).
It is quite common for startups to fail, not just in the EV/Hybrid world. That is why investors are very hesitant to invest in them.
Chace & Co. know that well, which is why they built their first prototypes in a huge tent in his parent’s back yard and are only building ten trucks this year.
They are taking their sweet time so they can do it RIGHT, rather than taking the nonsensical risk of trying to run before they know how to crawl.
This is one company that is REALLY focused on getting everything right.
I agree with Keith O. Edison Motors started out as a successful trucking company that then became a successful solar panel generator company. It was a logical step to move into hybrid semi trucks. Edison is growing organically and their future is bright
Specifics of this company aside, I really like series hybrids in concept. Single electric drivetrain instead of having the ICE and electric drivetrains intermingled in parallel, ICE component operates at optimum efficiency, much reduced (or eliminated) range anxiety, and easier to convert to fully electric if and when it becomes desirable. I’m sure there are advantages to parallel as well, but I like what series brings to the table.
The issue with series, IMO is battery wear/charge cycles
You would ideally balance the battery size carefully so that it operates within 20-80% or even narrower range for longevity.
Although I agree this is way better design in not having so many moving parts and/or operating range
A few weeks ago I watched a video of a startup company that made a new type of suspension. It has two arms and an electric motor in between. The motor was used as a regenerative braking system, but in the suspension. It was made so that every movement, up or down, spins the motor in the same direction. It both the up and down movement are regenerative. So it charges the batteries if you go over bumps. Suspension is always moving and under a heavy load, so it could work. The current system is designed for trucks with sleeper cabinets so they don’t need extra generators to charge the sleeper cabinet batteries. Those generators usually run at night and often aren’t charged by the normal engine. This might be a great addon for electric cars too. No idea if it actually works.
Did you already submit it here, so these folks can write an article on it?