- Old diesel trucks are being converted into EVs by a French startup called Neo Trucks.
- The startup partnered with Renault Trucks to get used rigs from Renault without engines and transmissions.
- An electric motor and a battery pack are then shoved in the old powertrain’s place.
Diesel trucks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, but as the passenger EV market continues to grow, so does the number of companies that are willing to change something.
Enter Neo Trucks, a small French startup established in 2020 that retrofits old diesel-powered long-haul rigs with electric powertrains. This reduces costs compared to buying a brand-new electric truck, but there’s also a very important thing to consider.
Neo Trucks’ retrofits aren’t meant to put the old diesel trucks back on the road for long-haul service, but rather on private roads and properties like shipping yards and logistics centers.
The startup partnered with Renault Trucks to buy back T-series tractors when their lease contracts end. Renault removes the engine and transmissions and ships what’s left to Neo Trucks, which begins the retrofitting process.
A single 174-horsepower (130-kilowatt) electric motor powers the rear wheels, and a modular power pack is nestled between the chassis rails. That’s not a lot of power, but the motor makes up for it with a lot of torque, as a Neo Trucks rep said in the Electric Trucker video below.
The batteries can be scaled to offer from 60 kilowatt-hours to 120 kilowatt-hours of energy, thanks to a modular design that’s based on a 12-kWh unit. More units linked in series means more capacity. That’s enough for what the modified trucks are designed to do: yard work at a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour (25 kilometers per hour).
Some cabs are modified to make the driver’s life a little easier, like adding an opening at the back of the cab to allow the driver to get in and out without having to constantly open and close the regular door. As an added bonus, the rigs don’t have to be registered, so they don’t carry a license plate, and the driver doesn’t need a special heavy goods license because there’s no public road use. Furthermore, the fifth wheel can raise by up to 31 inches (80 centimeters) to allow drivers to pick up trailers without having to get down and raise the landing gear.
The retrofitted vehicles can take up to 80 kW from a DC fast charger, but because they have a built-in onboard charger, operators can also directly plug into the mains for a power input of up to 22 kW.
This is a niche product, no doubt, but it’s good to see that old diesel trucks can still get work done with a new, clean powertrain.
