Los Angeles-based electrical car startup Harbinger Motors Inc. displayed its debut electrical car platform designed particularly for medium-duty vehicles Wednesday on the Detroit Auto Show.
“Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles represent only 5% of vehicles on the road today and yet they account for more than 20% of transportation. They want more volume,” mentioned John Harris, CEO of Harbinger Motors whereas standing atop the corporate’s skateboard platform on the present ground.
“Companies can’t get what they need and they’re keeping older, less efficient vehicles on the road. Many of these vehicles were intended to be used for 15 to 20 years, and now they’re being kept on the road even longer. This has a huge impact on our economy, our jobs and our health.”
Harbinger’s reply
Harris’s vertically built-in firm seeks to fill the necessity for Class 4 to Class 7 autos with a stripped skateboard chassis and skateboard cab chassis with a proprietary electrical driveline.
By the top of subsequent 12 months, Harbinger, which is run by a bunch of engineers and executives with earlier expertise at EV startups Canoo, Faraday Future, and Coda Automotive, expects its first autos anticipated in clients’ arms in late 2023, adopted by the launch of quantity manufacturing in 2024.
Harris says the corporate has been working to develop the chassis for the previous 18 months, with all the car car being developed in-house, moderately than bringing in loads of exterior parts.
“I know we sound like another EV startup promising the world, and that’s why you’re just hearing from us now,” Harris mentioned. “We wanted to build it first and then show it to you.”
The coronary heart of the skateboard platform is a proprietary “eAxle” that unifies the gearbox, inverter, and motor into one unit. The firm designed its parts, moderately than coursing them from exterior the corporate.
It’s powered by an 800-volt liquid-cooled battery pack with one-hour DC quick charging functionality that’s scalable in 35-kWh increments relying on the chassis’ wheelbase. “We see a range of about 40 miles per battery pack. So in our base configuration, we have three packs and have about 125 miles of range,” Harris mentioned.
While not autonomous, the platform is autonomous-ready, with steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire, and an unbiased entrance suspension.
The firm says its chassis has a ground top beneath 28 inches, and it’s designed for a 20-year, 450,000-mile working life.
Working with others
Harbinger expects the chassis to be completed by upfitters, with the producer asserting a partnership with Wabash, a producer of trailers and truck our bodies to complete every car to the shopper’s specification. Headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana, Wabash has 13 manufacturing places, greater than 6,000 staff, and reported greater than $1.8 billion in income in 2021.
With present incentives, Harris expects Harbinger’s vehicles to be price aggressive with gas-powered rivals, though he didn’t reveal pricing.
Harbinger is much from the one EV startup within the truck enterprise, with rivals reminiscent of Nikola, Bollinger (which was simply acquired by Mullen Automotive), BrightDrop and Tesla, which is constructing a freeway tractor. Meanwhile, established producers are stepping into EV and gasoline cell-powered vehicles, together with Freightliner, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Toyota and Hyundai.
The subject is getting crowded.
Source: www.thedetroitbureau.com