Greentech Lead America: Axion Power International, a developer of advanced lead-carbon PbC batteries and energy storage systems, announced it will utilize an Indiana venue to display their PbC battery, and its use in an electric hybrid Class 8 truck developed by ePower Engines.
The truck will be powered by a 56 battery array and will be available to a wide variety of drivers and truck fleet owners through a ‘Ride and/ Drive’ program set up at the Indiana Green Fleet Conference on September 23-25 in Elizabeth, IN.
The electric hybrid 18-wheelers have been retrofitted, from standard internal combustion engines, to series diesel electric hybrid drive train systems that include a string of 56 PbC batteries by privately held, Florence, KY-based ePower Engine Systems.
The PbC batteries have been selected for the 18-wheel Class 8 truck conversions because of their high cycle life; their unique high charge acceptance capability; their ability to discharge and recharge quickly and their inherent self-equalization characteristic that is particularly advantageous to large string applications.
Diesel fuel is the largest variable cost in trucking, with Class 8 trucks alone consuming more than 19 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually, noted Axion Power chairman and CEO Tom Granville. It is estimated that the ePower hybrid system, utilizing PbC batteries, will be able to reduce fuel consumption by some 35 percent going forward.
“The entire trucking industry is looking for new ways to save on fuel costs as well as control harmful emissions and we believe we have the system and the unique battery technology to assist them on both fronts,” said Axion Power chairman and CEO Tom Granville.
“We look forward to meeting the drivers and owners of truck fleets and putting them behind the wheel of the ePower hybrid truck employing our PbC batteries,” Granville added. “The ‘system’ continues to perform well in road test drives of both short and long duration.”