ORLANDO–Whereas a lot concentrate on battery know-how in vans has been on the prospect of presumably displacing what’s underneath the hood now, Dragonfly Power took its wares to the Truckload Carriers Affiliation annual assembly right here to advertise battery utilization in one other location within the car.
The TCA assembly’s exhibition corridor is marked by some firms which are there 12 months in and 12 months out, in addition to a smattering of exhibitors who’re making their first foray into the assembly. Dragonfly Power suits that latter definition.
Dragonfly has been round for a few decade, in response to DJ Hasler, an OEM Product Specialist who manned Dragonfly’s sales space at TCA. However Dragonfly’s goal market has principally been lithium iron phosphate batteries for the marine and RV markets.
Amongst Dragonfly’s long-standing non-trucking prospects are Airstream, the producer of aluminum residential trailers.
Its product: a lithium iron phosphate battery, charged by a truck’s alternator, that drives a truck’s auxiliary energy unit (APU) offering electrical energy, heating and cooling to a truck’s sleeper cab. Certainly one of its key promoting factors is that it may be charged to a degree sufficient to cowl the complete 10-hour relaxation interval required by federal hours of service laws.
The lithium battery product can be an alternative choice to diesel-powered APUs are smaller energy items, which in flip have been an enchancment over working the truck engine, Hasler mentioned. “As a substitute of losing 0.8 to 1.2 gallons of diesel an hour utilizing your major truck engine, they use a smaller two-cycliner engine to get by means of that relaxation interval,” he mentioned.
They’re additionally an alternative choice to lead acid battery-powered APUs, Hasler mentioned. However he added that these batteries don’t retailer as a lot electrical energy as lithium-based batteries and weigh about 160 to 200 kilos extra.
The total 10 hours
The “worth prop” for the battery-powered APUs, in response to Hasler, begins with one key promoting level: “We will get by means of the complete 10-hour relaxation interval with out the engine on,” he mentioned in an interview with BigRig on the TCA exhibition corridor.
About three years in the past, Dragonfly made the choice to develop into the truck market and particularly to displace noisy diesel-driven APUs. These created the problem of noise interrupting the motive force’s want to sleep. Whether or not the noise is coming from the engine idling, or a diesel-fueled APU, a unit pushed by electrical energy means, as one driver instructed Hasler, “I can lastly get by means of the 10-hour relaxation interval with out it sounding like I’ve a lawnmower beneath.”
“Diesel APUs made a ton of sense 10 years in the past,” Hasler mentioned. “Let’s use a smaller, extra environment friendly engine as an alternative of the massive tractor engine.”
Energy for a battery APU, fueled by electrical energy coming off the engine’s alternator, signifies that “we’re producing greater than sufficient energy with the truck,” Hasler mentioned. “We simply must retailer that energy in a correct means when you’re driving.”
Many of the installations of the APU for Dragonfly have been retrofits. However a modification by an OEM after the car comes off the road additionally may be pursued, Hasler mentioned.
Decade-long guarantee
The facility pack has a 10-year guarantee, Hasler mentioned. That may assist the resale worth of the truck, he added, or the facility pack may be taken out of a truck and put in on a more recent car. “The shoppers are assured within the ROI of the APU as a result of they’re going to get to make use of it for 2 vans, however they need to pay for only one,” he mentioned.
A truck’s true miles per gallon calculation consists of the diesel consumption used to energy an APU. Hasler mentioned the gross sales pitch for Dragonfly’s product is that “their miles per gallon go up, their idling proportion goes down, after which they’ll do their very own ROI calculation.”
However adoption of any new know-how will all the time come up towards a resistance level: value.
“The resistance level is that it’s the next preliminary funding, however it’s a considerably decrease whole value of possession,” Hasler mentioned. “We will inform them that till we’re blue within the face, proper till they see it of their precise outcomes.”
Wide selection of value choices
Hasler mentioned Dragonfly has “a number of options,” with a value starting from $4,000 to $10,000 per truck. The distinction between the least costly and the costliest battery resolution, he mentioned, is runtime.
A truck firm that runs closely in heat climate areas, significantly in the summertime, will want extra energy to chill a sleeper cab within the oppressive summer season warmth, in response to Hasler. It will want extra energy to get by means of a 10-hour down cycle and provides the motive force a snug sleep.
One other operational promoting level Dragofly makes is that if an engine doesn’t must idle to maintain the motive force comfy, it reduces put on on that tools. “Each one hour of idling is identical as 25 miles of driving,” he mentioned.
Penetration into the trucking sector is “positively nonetheless fairly new,” Hasler mentioned. “However we’ve got a few very massive nationwide fleet households names which have adopted us and we’re in an ordinary place for them shifting ahead.” He cited Stevens Transport as a number one buyer.
Any time lithium is launched into an exercise, the danger of it catching fireplace is all the time current. Hasler mentioned the lithium iron phosphate batteries produced by Dragonfly after which packed contained in the APU are in stainless-steel cells topped by bursting caps “to make it extraordinarily secure. Nevertheless it’s not 100% non-flammable.”
Regardless of numerous clear air and different environmental laws in California, Hasler mentioned the Golden State has not been a very robust market “as a result of there aren’t as most of the typical huge OTR sleeper cab fleets there as there are within the Midwest, so we’ve form of simply centered on the place we’ve had early success.”
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The put up Subsequent step in a peaceable 10-hour truck driver relaxation interval: lithium batteries appeared first on BigRig.