Oct 5
Written by: Aaron Turpen 197 views
Published on October 5th, 2009 in Other Vehicles

A few days ago, we brought you news of Vision Motor’s plans to sell their hydrogen fuel-cell big trucks through LA Freightliner. Balqon, the other big player in this electric big trucks game, has now announced that they will be producing an on-road highway-ready version of their trucks as well.
Previously, we talked about the drayage trucks that Balqon is already producing for dockside service in Southern California. Now that technology is being used to build Class 7 and 8 heavy trucks for on-road service in short-haul applications.
The first model, the Mule 150, uses the lithium-ion batteries and electric power train that Balqon has put in their port trucks. The Mule 150 is capable of carrying up to 7 tons, can travel at 55mph (California speed limit for large vehicles) and has an unloaded range of 150 miles and a fully-loaded range of 90 miles.
The Mule 150 uses the same battery pack that the drayage trucks do as well as the same motor technology. It’s built on a cab-over design in safety steel. It’s expected to release this quarter and has already undergone safety and performance testing. No word yet on who is supplying the box and accessories (explaining why they’re drawn in on the publicity photo above). Those are traditionally built by someone other than the vehicle manufacturer, often to customer spec.
Expect to see these operating around the Los Angeles and San Diego areas soon!
Source: Balqon
Tags: balqon, electric drayage truck, electric truck, freightliner, mule 150
Related Posts
Back in April, we reported that Vision Industries (Vision Motor Corp) had completed second-stage load testing with their Tyrano trucks for Los Angeles Freightliner. The Tyrano is a hydrogen fuel-cell powered truck whose current incarnation is as a day [...]
Read More...
We’ve talked about electric and hydrogen-powered big trucks before, of course. There are some updates on what’s happening with the new wave of greener, electric-based trucking now. One goes into production and gets lithium batteries and the other is [...]
Read More...
Balqon Corporation has begun production of 30-ton all-electric, heavy duty drayage trucks for San Pedro Bay, California’s port complex. The truck, called the Nautilus E30, is a short-haul container mover (commonly called “Goats” or “Hostlers”) capable of moving 30-ton [...]
Read More...
Vision Industries prototype plug-in electric/hydrogen fuel-cell Class 8 Tyrano truck has completed the second stage of its performance tests. The testing, conducted at the Los Angeles Freightliner facilities in Whittier, California, was for payload and speed evaluations.
[...]
Read More...
Hino Motors, Ltd., a large-vehicle subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, will be introducing a hybrid truck in Japan, the USA, and Australia in 2010. These trucks will see about 2.5 times better fuel economy than current, comparable (conventional) models.
[...]
Read More...
Smith Electric Vehicles have come to the U.S. and were featured at The World Truck Show in Chicago. Industry professionals and purchasers got the chance to try the trucks out and several of them agreed to do short video [...]
Read More...