It’s not very often (I think this is the first time) that I get to share news about products from my day job at Cummins Inc. in Columbus, Indiana. Cummins makes diesel engines, so most of you would probably not consider them to be gadget related. But today is exciting because Cummins pulled the wraps (literally) off a new fully electric concept class 7 truck.
Hundreds of my coworkers and locals gathered this morning at the Tech Center where I work to see a series of next generation energy diverse products that are being developed by Cummins.
Cummins displayed their clean diesel super-efficient X12 and X15 diesel engines.
But most of the excitement was centered around a shrouded mystery vehicle. We stood in the rain for 30 minutes before getting our first look at the fully electric Urban Hauler Tractor.
At first glance, the Urban Hauler Tractor concept vehicle looks like other diesel trucks that you might see on the highways, but this one is electric.
“These new technological innovations build on our 100-year legacy of bringing the best solutions to our customers, driving their success and meeting the evolving demands of their industries and markets,” said Jennifer Rumsey, Chief Technical Officer, Cummins Inc.
You can read more about Cummins products at social.cummins.com.
FYI: I’ve been an employee for Cummins for almost 30 years, so you can consider this a biased post 🙂
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The truck IS a gadget – it runs on electrons. Do you have more details? How far does it go? How long does it take to charge? Is there a low emissions generator, in case it runs out of power?
I don’t know the trucking industry. Is a lot of cargo trucked around town using this type of truck? Looks kind of big to be going around downtown.
I don’t have a lot of info. It was hard to hear the speaker. I did hear something about 100 miles before needing a charge which takes about an hour. But don’t hold me to that because I can’t find details in writing or an official press release yet.
Very cool, and you should be excited! Very interesting, and hope this leads us toward a cleaner more efficient future. Sounds like the inherent difficulty would be the possibly short distance it could travel before needing a charge. Maybe that will be what’s next- a battery system that will allow hundreds of miles of travel. I’m sure that would help the auto industry as well.
Mileage also depends on the weight of the load that they are carrying.