AMP Holding Inc. is entering the Chicago market, having inked a purchase agreement to supply Standard Equipment Co. with three new Workhorse E-GEN medium-duty electric trucks.
Standard Equipment Co. is an environmental equipment solutions provider for companies and municipalities and exclusive dealer of electric vehicles (EVs) to the City of Chicago.
‘As an environmentally conscious company, we welcome AMP Holding's Workhorse E-GEN trucks to our fleets,” says Jerry Donlon, CEO of Standard Equipment Co. “These are unique, first-of-their-kind vehicles, and we are particularly excited that they will be deployed in Chicago, where Mayor Rahm Emanuel is such a strong advocate for battery-electric propulsion.’
As AMP explains, the E-GEN truck incorporates a small spark-ignition engine as an emergency generator that automatically turns on to recharge the battery pack only if the pack's state of charge falls below a predetermined threshold, the drive selector is in ‘park’ and the key is out. This typically occurs when the vehicle is parked and the driver is out of the vehicle making deliveries.
AMP says the use of the onboard engine enables the company to produce an EV with a smaller battery pack using Panasonic 18650 Li-ion cells. The company adds that the new powertrain, which eliminates the transmission, significantly reduces operating costs, and a Workhorse E-GEN truck will deliver the equivalent of nearly 20 mpg.
‘Delivering this unique solution to the medium-duty truck market is a game-changer for fleet operators interested in reducing the total cost of ownership of their vehicles,” says Marty Rucidlo, AMP's president. “E-GEN reduces the overall operating costs of these vehicles and can provide fleet operators payback on their investment within three years.’
