Medium-duty truck OEM AMP Holding Inc. says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved its Workhorse E-GEN electric truck, which uses an alt-fuel engine as a generator to charge the truck's battery pack.
The E-GEN vehicle incorporates a 2.4-liter spark-ignition engine as an emergency generator that automatically turns on to recharge the battery pack if the pack's state of charge falls below a predetermined threshold, and the drive selector is in park. The use of the engine – which can run on compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane autogas – enables AMP to produce an electric vehicle with a smaller battery pack, reducing overall cost and weight.
‘The real benefit to the fleet operator, and perhaps the most exciting element of this, is that the new powertrain significantly reduces operating costs – an E-GEN Workhorse truck will deliver the equivalent of 20 mpg compared to the 7.5 mpg operators get now,’ says Steve Burns, CEO of AMP. ‘We are very excited to receive the EPA's approval.’
AMP notes that the E-GEN powertrain will be available in its new W-88 Workhorse medium-duty trucks in 2015.
