The Shyft Group Inc., a company that specializes in vehicle manufacturing and assembly for the commercial and fleet vehicle industries, has unveiled plans to bring to market an all-electric purpose-built Class 3 chassis platform designed to serve a wide array of medium-duty truck markets.
Shyft Innovations, Shyft Group’s mobility research and development team, will introduce a purpose-built flat modular electric vehicle (EV) chassis to any specialty vehicle body-builder. The EV-powered chassis features customizable length and wheelbase, making it well suited for a variety of vehicle types. The chassis’ modular design can accommodate multiple GVWR classifications, based on build-out and usage. With this high degree of configurability, the all-electric chassis is adaptable to last-mile delivery, work truck, mass transit, recreational vehicle and other emerging EV markets.
“We’ve listened closely to our customers and to the industry at large to design this EV chassis to address an unmet need in the specialty vehicles market,” says Daryl Adams, president and CEO of Shyft Group. “We gained valuable insight from our long-term customer relationships to develop an EV chassis that will help all customers meet green mandates head-on. With a rich history in chassis engineering, body-builders trust our deep domain expertise and our ability to deliver a reliable purpose-built EV platform that will deliver inherent efficiencies that positively impact the bottom line for fleet customers and owner-operators alike.”
Vehicle prototypes are expected to make their way into customer accounts for route testing early in 2022 with production expected to begin in the middle of 2023.