Following on from Sweden’s first experiment with electric roads and various governments floating the idea of tax benefits for those willing to drive electric vehicles, news has just broken of a new trial…
Iceland Foods are planning to try out a new electric truck that is also refrigerated and therefore suitable for delivering their products. The vehicle in question is a 5.5 tonne Paneltex electric truck that will be deployed on a 5.5.t Isuzu chassis. The EV will begin testing thanks to a Government project in which other parties are also taking part, such as the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.
Sunamp, the project’s lead partner, will effectively invert heat batteries to create a new cold storage technology that can maintain the required ambient temperature in the vehicle’s cargo area. The Sunamp system has a better power to weight ratio and is more efficient than using Li-Ion batteries, helping to increase the vehicle’s payload capabilities by reducing the size of the traction battery pack. Sunamp has carried out research and development, under previous Innovative UK funding of heat batteries, for heating and air conditioning in electric cars and buses, with the resulting benefit of being able to extend the useful range of these EVs at low cost.
The ultimate objective of the experiment is to improve the performance of electric vehicles used for chilled goods logistics in order to make them a more attractive option. The trial itself is part of an initiative worth about 45 million euros (38 million pounds) funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.
