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15 Ton EV Travels 150 Miles on a Single Charge

 
1,430 views Jul 24, 2009

Balqon

Balqon

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Though little known, Balqon Corporation is a leading developer and manufacturer of  zero emission heavy duty vehicles.  They specialize in Class 7 and Class 8 heavy duty commercial applications.  Now they have decided to break from tradition and offer all of their Class 8 yard tractors and drayage vehicles in electric form only powered by lithium.

These vehicles will break from using lead-acid batteries for motivation and will switch entirely to lithium-ion.  The decision to change to lithium came after they received $400,000 in funding from the Port of Los Angeles.  The money provides funds needed to develop the lithium powered vehicles.

Last month, Balqon outfitted a Nautilus E30 with the lithium ion battery pack.  The first rounds of testing show that this vehicle could capably travel 150 miles on a single charge if the vehicle is not loaded with additional weight.  The battery pack is capable of quick charging and allows an 80% discharge.

The quest for developing heavy duty zero emission vehicles began several years back for Balqon.  In 2007, they demonstrated the ability to travel up to 25mph for 30 miles in a vehicle with an impressive 30 ton capacity rating.

Additional vehicles may reach public roads in the coming years.  Balqon has plans to install a similar system in vehicles ranging from refuse haulers, to construction vehicles, to refueling trucks.

With a 30 ton capacity vehicle capably traveling 150 miles per charge why can't smaller vehicles travel 300 plus miles per charge?

Source:  Business Wire





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Comments (3)

  1. By  Todd Horst Posted: 7/24/2009 8:01am PDT

    Agreed. And i still don't understand why they cant bring back the ev1. There were areas of the vehicle that weren't practical for some. But it meets my needs and at this point to make one it prolly would have cost 10,000 (had they not stopped production).
     
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  2. By Paul Posted: 7/24/2009 9:46pm PDT

    "why can't smaller vehicles travel 300 plus miles per charge?"
    Aside from the fact the production prototype for the Tesla Roadster, the ACP tzero, DID have a 300 mile range and the Roadster itself has 240 mile range, it's because these trucks carry around a 280 kWhr battery pack.... that'a approx 5x the size of the Tesla pack.... AND 5x the weight! (approx 2.5 ton)
     
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  3. By Bruce Posted: 9/4/2009 10:55am PDT

    Actually the $400,000 is coming from a special tax levied on all shipments going through the port of Los Angeles and paid for my businesses. And this move by the port of Los Angeles is occurring as a result of citizen lawsuits to force the EPA to enforce air quality regulations as the cargo ships are the biggest single source of pollution in the area with their very dirty diesel power plants.
     
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