Hyliion aftermarket hybrid diesel electric kit

So at the end of the day, if you were buying a new truck tomorrow, would you pay an additional $14k (Or $29k when buying To retrofit) for an APU which will help give you fuel savings (say 6 mpg to 8 mpg) with additional weight of +700ish lbs?

Just curious to know what others think!

Ps. Cold weather performance is valid and Hyliion hasn’t released details around that for the time being

 

The increase in weight is less if you would otherwise have an APU / ECU, I assume?

Second, if you increase fuel efficiency, you could have smaller tanks with the same amount of range, offsetting weight gain, somewhat? Smaller tanks would allow for shorter wheelbases and thus smaller trailer gaps.

Third, increased hp / torque and increased downhill braking has additional benefits in mountain driving such as increased average speed.

 

1. Yes, I think so. In Hyliion case, I would think the difference would be the battery -- but they haven't released the specs around that yet (rating, weight, etc)
2. Yes, in theory. Am not sure if smaller tank (and thus less fuel weight when full as @Farmerbob1 has mentioned) is currently part of the retrofit
3. I would imagine that hilly mountains in nice sunny weather is part of what Hyliion describes as "optimal conditions" in order to get the max 30% savings

 

Hyliion CEO Thomas Healy Interviewed on Road Dog Trucking Radio Show (Aug 1, 2020) ~20 mins

https://www.mboxdrive.com/Road Dog Radio - 2020-08-01 - SiriusXM - Thomas Healy.mp3

Spoilers:
- Healy spent a lot of time at the tracks growing up ( driving go karts, racecars, etc).
- Hyliion Hybrid offering currently on the road in 10 fleets (didn't say how many units total though).
- Hyliion ERX offering ready for low volume demo in 2021 with full production the following year.
- Healy thinks the company that is most similar to Hyliion is Cummings.
- Healy goes over his thoughts on the addition of Andrew "Andy" H. Card to the board.

PS. More about Road Dog Trucking Radio Show:
Road Dog Trucking - Listen to Top Talk Radio & News for Truckers

 

Hyliion Director of Sales, Matt Gold featured on Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities (PRCC) Webinar - Aug 5, 2020 (50 mins)

PRCC had a webinar today featuring Matt Gold of Hyliion. Large file warning (3.5 GB) . You can download or stream the video directly from the link.

Hybrid Retrofits

- Hyliion currently has approx 20 hybrid retrofits on the road. Roughly 50/50 split between diesel and CNG/RNG.

- End of year target is 40 hybrid retrofits on the road.

- A company based out of Rochester NY purchased natural gas trucks and found the trucks to be under performing, especially on a "hilly" route between Syracuse NY to Schenectady NY. Queue in Hyliion with their hybrid retrofit which solved their performance issue AND improved fuel performance. Customer was impressed so much that they ordered a 2nd truck with the hybrid pre-installed. The 2nd truck was brand new from OEM Volvo, who worked together with Hyliion on the design, engineering and (partial) installation.

- Hybrid retrofits are currently done out of their Austin TX warehouse. Total turnaround time for a hybrid retrofit install is currently 4 weeks. This is because a large amount of testing / QA goes into the original truck to establish a baseline for performance in order to measure the improvement.

Hypertruck ERX

- Can be customized to a lower range limit if the full 1000+ miles range is not required.

- Target ERX count on the road by end of next year is 30 demonstration units

- Maintenance: the added cooling system uses fluids with 200k miles recommended replacement. However Hyliion is being proactive and recommends annual fluid flush for the cooling system (1 year is roughly 100k miles)

TLDR;
They currently only have 20 hybrids total out "in the wild" at these 7 companies: Wegmans, Penske, Ryder, EGL, Idealease, Eagle an C.R. England

So if you know anyone driving for these folks, ask around and see if they can tell you more!