Los Angeles-based electric vehicle startup Harbinger Motors Inc. displayed its debut electric vehicle platform designed specifically for medium-duty trucks Wednesday at the Detroit Auto Show.
“Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles represent only 5% of vehicles on the road today and yet they account for more than 20% of transportation. They want more volume,” said John Harris, CEO of Harbinger Motors while standing atop the company’s skateboard platform on the show floor.
“Companies can’t get what they need and they’re keeping older, less efficient vehicles on the road. Many of these vehicles were intended to be used for 15 to 20 years, and now they’re being kept on the road even longer. This has a huge impact on our economy, our jobs and our health.”
Harbinger’s answer
Harris’s vertically integrated company seeks to fill the need for Class 4 to Class 7 vehicles with a stripped skateboard chassis and skateboard cab chassis with a proprietary electric driveline.
By the end of next year, Harbinger, which is run by a group of engineers and executives with previous experience at EV startups Canoo, Faraday Future, and Coda Automotive, expects its first vehicles expected in customers’ hands in late 2023, followed by the launch of volume production in 2024.
Harris says the company has been working to develop the chassis for the past 18 months, with the entire vehicle vehicle being developed in-house, rather than bringing in a lot of outside components.
“I know we sound like another EV startup promising the world, and that’s why you’re just hearing from us now,” Harris said. “We wanted to build it first and then show it to you.”
The heart of the skateboard platform is a proprietary “eAxle” that unifies the gearbox, inverter, and motor into one unit. The company designed its components, rather than coursing them from outside the company.
It’s powered by an 800-volt liquid-cooled battery pack with one-hour DC fast charging capability that’s scalable in 35-kWh increments depending on the chassis’ wheelbase. “We see a range of about 40 miles per battery pack. So in our base configuration, we have three packs and have about 125 miles of range,” Harris said.
While not autonomous, the platform is autonomous-ready, with steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire, and an independent front suspension.
The company says its chassis has a floor height below 28 inches, and it’s designed for a 20-year, 450,000-mile operating life.
Working with others
Harbinger expects the chassis to be finished by upfitters, with the manufacturer announcing a partnership with Wabash, a manufacturer of trailers and truck bodies to finish each vehicle to the customer’s specification. Headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana, Wabash has 13 manufacturing locations, more than 6,000 employees, and reported more than $1.8 billion in revenue in 2021.
With current incentives, Harris expects Harbinger’s trucks to be cost competitive with gas-powered rivals, although he didn’t reveal pricing.
Harbinger is far from the only EV startup in the truck business, with competitors such as Nikola, Bollinger (which was just acquired by Mullen Automotive), BrightDrop and Tesla, which is building a highway tractor. Meanwhile, established manufacturers are getting into EV and fuel cell-powered trucks, including Freightliner, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Toyota and Hyundai.
The field is getting crowded.
