Motiv introduces Argo, a new kind of medium-duty electric truck
Motiv Power Systems, a 14-year veteran of the electric truck industry, has just announced Argo, a new medium-duty Class 4-6 truck designed from the ground up to be electric, available in 2024.
Electric trucking is a hot sector right now due to new rules adopted by California requiring rapid electrification of commercial fleets. These rules mean about 20,000 medium-duty electric trucks will need to be deployed by the end of 2024.
And Motiv hopes that it can have the Argo in production by late next year and hopes to provide possibly a thousand of those vehicles (an optimistic number, given that it currently only has 180 vehicles deployed in the field).
Motiv has provided trucks to Cintas, Bimbo Bakeries, and Purolator but is hoping to double its total delivered fleet this year and then scale up quickly to match the tsunami of demand it sees coming in 2024 and 2025.
Motiv says the experience and feedback it has collected through its years of providing EVs to its customers has helped it design the Argo to better fit real-world needs. Its cab features a command seating position (helping to bring the battery forward, taking some weight off the rear axle) but has taken some lessons from the step van world and included stairs rather than a ladder for easier entry and exit.
Argo will be built on Motiv’s next-generation platform, which it announced in April. The platform uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are cheaper and more durable than lithium-ion, but don’t offer quite as much energy density.
But even with a relatively less dense LFP battery, Motiv says the Argo will offer 150 miles of range with its base 158 kWh battery, even when loaded to its max 26,000 lb gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). There will be an additional three-module 237 kWh option available, which will give over 200 miles of range.
Motiv says its powertrain, co-developed with Nidec, makes up to 1,770 lb-ft of torque, which is as much as a Class 8 diesel truck, but in a Class 4-6 package. This gives it better performance than any gasoline-powered equivalent when fully loaded (4-6 tons).
In the face of new regulations and to fulfill ESG commitments, companies are scrambling to make plans, and the cost of trucks and availability of charging are two major questions for fleets as they get ready for electrification.
Motiv thinks the Argo offers better answers to these questions for many fleets. It hasn’t yet announced a price for the Argo but wants to keep it under $250,000 (before a commercial EV tax credit of up to $40,000) – which it says is lower than competitors like the Freightliner eM2.
This, of course, comes alongside much lower operational costs and higher uptime than diesel trucks, and Motiv says Argo will have a simpler powertrain with less cabling and fewer parts than its electric competition as well, leading to potentially lower maintenance costs.
Argo will also use a 400-volt DC charging system capable of 65 kW, differing from some of its competitors, which are going with 800-volt systems. Motiv thinks the lower voltage will offer an advantage in that it can interface with existing DC chargers from the light-duty world, which should make charging easier. For AC charging, it has a 19.2 kW onboard charger. Argo will likely use the NACS connector, but Motiv hasn’t decided yet since things are changing rapidly on that front.
That DC charge rate seems low compared to light-duty vehicles, but the fleets that Motiv services tend to have defined routes and long park times at the end of the day. It figures most customers will charge overnight on an 80-amp charger and recommends that as the optimal charging solution.
Argo is available for pre-order now, but prototypes won’t be out until early 2024, with vehicle deliveries in late 2024. You can find out more about the Argo on Motiv’s website.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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