Range Energy, a company which builds large-battery electric trailers to help fleets electrify at the drop of a hat, has announced partnerships with Thermo King and ESL Power Systems to bring its technology to refrigerated trailer units.
The idea behind Range’s product is that it adds a battery and an electric motor e-axle to a semi truck trailer, instead of to the tractor itself, which means that a fleet can add electric capabilities without having to buy new tractors. This means the fleet can effectively hybridize its operation without having to buy new tractors.
While this isn’t a fully electric solution, it can still reduce fuel usage by a large amount (independent tests say 36%), and adds new capabilities to a truck – like better control over the trailer and regenerative braking to avoid brake fade.
We met Range at ACT Expo in Anaheim two years ago, where they gave us one of the coolest demos we’ve seen. Just by attaching to a tractor’s kingpin, the system can decide how much power to apply and offers extremely natural feeling movement, making a heavy trailer feel light as a feather:
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Range isn’t quite up to production yet, but they have done some trials. In addition to the independent testing above, Range trialed its technology with Petaluma Egg Farm, up in Northern California, where it says the company saw a 50-70% improvement in MPG for the trucks using Range’s electric trailer.
But the company is still working to find novel applications for its technology, and when we caught up with them at ACT Expo this week, they wanted to focus on how Range trailers could be used for refrigerated freight in order to cut emissions and reduce the need for a separate engine to run the reefer unit.
In service of this, it has partnered with two companies in the refrigeration space – Thermo King, the biggest name in electrified trucks, and ESL Power Systems, a company that manufactures shore power solutions for heavy industry.
Range said Thermo King came to them because they’re the only company with enough energy storage to be able to run a refrigerated unit for an extended period of time. While there are other companies doing electrified refrigerated trailers, Range’s trailer has a much larger 288kWh battery (since it also works as a traction battery for the trailer’s electric motor).
This means it has a lot more energy on board to run a refrigeration unit, which can draw ~5-20kW depending on several factors. Range told us that fleets have told them this would be enough energy to keep the trailer box cold for a full day while unplugged from shore power, even in hot temperatures.
And that’s a big deal, because heretofore, refrigerated units have mostly run with an additional small diesel engine. Removing that engine means less pollution, less diesel usage, more noise, less maintenance, and it also means the refrigerated unit could operate in more environments (for example, you don’t want a running engine indoors if you can avoid it – but an electric unit doesn’t have to deal with that).
Speaking of shore power, that’s what Range is working with ESL to implement. ESL creates small, modular shore power systems which are easier to install, helping fleets save on infrastructure upgrade costs. Their boxes can deliver high-powered 480V 3-phase AC charging.
Plugging into one of these would allow the Range Energy trailer to charge at up to 50kW or so, meaning a 5-6 hour charge time for the 288kWh battery.
Range has already trialed its partnership with Thermo King, in the Petaluma Egg Farm example given above. Although the ESL partnership is newer, and those will be trialed soon.
Range is targeting the end of this year, or possibly the start of next year, for its first customer deliveries.
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“Honda hydrogen is open for business,” says David Perzynski, assistant manager of hydrogen solutions development at American Honda. “(We have) the fuel cell technology, the expertise, and the supply chain to power a variety of zero-emissions products, including commercial trucking and stationary power generation.”
The company arrived with a more developed version of its Peterbilt 579EV-based HFC semi concept, which is based on one of that brand’s existing BEVs and uses the Honda fuel cell as a range-extending generator for its 120 kWh battery … or, rather, it would – if it was ever plugged into a charger.
On battery power alone, the big Pete is good for up to 150 miles of fully loaded range. With the fuel cell along for the piggyback ride, however, the truck’s range climbs to more than 500 miles at an 82,000 lb. combined vehicle weight.
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More than just a range-extender
Honda envisions a world where its hydrogen fuel cell is used in much more than transportation and logistics applications. At the ACT Expo, Honda had a scale mock-up of what a hospital-sized hydrogen backup generator could look like – and hinted that such an installation might soon become a reality.
This is all very normal for Honda
Honda FCX hydrogen fuel cell concept; via Honda.
If it seems weird that Honda is pushing hydrogen so hard these days, it shouldn’t. Honda’s been developing hydrogen fuel cells for nearly forty years, and put its first hydrogen fuel cell car (the FCX concept, above) all the way back in 1999.
Since then, it’s put a number of hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles into series production, including the innovative Honda CR-V HFC hybrid that lets you fill the car’s 17.7 kWh battery with electrons at home for up to 29 miles of all-electric driving, then fill up the hydrogen tank for another 241 miles of driving … and they’re not stopping there.
We had a chance to chat with David Perzynski on Quick Charge last year, where he talked us through some of Honda’s hydrogen plans in more detail. You can check it out, below.
Volkswagen of America is recalling nearly 5,700 2025 VW ID. Buzz vans because the NHTSA says the third-row bench seat is too spacious. (For real.)
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the third-row bench is physically wide enough for three people, but it’s only designed to hold two, so it’s only equipped with two seat belts. That mismatch violates Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, which covers occupant crash protection. A bench that invites three passengers but only protects two isn’t just awkward – it’s a safety risk. It simply makes it too easy to squeeze that third person in the back “just that once” without a seatbelt, and that’s inviting trouble.
Volkswagen will fix the ID. Buzz issue by having dealers install “fixed unpadded trim parts” that adjust the seat’s usable width, and they’ll do it for free, because recall repairs are always free. It’ll probably be hard plastic on the seat to ensure a third person can’t squeeze in. Owner notification letters are expected to go out starting June 20, 2025.
Volkswagen has reported that, to date, there have been “no field claims known” of safety issues caused by the extra-wide third row bench seat.
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Electric vehicle charging and battery storage specialists Zenobē have inked a deal with Canadian leasing company 7Gen to fund more than 500 commercial EVs and their associated charging infrastructure.
Last week, Zenobē agreed to provide up to $48 million (Canadian) in debt financing to 7Gen to help expand its vehicle-as-a-service electric truck leasing program across Canada.
7Gen supports fleet operators with a comprehensive set of vehicle leasing and financing solutions that cover EV charger deployment, energy management systems, and ongoing operational support for Canadian fleet customers operating electric trucks, vans, and school buses.
Zenobē secured $1.6 billion in equity from its joint majority shareholders KKR and M&G Infracapital to fuel its global expansion into EVs and grid-scale batteries back in 2023. Since then, it’s grown to support more than 2,000 EVs and 120 charging depots across markets in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
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“We’re bringing our innovative funding approach to Canada and specifically to 7Gen,” says Steven Meersman, Co-Founder and Director of Zenobē. “We see momentum behind decarbonization in Canada’s supportive government policies and the clean, affordable power that will ensure a lower total cost of ownership for zero-emissions vehicles. We look forward to sharing our global experience electrifying over 120 depots to benefit 7Gen, its fleet customers and the wider electric fleet market in Canada.”
That innovative funding strategy is something Steven and I had a chance to discuss this week at the ACT Expo in Anaheim, California. “We’re being very careful in the way we approach the North American market,” he said (paraphrasing). “The market is fairly littered with the graves of other UK EV companies that have tried to find a foothold here and failed, so we’re being very careful about our partners.”
Despite living just a few minutes from his Chicago HQ, I’d never met Steven before this week. He’s a super-interesting guy and you will definitely learn a thing or two about how to build a multimillion dollar energy management company like Zenobē from our upcoming podcast (stay tuned for that). But the news here is 7Gen.
“Zenobē’s debt financing supports 7Gen’s next growth step and allows us to help our customers step up the pace of their EV adoption and benefit immediately from operational cost savings,” says Frans Tjallingii, CEO, 7Gen. “Zenobē’s team is well aligned with ours and we are thrilled to partner to scale our impact in Canada together.”
The company will begin rolling out its Zenobē-funded electric trucks in the coming weeks, with new partners and projects set to be announced shortly.
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