The ERX is slated to begin trials with customers in 2021, with volume production ramping up in 2022. It has a small battery pack that can be charged on board by a natural-gas-fired generator. It is a unique setup that saves truckers weight.
An electric truck designed for long-haul applications without a generator would have to have so many batteries that towing capacity would be compromised. It would simply be too heavy. Logistics companies and their customers would be paying, essentially, to haul batteries across the country. Hyliion believes its ERX will be lighter than existing diesel-powered rigs.
Natural gas is also a cleaner-burning, less carbon-intense fuel than diesel. Hyliion says there are already more than 700 stations in the U.S. that can refuel with natural gas. The same can't be said about hydrogen-filling stations.
"Renewable natural gas is another megatrend," said Thomas Healy, Hyliion's founder and CEO. He's referring to natural gas that is generated from sources such as landfills, not by taking it out of the ground. Burning it is theoretically "carbon negative" because the carbon dioxide that is released is less damaging to the atmosphere than methane just floating away.
"California believes it needs more natural gas powered vehicles, they have too much renewable natural gas," Healy said.
By using renewable natural gas, just 335 ERX-powered trucks could eliminate a million metric tons of CO2 over their lifetimes, the company estimates. That certainly could be motivation enough for environmentally minded logistics companies.
But Hyliion also believes that the total cost of owning and operating a truck with an ERX drivetrain will be lower than for conventional diesel-powered trucks available today -- even with a higher upfront cost. Tesla has made the same argument about the battery-electric truck it is developing.
There are promising early signs of interest. Agility (AGLTY.Kuwait), a global logistics company based in the Middle East, has a preorder for 1,000 ERX powertrains. Agility is also taking an equity stake in Hyliion, as part of a $325 million private investment in public equity, or PIPE, that will come when Hyliion merges with Tortoise.
