Stockton, CA — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), has unveiled the utility industry’s first electric hybrid drive train Class 5 trucks in Stockton.
The Electric hybrid trucks were developed by Electric Vehicles International (EVI) in partnership with PG&E and the California Energy Commission (CEC). They were designed, built and tested at EVI’s manufacturing plant in Stockton. The vehicles have an all-electric range of 45 miles and fuel savings of up to 30 percent when the units are operating in hybrid mode.
PG&E accepted delivery of the first two REEV units this summer, and purchased two additional units after a successful initial demonstration of the vehicles.
Ricky Hanna, president and CEO of EVI says the company chose to move to Stockton to be “able to work more closely with innovative, forward looking companies like PG&E on developing new ‘green fleet’ technologies will help us to expand our capabilities and presence to create even more new local jobs.”
PG&E plans to eventually replace all 942 of its conventional fuel Class 5 vehicles, including bucket trucks, flat beds, and other service trucks. The plug-in electric hybrid models will save the utility nearly $3.5 million in fuel costs and reduce GHG emissions by over 9,000 metric tons annually. In addition the trucks also offer up to 75 kW of exportable power that could be used to provide power to the grid during planned or unplanned outages.
Written by Sabrina Biehl.
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